Optimus

It’s all to do with the emissions. Ticking boxes. On petrol engine cars a lot of manufacturers are de-tuning engines to stick within certain co2 bands for manufacturing/tax purposes. This is a tuners paradise because you have engineered cars that allow for improvements if you remove certain restrictions.

Glad you got it sorted. Having the dsg gearbox mapped will blow you away. most of the issue I have in mine is gearbox related everything is sluggish and slow to react to throttle response. I’ve got some plans for mine when the warranty expires. I’m hoping for 260-280hp but I haven’t a clue at this stage what will be the significance of the limiting parts. The fuel pump and injectors and Intercooler seem to be obvious places to start. My target is to try and get 0-60mph down from 7.3secs to sub 5 seconds 0-100mph sub 12 seconds whilst sill retaining reliability and economy on fuel as a daily driver.

No bad experience, I’ve never used them, based on google reviews for diesel tuning they seem to be top of their game. The masses of people that go to tuners want numbers and they will chase numbers and get you to accept terms of conditions that in the event of you accept responsibility of the car breaking. I’ve always made sure asking the tuning garage the numbers they got is that the most they can do, was it the most they could get and what should I consider with reliability concerns.

When I spoke with them, they seem to know their stuff and were reluctant to suggest or imply it was a case of slap on a map and go. They wanted to run tests and look at the numbers have the car for at least a day. I just think they dropped the ball or tried something that didn’t work out. In order for it to go bang is the temperature range and boost. The higher the boost the higher the temperatures. There are some well known tuners out there which chased numbers and did not make reasonable endeavours to ensure various acceptable levels of reliability were factored in. It pays to do your research and ask lots of questions. I’ve remapped plenty of cars in the past and I always worked on the highest number I could make in power and torque and then drew that back by at least 30% before up rating parts, then repeat the process. This is the ideal area for performance vs reliability for road going cars. Tuning for racing is an entirely different process as your tuning to and inch of failure to maximise the power to each and every given race/circuit where you will be dismantling the engine and gearbox and rebuilding it between every race. The fuel pumps on the C8’s are not particularly great, which given your experience is likely an early indication of a limiting factor when remapping. I’ve been looking into whether it’s possible to swap the 40TDi pump out for the Q5/S6, I believe the 73 litre tank is the same.

A lot of the time people often overlook that these lithium car batteries will only work at certain temperatures. The result is it will digest or deplete its own power in order to provide battery maintenance/care management to prolong the life. what’s happening over night is that it could be heating the battery pack on its own power. Or given that batteries tend to work terribly bad in cold weather it’s estimating your range/power according to preset limitations to preserve its battery cell pack. I remember arriving at our hotel in our Tesla hire car looking at the range of 210 miles thinking we won’t need to charge and then getting to it the following morning after removing 9 or so inches of snow and seeing the range of 113 miles and scratching our heads. It wasn’t until we spoke with a fellow electric car owner at the charging station when it drops below -19 the battery heating pack runs literal marathons trying to prevent cell failure/damage.

Look forward to hearing the outcome. i must admit when I spoke with them there was back and forth with emails and they wanted the car for at least a day to tweak it. Please be weary to misleading information. My gut feeling is it wasn’t the torque that was the problem but mapping/fuel starvation. Regardless of their opinion/experience. The symptoms speak for themselves. shuddering vibration occurs when there the rotational velocity of the flywheel against the clutch friction plate starts to slip (clutch slip). this normally occurs at the highest or peak torque which is achieved at lower gearing not higher gearing. Now yes, most cars have torque limiting to prevent wheel slip during acceleration. But this is normally reduced up to 50% for 1st gear 30% for 2nd gear and 20% for 3rd gear. when the gear ratio becomes 1:1, typically at 4th or 5th gear, there is no electronically restriction, this is normally your rolling road testing area to determine true values for peak horse power and realistic peak torque figures. Between 3rd and 4th gear is the infamous clutch slip telling you your clutch or flywheel need rethinking. Everything they’re after is purely fuel starvation related that causes engines to shudder from a mapping point of view. if it goes pop and bang with no drive, you’ve cooked it from a over confident map chasing numbers.

Only if the window is open or when opening the door I’ve parked on a slope and on opening the door the water pools at the edges.

Steve when you operate the steering wheel volume buttons or the swivel on the centre console do you see the volume bar appear and go up or down? If it does appear can you visually get the bar to move or is it just stuck with no sound? Reason why I ask is there is a some-what known fault that involves the steering wheel volume and voice control switch to stop working either wiring or the switch itself no longer responds to the control unit, causing the volume to mute or stay low and what ever attempt to adjust this doesn't work. As indicated if you plug into a diagnostic machine, your likely get a code relating to a communication bus error indicating where the gremlin may exist. If a fuse as blown id be very worried, as this indicates a lot worse a problem that may be concealed, the fuse blowing is typically a secondary fault to the initial fault.

Really hard to diagnose over the video. It might be bearings on the turbo. The sound normally is a hissing-rattle sound more noticeable as the turbo looses pressure the slower rotation causing radial movement of which if the bearings are going/gone the sound becomes more pronounced compared to a high pitched hissing/whistle which sometimes we can’t hear because it’s higher frequency or mistake it as air suction.

