Ian Goldberg

After waiting for nearly 1 whole long year, I finally picked up my Audi TT quattro. After 2 weeks of some of the best fun in my life, the 4wd system dramatically failed. I was driving along a country lane at approx. 60 mph, when suddenly all power to the left-hand side was locked. This resulted in the powered right hand side forcing the car to turn to the left. I promtly tried to correct this effect by turning the steering to the right. I might as well of farted for all the good it did. I went straight off the road, through a hedge, the car turned over and caught fire! I was lucky to survive the whole experience with only minor injuries.

I love the TT and think it is the best looking car around. The 4wd drive system is however a farce and I am considering sueing Audi for releasing such rubbish to the public.

Marius B

I’m really sorry for you, and I really hope you don’t suffer permanent damage to yourself or your situation.

However, the cause of your accident is mysterious. Assuming this was a technical malfunction, I can imagine very few possible (but still highly unlikely) expanations for it, and all of them have to do with parts and systems that are generic to automobiles but are not spesific for the quattro system. On the contrary, I cannot think of any part or malfunction in the quattro system that could cause such behavior in a car.

We would surely like to hear more details about how it happened and possible explanations for it.

The best,
Marius

ChuckH

...the quattro (Haldex) system seems like an unlikely culprit. Has this been determined to be the case, or are you assuming it to be? The reason I ask is because there are other things that could cause such a situation, as Marius stated. The first one that comes to mind for me, is a wheel bearing failure. If wheel bearing locks up, it's a nearly guaranteed of-road excursion. Please let us know what is found, if a cause is determined.

I'm glad that nobody was seriously injured. The TT has an amazingly rigid structure, so atleast you were covered there.

Charles

Roger Wittaker

Oh please! What rubbish replies am I hearing from your posting, Mr Goldberg. This failure is most definately due to the Haldex-clutch seizing. Something similar happened to me but on a far less dramatic scale.

I would be VERY interested in finding out the exact cause of your accident and would be most grateful if you could contact me personally.

I myself will be persuing this matter with Audi.

Marius B

nt

Bill Gates

It was probably a failure in the TTs embedded OS, I think they use OS-9, which is a rather dated real time OS.

:-)

Chuck Caldarale

Whenever I see one of these inflammatory posts, I always make a check on the sender's e-mail address (assuming it's provided). Turns out that neither ramtex.com (from Ian Goldberg) nor microware.co.uk (Roger Wittaker) are known domain names. Seems a little suspicious to me that both claimants have invalid addresses...

On the technical side, I also don't see how the Haldex could play a role in a left-right power distribution problem, since it operates on the front to rear balance. The description just doesn't make sense.

- Chuck

Marius B

The only right/left function on the car is the electronic differential brake, which works not in the differential but on one front wheel at a time. If that system was trigged and locked a front wheel... Nothing to do with the quattro or the Haldex clutch.

Now IF the Haldex had locked up the rear axle, one rear wheel would counter-rotate and the other would give app. the same braking effect. An experienced driver like Goldberg would surely perceive this as something else than "left side locked, right side pulling"?

Michael Eaton

Both domian names are registed and valid.

ramtex.com won't work, but www.ramtex.com will.

microware.co.uk doesn't have a web server at this domain name, but it is registered and might only be used for email or FTP.

I also think that the initial post is bogus, but it could be true, you never know.

Chris N

Is the Quattro system on the TT any different from previous quattro systems ?

Why have I not heard of this type of incident over the past few years with this technology ?

Thanks,

--
currently have 97 A4Q
only a few more weeks for my A Red TTQ.