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How do you drive your TT (S-Tronic)?

6.6K views 26 replies 10 participants last post by  Omychron  
#1 ·
I only have the car since a week, mostly urban drive, home-school (drop the kids)-office-home total 60km/day.
I use the AUTO drive mode
At traffic lights flip to N, (unfortunately the autostop is deactivated and the engine starts, but I don't want to keep my foot on the brake for a minute or more)
For spirited driving I flip to S. (question: is it same as I would select DYNAMIC mode?)
Sometimes I deactivate autostop in residential areas with a lot of crossings.
The artificial exhaust sound has been deactivated
 
#2 ·
AUTO mode also most of the time with DS in Dynamic or occasionally Comfort if I'm on a long drive. Switch to Sport mode if I know I'm going to be doing an overtake, or as you say for the more spirited drives. Rarely I switch to manual and try to use the paddles for a bit of fun. But then I realise I am fairly hopeless at making changes compared to the DSG box, and switch back to AUTO. :oops:

Dynamic and Sport are different, at least on the TTS. Amongst other things most noticeably in Sport the box stays in lower gear longer, which means car is more ready to respond when needed.

Regards stop/start there is some coding in the bits and byte thread to effectively disable it completely. I find it so intrusive on an auto as you have no control over when it kicks in (unless you are ever so soft on the brake pedal when stopped). On a manual at least it only happens when you lift the clutch in N, which I only do if I know I will be stopped for some time.

Plus I do so little urban driving that there is no real enviromental impact of having it permanently disabled. Have only once or twice been stuck in traffic (motorway accident for example) and thought it would be nice to be able to use ASS, unfortunately that would necessitate me manually disabling it for the other 363 days of the year I got in the car.

My advice: If ASS (appropriate acronym, don't you think?) is annoying you either get VCDS or check Hoggy's members location map for someone nearby to help you out.
 
#3 ·
Instead of switching to N, leave it in D at the lights and switch on the parking brake (Yes, in D)
You can then let go of the brake, and as soon as you hit the accelerator the car will disengage parking brake for you and start moving.
This way start/stop can do its job (that's what you want, right? Might be misunderstanding things) and you don't have to hold the brake.
 
#4 ·
AWDRobert said:
At traffic lights flip to N, (unfortunately the autostop is deactivated and the engine starts, but I don't want to keep my foot on the brake for a minute or more)
Why not just don't brake too hard so the auto stop doesn't kick in (or just turn it off when you first start up) then just leave it in "D" and pull the handbrake switch at lights? That's what I've done since day one. Saves blinding people behind :)
 
#8 ·
I fully disabled the ASS using VCDS, was one of the first things I did with VCDS when I got the car!

I'll hold the car on the foot brake in gear when stopping briefly but if I can see I'll be stopped for more than 5-10 seconds (red lights, stuck behind a bus etc) I always flick into N; also when crawling in traffic sometimes the crawl speed is just slightly faster than the traffic might be moving so to avoid repeatedly dabbing the brakes I'll go into N to allow the speed to drop on its own then back into D again, allows me to keep with slow traffic without looking like I can't drive :lol:

I usually drive mine in a mixture of D and M. Never use S except on rare occasions such as using launch control. S is really only applicable imho to a track-situation where you know you are always going to be on the gas, otherwise it's just a waste of fuel and I, being the driver, will know when I might actually need to hold a gear longer so use M on those occasions.

On the RS at least in S it changes the allowed lower-rpm limits of when the gearbox will permit you to select a gear in M mode. By that I mean when you select S mode then M mode it is different to selecting D mode then M mode; if you were in S mode then push the lever over to M, it will still hold the idle rpm higher and raises the minimum speed where it will allow you to select the next gear. I prefer to make these decisions for myself so I never use S and make sure I am in D before selecting M.
 
#9 ·
I did not consider to permanently disable ASS. I find it to be practical way to reduce pollution exactly where needed (urban traffic, congestion) while reducing fuel consumption. It seems that the price to pay is to either keep brake on or engage the parking brake. When I find the ASS to be too intrusive or I expect it to become so (knowing the way / traffic conditions) I disable it and, believe it or not, sometimes I re enable it if it fits the first stated purpose.

By the way I RTM, (P/N 152.561.8FV.2O.09.14 with 300pages, in English, to be clear, because the one that come with the car is in German ...) and I did not find things to make me change the way I drive. I am rather interested in the different approaches of the community.
 
#10 ·
AWDRobert said:
It seems that the price to pay is to either keep brake on or engage P.
Or engage the parking brake and leave it in D. No price to pay there.
Switching to P means sometimes car doesn't restart when you need it to, and you have to completely power down and up.
The system is not designed to use P as a start/stop system.
 
#11 ·
Omychron said:
AWDRobert said:
It seems that the price to pay is to either keep brake on or engage P.
Or engage the parking brake and leave it in D. No price to pay there.
Switching to P means sometimes car doesn't restart when you need it to, and you have to completely power down and up.
The system is not designed to use P as a start/stop system.
Indeed Omychron, I meant P arking brake. [edited my post]
 
#12 ·
I put the foot down in D mode coming onto a dual carriageway today. Whilst accelerating at WOT I knocked the box into S mode, the engine and exhaust instantly got louder. I thought this was an Audi drive select 'dynamic' thing and not an 'S mode' thing? Or am I wrong? Apologies if this is slightly off topic.
 