Should be already on a long life service schedule but I’d also get fuel filter (if TDi). So I assume that’s at least 2 oil changed a year. injectors are common for clogging up on high mileage cars simply because the frequency of fuel changes. I’ll be honest whilst it is possible to achieve 200k miles and beyond. On VAG group vehicles you tend to see them drop away between 200k-300k not because of reliability simply because cost of components that need changing due to wear and tear. depending on mileage older model turbos on diesels tend to start dropping away between 120k-200k miles. But this is based on how the car is driven and what sort of journeys your doing. I’d probably guess the engine is good for 200k+ but the gearbox not. High milers for engine and transmission tend to do better with medium to long journeys that are regular because of the sustained operating temperatures. If the car is doing short-medium journeys and plenty of them like a taxis. I’d hazard a guess your make it beyond 200k but that’s because your happy committing to £3000+ a year in maintenance costs. previous experience with high mile VAG cars… 2012 VW 2.0 Passat 178k miles sold on as average annual repair costs exceeded £2000. (Car value £9k) 2014 VW 2.0 golf 197k miles Scrapped, turbo and gearbox repair costs £3,400. (Car value £3.8k)

Initially looking at models registered around 2019-2020 I think had more flexibility with ordering options. In the UK vehicles from 2021- due to component shortages, Audi standardised options and equipment and took some of the flexibility away. From 2021-2022 the diesel v6 drivetrain platforms were made redundant/no longer available to order for the A6 leaving the 4 cylinder 40,45 TDi/TFSi for the MHEV platform. Probably due to our draconian ‘green tax’ placed onto the car owners. Putting people off £700+ a year in road tax. I still can’t get my head around the fact im paying £570 a year in road tax on my 2.0 diesel car when my previous car 6.2 litre supercharge v8 was around the same I recall in 2016!

My previous 2022 40 TDi black edition did not have all wheel steering. Can’t confirm whether my new Quattro 40TDi does. From what I read 4 wheel steering is available on the S6 and RS6 models that have the air suspension. I changed from the 40TDi (FWD) to the Quattro. During the snow we had last year getting home in what I considered mild snow conditions (3-9inches) was a real struggle. Additionally driving on b roads I never expected a sprite or athletic drive round bends in the A6 Avant given the weight of the car. But because the car is long and heavy you do feel like you’re dragging your rear end around bends (under steer). For this I changed for the Quattro which when pushed hard you do feel that slight feeling you get in RWD cars of being pushed around/into the bend giving that much more pleasurable experience driving or the extra confidence to push a little bit more on the next bend. FWD for the commute/long distance driving is spot on. But for the extra fun and practical experience in snow Quattro is probably better. turning circle is as you expect for a medium/long wheel base car. When compared to shorter wheel base cars like hatchbacks, you are going to notice regardless of weight of the car you won’t get that go kart thrill driving around bends ( b roads) neither manoeuvrability in tight spaces. I’ve been used to saloons and estates for daily drivers for a number of years so I guess you get used to it.

It may be possible that this map if out the box and not a custom map which is entirely different is meant for the Quattro model. If it was a torque related issue this would be present from 3rd gear (top end). I'm not an expert, but I have worked in customer facing automotive fault finding with engineers previously for a couple of car manufacturers whom make performance/limited built road going production cars which had a reputation for such niggles. At high speed 1/3 of the front mass weight is distributed onto the rear axle promoting tyre hop or axel bumping on front wheel drive cars. Which higher torque you’re experiencing the tyres spinning with barely any weight to keep them stuck to the ground on uneven bumpy roads. The car will limit this by retarding the fuel and air to manage slip as the differential does not have torque vectoring. The car may not display the symbol for traction control as there is always a little give in rotational slip before it kicks in. You could try and turn off traction control and see if it makes a difference. So the issue may be feedback from the ground to tyre to track rod ends to differential. I don’t know much about the differentials in this model but I know they are basic (standard) for the 7-speed gearbox. Whereas the 8 speed auto boxes come with a trix’d out ‘real Quattro’ system with bias to rear axle. The other likely issue/ cause is fuelling issue, indicating the pump or injectors are maxed out and that vibration you are getting is a fuel starvation problem. Fuelling problems tend to be more prevalent at higher speeds or top end rpm because the air/fuel ratio tend to lean out, more so on diesel engines to promote good mpg figures. Only way to find out is to simply drive it absent remap and see if the problem persists. If it does this should indicate a purely mechanical problem (likely). If it doesn’t indicating the remap was faulty (most likely).

would remapping the gearbox help? Or could it be clutch slip as a result of excessive wear and tear. Much to some people’s surprise, 5th, 6th and 7th are overdrive gears. Meaning they are simply designed for final gearing for speed vs engine loading providing better mpg. bhp and torque peaks in 4th gear meaning if it was relating to the mapping it would be happening under load here. If the car is FWD it could be differential, you’re experiencing hopping at speed and under load. Then again this would be present in 4th. I recall a friend of Mine had his golf r remapped and then had problems with power band and sloppy gear changes with all sorts of vibration due to clutch slip then had his gearbox remapped and it fixed this issue.

