jgiachino

New to Audi, S4 and DSG....have 1k mi on the car....love it, but one complaint is "Dynamic" doesnt seem agressive enough on the trans logic/motor behavior...holds shifts a bit longer, but no feel of agro/razor's edge.....playing around tonight i tried it with the ASR Disabled and that seemed to be an improvement toward what i think "Dynamic" should offer...eg.it appeared to stay in lower gears at a given speed than with ASR on, throttle seemed more responsive,...guessing becasue it allows more power to the ground (e.g. less worried about wheel slip)....is this just me or do others have a similiar experience? Also anyone know if defaulting ASR off is possible with Vag-Com? Thanks

ZCD2.7T

It's your imagination. The throttle/shift settings are unaffected by the ASR setting.

jgiachino

OK, why i asked.....was thinking asr put more power down (less torque mgmt) becasue the nanny is less worried about tire slip....

Maybe it's just the car getting more broken in and loosening up some...

ZCD2.7T

If the stability/traction control warning light came on while you were "playing around" when it was still engaged, then yes THAT could mean that the the throttle may have been being managed by the system to some degree.

However, the system won't manage the throttle under normal (no slip) situations.

Curious - have you ever owned an AWD car before?

jgiachino

Never owned a car before period....comming from a 13 second 1/4mi Dodge Diesel that i use for dirtbikes/toy hauler....so a performance car is a whole other ballpark re handling.....granted my wife has an 11 bmw x5 diesel with AWD and 265hp/425tq (not as fast obviously and a fat pig, but gives some limited experience vs. an awd car, actually handles awesome for an SUV)....

Think the issue is that both the truck and the x5 require .5" of throttle to get a move on and the s4 is more linear throttle...e.g. requires more for same go...that and my experience with BMW's is that "sport" mode is a truely diff animal vs. just holding upshifts a bit longer.....was just trying to find a more "dynamic" dynamic setting....maybe it's just adaption to the linear throttle vs. Instant throttle

Absolutely love the car in all respects except this and BT streaming...neither of which is anything but a minor issue.

ZCD2.7T

OIC.

I've had a guy in a chipped/tuned Dodge diesel pickup challenge me a couple of times at a stoplight. He seemed genuinely surprised (pissed?) when I took him pretty handily. That said, his truck was quicker than I expected, too!

So, despite the torquey nature of the S4s motor, it's by far the weakling of your recent experience regarding torque, so my guess is that you just have to get accustomed to NOT having 600+ lb. ft. at your disposal right off idle. (!!!). The S4 starts making its best power around 2900 rpm, so it's between there and redline that most of the fun lives.

Most S4 owners come at this from the opposite end of the spectrum and are very pleasantly surprised at the B8 S4's powerband, but I can certainly understand how it might not seem that way to you.

I'll bet that you'll enjoy the car more and more as you get accustomed to it!

jgiachino

If i could do a staged 2k rpm, 4x4 boosted launch on the street without getting arrested, i know my truck would take my stock car....the 0-60' times are 1.6x seconds (i have $10k in goodies in it)...it's fast out of the hole...but not useful on the street becasue it leaves a huge cloud of black smoke with a launch like that....and that's too dangerous...so while it's fast it's not overly useful on public streets (sure does pull the trailier nice!)....

Re the car, yeah, coming from diesel's it's definately comming out of left field.....car's plenty fast and an absolute hoot to drive, just trying to undertand how to get the most out of it....ordered the vag-com and am going to default to "individual" so i can control the default mode (basically set it to dynamic on everything when i drive and auto for my wife's key)....this and getting used to using the left paddle shifter to downshift and get the rev's into the meat of the powerband and i should be in business!

I'm trying to determine if i do stasis or apr ecu + intake or leave well enough alone....figure i have until the 5k mi oil change to figure it out....tempted to leave as is as it's awesome....but anything can be made better i suppose.

Also, another input on the s4....the chasis is flippen awesome...i've minimal "turning experience" comming from a lifted 4x4 and the s4 is so natural/intuitive/stable/precise/gluded to the road it makes moron's like me hero's with its easy to use capabilities.


Thanks for the inputs...

ZCD2.7T

My car is has the STaSIS ECU flash and Touring suspension setup, plus an AWE S-Flo intake, and yes, that stuff only improves the car. The stock tuning dumps much of the boost starting at about 5300 rpm, and the various tuners (STaSIS, APR, GIAC, REVO) restore that lost boost so that the engine pulls hard all the way to redline, rather than falling flat as it passes 5500. They also close the bypass valve more fully at lower rpm, leading to better throttle response everywhere in the rev range.

Figure a stock DSG car to be about a 13.0-13.2 second runner on average, and tuned cars to be 12.0-12.7 depending on what's done, so it's quite noticeable.

As to the "planted" feel of the car, I couldn't agree more, and it's one of the things I like best about it. Again, that only gets better if the car is dropped by 1" plus, like mine is.

Be careful, though - as you know from your truck, this modding stuff is addictive, and can be expen$ive! Have fun!

jgiachino

"Be careful, though - as you know from your truck, this modding stuff is addictive, and can be expen$ive! Have fun! "

--and there in lies the rub...while i'm ready to dump $6k into the thing, wifey knows the drill re modding (e.g. truck, dirtbikes, anything i've owned in the past)...and is ready to pounce if i start on this one "that doesnt need any mods" :-)