#13 ·
I drive in dynamic mode with the shifter in D. I have to take it out of S mode after I select dynamic. It allows you to select the throttle response and exhaust note to sport mode without altering the steering sensitivity. So you could have it in Comfort mode and then tap down once on the gearstick to allow a bit of overtaking before putting it back in Comfort by tapping the gearstick down again.
 
#17 ·
The exhaust sound - ie flaps open (presume that's what you mean?) is controlled by the exhaust sport button, at least on the RS; Dynamic mode selects this automatically but you can turn it of, likewise turn it on in other modes, but only in Dynamic does it "default" to on.
 
#19 ·
Dale.TT said:
On my 2.0 tfsi S Line S Tronic - the engine/exhaust note get louder in S mode then quieter when you go back into D mode. This is whilst the car is in dynamic from start up.
Just wondering if you're mistaking that for the idle rpm being raised in sport mode? On the RS if you're stationary it idles at 800 however select S and it raises to just over 1000 and gets correspondingly louder.
 
#20 ·
Dale.TT said:
On my 2.0 tfsi S Line S Tronic - the engine/exhaust note get louder in S mode then quieter when you go back into D mode. This is whilst the car is in dynamic from start up.
Dynamic from startup is "bugged", in that not all dynamic options are activated when starting up. This might be fixed in newer cars, but there was a thread on here a while ago about this.
Re-select dynamic mode after startup, then go to D and actuator sound will stay in dynamic. (as it should)
D/S defines the shifting points of the DSG, not the drive select options such as "exhaust sound".

Make sure not to confuse the sound actuator (comes on only in dynamic) with the actual exhaust sound. The exhaust flap can open up for several reasons, not just selecting dynamic mode.
A cold start will keep the valve open for a while, above a certain RPM (no clue which one) it opens,...

powerplay said:
The exhaust sound - ie flaps open (presume that's what you mean?) is controlled by the exhaust sport button, at least on the RS; Dynamic mode selects this automatically but you can turn it of, likewise turn it on in other modes, but only in Dynamic does it "default" to on.
Exhaust button is sadly an RS only option. :(
 
#21 ·
Omychron said:
powerplay said:
The exhaust sound - ie flaps open (presume that's what you mean?) is controlled by the exhaust sport button, at least on the RS; Dynamic mode selects this automatically but you can turn it of, likewise turn it on in other modes, but only in Dynamic does it "default" to on.
Exhaust button is sadly an RS only option. :(
Whoops my bad. I'll get my coat...
 
#22 ·
powerplay said:
Dale.TT said:
Just wondering if you're mistaking that for the idle rpm being raised in sport mode? On the RS if you're stationary it idles at 800 however select S and it raises to just over 1000 and gets correspondingly louder.
Well I shifted into S with my foot planted WOT and it got louder so not the revs I'm afraid. Looks like Omychron is onto something though I'll check this out today! I thought it was a tad strange seeing as manuals don't have S mode to change the note.
 
#23 ·
powerplay said:
Dale.TT said:
On my 2.0 tfsi S Line S Tronic - the engine/exhaust note get louder in S mode then quieter when you go back into D mode. This is whilst the car is in dynamic from start up.
Just wondering if you're mistaking that for the idle rpm being raised in sport mode? On the RS if you're stationary it idles at 800 however select S and it raises to just over 1000 and gets correspondingly louder.
Never tested that on a 2.0 TT, yet have not noticed RPM increasing between modes. (at idle)
I assume the RS doesn't need a sound actuator? :)
As that is the main difference in sound on the 2.0 when switching drive modes.

powerplay said:
Whoops my bad. I'll get my coat...
You're very welcome to stay among us mere non-RS owners! :p
 
#26 ·
Omychron said:
Dynamic from startup is "bugged", in that not all dynamic options are activated when starting up. This might be fixed in newer cars, but there was a thread on here a while ago about this.
Re-select dynamic mode after startup, then go to D and actuator sound will stay in dynamic. (as it should)
D/S defines the shifting points of the DSG, not the drive select options such as "exhaust sound".

Make sure not to confuse the sound actuator (comes on only in dynamic) with the actual exhaust sound. The exhaust flap can open up for several reasons, not just selecting dynamic mode.
A cold start will keep the valve open for a while, above a certain RPM (no clue which one) it opens,...
Dont know about other units,
but mine is from 2015 TT 2.0TFSI. Only thing that I have to do when starting my car (which was last set to dynamic mode) is to re-shift the gearbox from D to S. Because when I start up the car that was in dynamic before turning it off, it will not remember to set the Stronic to back to S mode ( it will start in D-mode on dynamic). I have to do that part myself.
Is that normal?


p.s- I also dont hear any differences in engine/exhaust sound when I restart my engine in dynamic or re-selecting to the dynamic once more. So I guess mine is not "bugged" as you mentioned.