DX

I just recently had a unique experience and thought I'd share with my fellow A4 drivers. After setting the cruise at 73 and traveling roughly 45 miles I tappped the brake, shifted from 5 to neutral (don't lecture me please. I know), flicked the turn signal to begin my exit and the engine all of a sudden screams to redline. So here I am coasting about 50 with the engine going at full bore. In a panic, and not knowing what the HELL is going on, I again tap the break and as suddenly as it began the engine then goes back to idle rpm. I sat for quite awhile going back through the steps leading up to the event. I had an idea and I actually duplicated the event. When "flicking" the turn signal to the up position (right blinker) I mistakenly triggered the resume of the cruise control hence sending the engine on its climb back to 73 but while in neutral. I will be a lot more careful in the future with my "flicking". Anyone else with similar experiences?

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It says not to shift into neutral and then activate cruise. The clutch disengages the cruise control, but the car never knows what gear it is in. And BTW, it says that in all car manuals with cars that have stick shift.
BTW this is not sudden aceleration, and also, you don't shift into neutral, downshift to fourth and allow the engine to do the work.

T2

That's the best reason yet to move the cruise control somewhere else. If you had an automatic transmission and tapped the resume while exiting the freeway, the car would actually accelerate (not only rev-up), potentially causing a problem. I'd suggest that you call/write Audi about this.

Tom
1.8TQMS Silver/Ecru

T2

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Every manual Trans car that I have driven exibits the exact same behavour. And you will notice in the manual it says not to shift into neutral w/out the clutch nor engage cruise in neutral because it will send the engine to redline. Also, in a car with an auto, you shift into neutral and press resume, it will do the same thing. The cruise computers in cars do not know what gear the car is in, and will not turn the cruise off when the driver shifts into nuetral unless the clutch is pressed.
I have seen the exact same thing in Saturns, Hondas, Acuras, and Toyotas. This is not an Audi /VW thing. Finally the cruise control does not allow input below 30 mph to prevent accidental acceleration.

sae

Had the same sort of experience when making a lane change. Put on turn signal while accelerating, accidentally thumbed 'set/resume' and the car's throttle became jammed wide open (I was in gear at the time). Almost slammed into the car in front of me before I realized that the cruise control had engaged. Kind of an interesting feature. I wish the cruise control was somewhere else. The Sport steering wheel effectively hides all the stalk controls, which is an annoying design flaw.

Scott.
1.8tqms tap1

JMorrison

nt

T2

In most every other car there is no chance of accidentally engaging the cruise control while signally to get off of a freeway onto an onramp (or changing lanes) at 40mph+. I think its a design flaw that should be taken care of, IMHO. Yes, it's driver's error, but the design is not robust in this case.

Tom
1.8TQMS Silver/Ecru

LCP

I did the deactivated cruise control by braking thing, just to signal to change lanes quickly and off the car goes full throttle in 4th gear (I had downshifted already) because I had brushed across the resume switch. I nearly flew into the car in front of me. Audi has the only cruise control I've seen in this exact position and agree it is a design flaw given the position on other cars. This has only happened once, and I always wondered what the hell people were talking about when they would describe this situation until it happened to me.

Scott G

I have spent over 80,000 miles behind the wheel of an A4 and many miles behind the wheel of several other cars. I think the cruise is actually a little difficult to engage. All but one of the cars I have owned had the cruise in the same basic place as the A4 cruise, the other car had it on the steering wheel which was very easy to use. Yes, the Nissan cruise was easy to use and thus too easy to get to, and still no problems. Hell, I bet Audi could put the cruise button on the back of your seat and somebody would activate it by accident. My advice is to take off those oven mits before you go driving next time. Admit it, you slipped up and not the car. This is how the whole 60 Minutes disaster started for Audi back in the 80's. I guess if I speelled anything wrong in this post I should blamme itt on my computer.