I am worried by this. I have a A4 Cab '04 plate, but I bought it brand new in July 2004. It is 2.4 V6 Sport one with Multi-tronic box. It has just had its 40K gear box oil change and has had all it services at Audi dealer near where I live.
Not wishing to tempt Madam Fate, I have not had a moments trouble or any of the symptoms I have seen on various Audi Forum sites <quickly touches some wood> with the gear box. I am not what you would call a Ms Daisy driver either. There is a busy junction near were I work that requires use of the Tipronic part of the box that I use 5 days a week to get out safely into the traffic! It has a sports mode which I also use fairly regularly. I do however follow the old rules with auto boxes. So when I am sitting at the lights, a busy junction, or in a traffic jam, I stick it in neutral.
It probably down to taste, but I test drove a number of auto box cabriolet cars back in 2004 (Saab, BMW, Volvo) and the Audi was far the best of the bunch.
Other than an strange fault that has developed with the radio today, and I have managed to break one of the hinges on the glove box door. The car as been faultless over the last four and half years.
Is there anyway I can check what Multi-tronic box has been fitted in the car? If I can confirm it is seven plate one then can sleep easier in my bed at night!
There's a pretty well known problem with the Multitronics... here's a couple of quotes from the "HonestJohn" website....
"What to Watch Out For.....
If buying a Multitronic, be suspicious of any bangs or jerks. Reports of problems with Multitronic electronics causing bangs when drive or reverse were selected and a low rpm vibration in 5th/6th. Multitronics MUST HAVE regular ATF changes. By 2005 reports of Multitronic failures were increasing. By 2006 Audi was offering 50% of replacement cost as long as the ATF had been replaced at 40,000 miles. Replacement boxes fitted with 7-plate rather than 6-plate clutches. By 2007 Audi was more reluctant to offer this goodwill. However, if the problem is only the clutch, then a new 7 plate clutch is about £2,200 fitted."
"Recalls......
December 2005: Dealer TSB to replace current 6 pack clutch of 2.5V6TDI Multitronic with a new revised 7 part clutch as there is a known problem with the Multitronic being unable to cope with the torque of the 2.5TD. (Not confined to 2.5TDI. Multitronics with all engines failing regularly and 6 plate clutches being replaced by 7 plate clutches.)"
Cheers. I'll keep me ears open! I tend only to use the numbered gears to pull away in heavy traffic, and I tend to knock back into Drive once I have changed to 2nd/3rd gear. So I may miss low rpm vibration in 5th/6th.
I do live in a dead end road so I use reverse every day. So I'll look out for bangs when then.
It's the MUCH higher torque 2.5 diesel where this is a significant problem (they don't even offer multitronic on the top-spec TDi's)... the lower spec 2.5 TDi's where they offer Multitronic are the 155PS and 163PS, so the troublesome ones around the 320-340Nm territory and they don't offer it on the 180PS which is around over 370Nm.
According to the Wiki entry - this generation of Multitronic is now recognised not to support over 310Nm.
So the 1.9Tdi 130PS is just the wrong side of borderline with around 320Nm.... but the petrols are mostly WELL within spec: a 180PS 1.8 20V Turbo has 235Nm and your 2.4 V6 (approx 165bhp) has 230Nm.... and the 3.0 V6 gettting close with 300Nm....
But the workaround is the 7 plate clutch upgrade which should cope with all B6 engines (up to 400Nm apparently - certainly in the new gear boxes, the 7 plate clutch can handle that much)....
When I used the CVT regularly (on my '05 A4 cabrio - B6), my transmission failed around 42000 miles (luckily, still under warranty, so it cost me nothing)...so I'm afraid to use it now!