I’d say it has something to do with the lumbar support. If you’re a big bloke you don’t sit snug into the seat. Then the pedals being offset is just the icing on the cake. I have gone through 6 or so different seat settings to get comfortable. I’ve just about cracked it. you need the seat further back, the seating angle slightly back at 110-120 degrees and the lower front section out and tilted up so the weight is on your thighs not your hips. If you slouch into the seat (like you’re a boy racer) with all this in mind somehow it works out.

Th electronic motors cut out if it detects resistance it will stop the opening/closing process. worth trying to get it open and see if it closes. If it doesn’t it may be the motor or the sequencing of open/close is back to front.

I’d be interested in knowing where you sourced components and how you installed it?

I had to take a look at my front bumper and work out how unlucky that was. Obviously not a coincidence that the new facelift has a slightly different design on the lower grille which may be an indication other than styling this might be a common an occurrence? 🤔 Mesh also known as chicken wire is a cheap popular way of preventing this but it’s tacky and rusts within a few months. may be worth looking into changing the grille for an aftermarket one which is honey comb shaped straight box section grills because of the geometry of projectiles tend to do a poor job at deflecting or taking impact. Stones rarely go straight, as much as people think they do, because they tend to be not round and when moving they spin around and go diagonally. Honey comb grills work best because they tend to have an imperfect shape hole with 9/10 times take the impact of the projectile forcing it to deflect up/down, left/right as opposed to ‘straight’.

Yes - tour pack feel rather stupid now. when I ordered the car I ticked every option without reading the small print. Obviously I was comparing to the previous car which had all options but the tour pack which is why I was confused!

No longer possible as an option with black edition models? Just picked up my new Avant and to my surprise, it’s round. Sales guy wasn’t even sure either as it’s normally/has been a standard optional spec when choosing the black edition model.

Not a problem, I just got into my new MY23 avant. Literally checked my oil level before setting off I got the sales guy to get them to top it up. It was literally just above the the low line. So case in point to point 1. I was making! 😂

I also experienced this with my MY22 A6 Avant 40 TDI. Few things to consider to put your mind at rest... New vehicles often are delivered with half or near empty fluids to keep transportation costs (weight) down. During the PDI the dealership should be topping up fluids and checking levels etc. It is not uncommon during this period the technician checks your level and sees 60% full and wont top up the fluid - come round 2 months later your oil warning light appears and it says to need to top up at least 1 litre to bring it back above 50% capacity - To give you an indication in litres the max capacity is around 6 litres. I believe, this warning message appears when your oil level is around or below 50% capacity. It is not low (near empty), I found out when I put 2 litres in and then checking after letting the engine settle, my level was now showing way above the max line which then made me realise that this level is not a TRUE level of your total oil capacity. New vehicles though refined and already run in to a degree, will be inefficient self lubricating and running efficiently due to engine/drive train bedding in. You tend not to see the real world efficiency, performance until around 15,000 miles or so which for a diesel car is roughly 1/16th of its engineered/designed 'typical' driven life cycle. low fuel economy and high oil usage up till then should be monitored but expected. All diesel vehicles due to emission laws now need to be as efficient as possible, this means manufacturers have tried every which way to get past regulations (sometimes cheating) Audi use a very low viscosity oil similar to what was used in high performance cars during the early 2000's due to its low friction whilst lubricating intricate parts, marginal tolerance fast moving components. This means in layman's terms, the oil when at operating temperature is more likely to burn/evaporate during combustion cycles - thus higher perceived oil consumption is likely to occur. With my A6 I was topping up 1 litre of oil or sometimes more, roughly every 3-5k miles however, I do a lot of motorway mileage compared to short to medium journeys. I was monitoring this and in fairness the oil usage has become far less between 10K miles to 18K miles compared to the first 10K miles. I hope this helps!

If you live in a large town/city petrol. if you live in the rural country and commute into town/city, diesel. Contrary to beliefs. Buying the TDI 40 between now and 2025 you will find that when Audi no longer make those versions the used market for these will sky rocket due to demand for later model versions before they are formally discontinued!

The conditions for it to work are quite specific. In mine it works fine but does not work on demand as such unless you are driving a relatively straight road coming to a junction/round about or if the car detects a slight decline in the gradient in the direction your heading. it won’t work if the road is not relatively straight, or if the gradient is excessive in any direction it won’t work. The information you were provided is nothing short of being fobbed off along with what is from my experience working in the motor-trade given the quoted diagnostic figures you stated somewhat cements my opinion as it is calculated on a labour rate which tends to be around an initial hour £75-£125ph to verify the fault followed by further estimate costs to continue diagnosing/repair.

Does this happen immediately on driving the car? Likely a significant fault or damage to your radar/windscreen/parking sensors damaged. if not, does this happen more prominently after/during long distance driving or short distance driving? If short distance driving, does this happen in heavy traffic or light to medium traffic conditions? If heavy traffic conditions (start stop) it could be related to an intermittent fault with the your frontal parking sensors or windscreen being obstructed or damaged or requiring calibration.