Charlie Dreyfus

If you fail to fully depress the clutch in ANY manual vehicle you will find the gears grind. I suspect all the problems reported with transmissions in the TT are really just 'user error'. I suspect the people complaining aren't use to a stick and really just need some expert driver training.<p>Brad, you should make sure your seat isn't to far back from the pedals this could be exasperating the problem for you, especially as your legs are quite short.<p>Hope this helps.<p>Charlie<p>blue/blue 180q expected October

Crisp

I would tend to agree with you, but I have only driven stick vehicles, with any kind of regularity. The problems that we are writing about appears after many miles of driving these cars. Which even a novice stick driver would get better with time -not worse. I do sincerely believe that the sincro is slowly getting worse and that my left leg has not fallen off.<p>I am not attacking your opinion, I am just stating mine.

Kurt

Please do not quantify "all" as your reference to the drivers reporting transmission problems. I have driven nothing but manual transmissions since the day I learned how to drive a car, which was about 15 years ago. My problem started out as a notchy transmission, but escalated to the point to while driving down the road at about 60 mph and attempting to downshift to slow down for a toll-booth, my transmission froze and no shifting of the gears could be done. Audi found a manufacturing defect with the transmission and replaced it. The new transmission works like a charm. It is very short-sighted to ascertain that "all" issues are from poorly trained drivers. Some for sure are, but I'd be willing to run with anyone on the A5 from Frankfurt to Heidleberg to check out skill.<br>

John J. Szobocsan

Mr. Dreyfus,<p>First, let me congratulate you on your courage to include your e-mail address with your posting to this forum. <p>Second, the transmission problems described by Brad Willis and others are real and not a direct result of drivers lacking coordination and skill. Three weeks ago I sent Jason Dale an e-mail describing, for verbatim, the problem I am having with my transmission. Jason, at that time, thought that the problem was an alignment issue, Over time the problem has worsened and on Saturday, the grinding is always present during the 1--2 upshift. At first I thought that it was an alignment problem; in fact it almost seems as if the gate's plane is not sufficiently defined. Road and/or engine movement would cause the gear lever to move slightly out of plane. After Saturday's problems I can say that there is definitely a problem with this transmission, in design or in manufacturing. My dealer has not been able to duplicate the gear grind; therefore, I will continue to drive the car until the technician can not avoid the sound.<p>Third, transmission problems sometimes results from a lack of driver skills; however, I have driven many cars with manual transmissions for many years and several hundered thousand miles without a transmission or clutch failure. My last car I drove had 107 miles on its original clutch. I definitely know how to drive a car. <p>I thought that this forum was designed to facilitate communication between owners and soon-to-be owners; not an arena to hurl personal barbs. Several people on this forum have sent psostings describing the same transmission problem. Every one of the writers is a skilled motoring enthusiat and completely capable of driving a car equipped with a manual transmission.<p>I know when and how to depress the clutch pedal.<p>John J. Szobocsan

Brad Willis

I've got to agree with John, Kurt and Crisp, the TT does have a few bugs, the most serious of which appears to be with the transmission. I'm sure that most people will not be affected, but it is my opinion that the problems extends beyond mere bad luck. I might also add that I have driven a stickshift equipped car for over 15 years, so it's not an issue of driver error.<p>Now this does not mean that one shouldn't buy a TT. It is probably a safe assumption that Audi will address these problems, so they should occur more infrequently on future models. Even if these potential problems weren't addressed at all (and you know that they will be), the odds are that a major problem isn't going to happen to you. If it does, deal with it. It looks like I'm getting a new transmission. I'm not thrilled, but it should be a relatively quick and painless procedure. Even if I knew in advance that I would have to replace the transmission (at Audi's cost of course), I still would have bought my TT without hesitation!

AudiCarsUSA

Charlie - Thank you for toeing the Audi corporate line on this transmission issue. As we had determined that Americans couldn't tell the difference between the brake and accellerator pedal on automatic Audis in the 1980's, we are not surprised to find out that few Americans know to depress the clutch in manual transmission today.<p>As for the guy with 107 miles on his clutch, he must be a very good driver. We engineer the clutch to last about 50 miles per our corporate rules on planned obselence.<p>Given the continuing problem that we have with American drivers misusing our German engineered vehicles, we are planning to make a German chauffer standard equipment with all Audi fo the 2001 model year (which you will of course not take delivery of until 2003).<p>Werner A Celeration<br>Audi

John J. Szobocsan

Dear Speedshift,<p>Thank you very much for pointing out the errors of my pervious post. It is definitely a pleasure to deal with individual such as yourself and Mr. Dreyfus. Brad, myself, and others have taken the time to inform other TT owners of potential problems with their automobiles only to endure immature comments, hidden behind non-existent e-mail addresses. The vast majority of particiapants on this forum are very competent drivers, several individuals have many years of racing experience. I do apologize for my error but I was posting my message and handling a telephone call at the same time. While this inattentiveness is no excuse for a well written and accurate post it is a fact of life that many forum guests are educated beyond a third grade public school level and that this forum is not at the top of list of priorities.<p>John J. Szobocsan

UnintendedAcelleratedHumor

My deepest apologies if my attempt at humor was misinterpreted. I was merely rewarding Mr. Dreyfus for his attempt at ironic humor based on Audi's past handling of mysterious mechanical ailments. A point which it appeared that some others had missed. I have found numerous helpful tidbits on this forum, and was looking to add a humorous one. Certainly no one wants belittle real problems that owners may experience with the car. Just poking fun at big brother.

Rik

nt

WOO

The Wise Old Owl says you just flunked English 101...gosh, what terrible spelling and grammar...and you didn't make any sense.