Audi Tiptronic gearboxes

[Heat Seeking Missile]

Are these any good? Especially for a self confessed Automatic hater. I've driven Auto's and hated them but I've never tried a Tiptronic.

Are they easy to use and still give a decently quick change?

Mark

[quattronutter]

the d2 a8 and s8 boxes are pretty trick,gearchanges are fairly quick,although with a big v8 it doesnt matter so much i guess

[S2central.net]

Tiptronic is the only automatic I can live with. We have it on the AR... Would have preferred manual but this was a real nice car with lots of other extras so it was OK.

In full automatic mode, I find it a bit conservative and slow on gearchanges - well not so much how long it takes to shift - more the time it decides to shift. The wife tends to drive it that way and it will change gears half way round corners and stuff which drives me a bit mad.

BUT - you can override all of that and go for semi-automatic mode of course - you get the playstation steering wheel and/or push up, pull down gearstick which is much more fun to drive... Lets you decide when to make the gearshifts... If you are lazy/forgetful when pulling hard away from junctions it shifts up at the redline as well and has similar failsafe override if you come to a halt from a high gear - it will drop you into 1st or 2nd for pulling away from stop or walking pace.

I've heard one nightmare story of a tip box going bad, but it involved the dealer network ripping in for a portion and the same famous local neighbourhood witless mechanic who can't get his head around a front bearing from an S2.

When they go wrong I'd say iot could be a nightmare, and you'd need to do some homework to make sure you aren't getting screwed over by someone.

I haven't tried to dabble into Tiptronic controllers, but I dare say you could get them reprogrammed or VAG-COM'd for some hidden features and tweaks. I know in the USA there is at least one aftermarket supplier of 'chipped' upgrades for the tiptronic boxes to accompany their ECU conversions with regards shift points etc etc

Paul

[quattronutter]

tiptronic boxes can be re programmed quite easily via vag com

[S2central.net]

tiptronic boxes can be re programmed quite easily via vag com

Got any good links on the subject ?
I've never dabbled in it - but it would be interesting to look at this sometime.

Paul

[quattronutter]

have a dig through tyresmoke and the audiworld site,lots of info on regarding different gearbox coding

[S2central.net]

Audiworld - ugh - that is pants to find any real useful info. Ahh well - I;ll try

[S2central.net]

As expected - they came up with nuthin, but I did find this via the VAG-COM site - http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...nsmission.html

Looks useful - and maybe will let me recode the tip on the AR for sport mode

Paul

[Heat Seeking Missile]

Thanks for your reply Paul I've been considering replacing my S2 with an S8 sometime but I was a bit dubious about the whole Tiptronic box, simply due to my own capabilities more than anything because I just dont get on with auto's. Going out an trying one will cause alot of difficulties too.

Mark

[philip walker]

Just given back a new S6 V10 tiptronic after a weeks test from my dealer.
Stunning car, gear shift very sharp much better than I remember on the older S4, S8`s etc, very nice. I think a better car than the new RS4.

However not for me mainly due to the crippling depreciation. Loook out in a few years a bargin to be had. The predicted future value on a 3 year old V10 with 30k miles is less than £15,000

[4WheelDrifter]

I found Tiptronic great as a passenger. Just knock it across so your driver gives it more poo.
I found it hard to get used to the stick changing the wrong way.

[r1alex]

I had an a8 4.2 quattro some years back, and I found the auto box in tiptronic mode to be quite a useful piece of kit. For day to day use leave it in auto and tiptronic for threading down a b road having fun, and that 4.2 does sound awesome at 7000rpm.