ERWIN released "Servicing Multitronic Manual" for A8, A6, A4 2001-2007 models. I'm not sure if this was just released recently. I checked out the table of contents, it seemed pretty detailed. Hopefully with this manual, more shops other than the dealership will be able to do overhauls at lower prices. The dealership usually recomends a whole transmission assembly replacement (which is very expensive) if something goes wrong with it. Here's the link:
addition to the styling, the other big news with the new A4 is the availability of a continuously variable transmission (CVT) instead of a conventional automatic with the front-wheel-drive models. (The A6 also gets this transmission.) This is somewhat odd, since in most parts of the country Audi sells mostly all-wheel-drive “quattros,” but I suppose they haven’t gotten the CVT to work with the all-wheel-drive system yet. What they have done that no one else has is gotten the CVT to work with a powerful engine, a 220 horsepower 3.0 liter six. (For my review of the A4 with that engine and all-wheel-drive, click here.) Until now, CVTs have only been available with much weaker engines, because there ability to handle torque has been limited. The CVT also takes the place of a conventional automatic in front-wheel-drive models with the junior A4 engine, a 170 horsepower 1.8 liter turbo four.
I’ll take a shot at explaining how a CVT works. Basically, it involves a pair of beveled pulleys linked by a chain. Each pulley has two separate halves, the distance between which can be varied. When the halves are brought together, the chain is forced higher up the bevels of the pulley, effectively increasing the pulley’s diameter. And vice versa. The transmission is “continuously variable” because the distance between the pulley halves is infinitely variable between their extreme positions. The problem has been designing a chain that does not slip (since it is held in place entirely by pressure) and does not break. Audi seems to have gone well beyond previous limits, in part by having the chain pulled rather than pushed. Since this is how a bicycle chain works, I have no idea why other CVT manufacturers bother with the push method.
Why is “continuously variable” an advantage? It should be smoother than a conventional automatic, because it can slide smoothly from one gear ratio to another rather than jumping. It should get better fuel economy, because it does without a conventional automatic’s torque converter (“slush box”) and enables taller gearing. And it should enable faster acceleration. Theoretically, a CVT should be able to let an engine quickly jump to the RPM where it makes the most power, and then hold it there as the car accelerates. With other transmission designs, the engine is always starting well below the point at which it makes the most power, accelerating to a point where it is beyond this point to the redline, and then moving back below this point when the transmission shifts. Peak horsepower does not totally determine acceleration. Horsepower across the entire RPM range the engine uses while accelerating does. With a CVT, the engine can theoretically be kept right at the RPM where peak power is made for much of the time it is accelerating, which off the top of my head I’d guess could easily be equivalent to 15% more effective horsepower. It also helps that a CVT can cover a broader range of ratios, so that it can start lower and finish higher than a conventional transmission, improving both performance and economy.
The problem with actually doing this is it feels weird, at least to people used to conventional transmissions. Whether you know it or not, an engine sounds right when it is continuously gaining RPM, then shifting, then gaining RPM again. When the engine stays at a set RPM while the car is accelerating, it just sounds wrong, as if the transmission were slipping or something. Which it is, but then with a CVT that’s how it works.
To provide the option of a more “natural” driving experience, Audi's CVT acts like a manually shiftable six-speed automatic when the shifter is in the “tiptronic” position (located in a short slot to the right of "D"). In this mode the driver is able to move among six predefined ratios using either buttons on the steering wheel or the shifter
Last edited by coving21 : 02-10-2009 at 09:02 PM.
Reason: Citation
My A4 3.0 Multitronic '04 model (non quattro) had its gear box changed at 86, 416km. At 110,040km I started having problems but I am not sure if it's the gearbox or something else. When the car is cold everything is fine but after 100kms or so (or even 20km if driving fast) it feels like the gears are slipping when changing. When changed to triptronic one can overcome the problem for a while but the problem would become more pronounced with the distance (even on triptronic). Ultimately the car loses power and it struggles to change gears. At it's worst (with more distance travelled) it crawls but ultimately cant move and the engine cuts itself off. The engine can be started and the crawling continues. If however the car is left to cool off until the next day, the story starts all over again; you can drive fast for 20kms (or so) and the problem sets in. Been to the dealer but nothing shows on the diagnostic machine. Anyone with a similar experience or solution? The gear box oil was changed and the problem still persists.
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