Car has developed a transmission problem in the mechatronic unit. Car gives a gearbox malfunction display in the car. Reverse will not working and the car will repeatedly go into neutral at any speed. Sometimes then it will jerk back into gear very violently.
Audi S4 jerking problems
27 of the 589 owner complaints about the Audi S4 describe jerking or lurching, most of them for the 2010 model year.
- owner complaints
- 27
- worst model year
- 2010
- typical mileage
- 64,000
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
Often reported together
Harsh shifting 6Won't shift 4Transmission failure 3Warning lights 2Sudden acceleration 2Hesitation 2Pulling 1Slipping 1
Trouble codes mentioned
P179E 1
What owners say
The dsg transmission in my audi s4 experiences abrupt jerking from 2nd to 1st great while decelerating. It also jerks and feels like it is being hit while shifting from 1st to 2nd when accelerating normally.
The whole car jerked when going to 2nd gear and then thetpms, no reverse, and gear malfunction lights comes on. 2nd, 4th, 6th, and reverse gear are gone. Restarting the car cleared the warning and drove fine for 10 miles before it happens again. Try restarting again to clear the warning but light will come back on when going to 2nd or reverse.
Transmission failure. Lurching from a stop and lurching during shift changes.
Gearbox malfunction and TPMS malfunction while driving on the road within the city about 45mph I felt a slight jerk and immediately following the warnings came on in the dashboard "tire pressure! System malfunction" & "gearbox malfunction: no reverse gear (you can continue driving)" throttle response was off and forced me to immediately puller over! While stopped I re-started the vehicle and the warnings went away, I sat there for a couple minutes and then continued driving. Few miles down the road the vehicle jerked again and warnings came back on, I needed to get to work so I continued driving; the car would take very long to shift gears and it would jump from 1st to 3rd, from 3rd to 5th and 5th to 7th gear jerking kind of violently every-time and throttle response between shifts was very lethargic to the point that the vehicle would slow down severely and I felt unsafe due to cars getting really close to my rear and them having to slow down drastically while the car shifted gears. Due to the number of complaints I strongly feel that audi should be liable and held accountable for all repairs necessary and accidents that this issue can cause. If this issue would of presented itself while traveling at 75mph on the highway I believe it could of been a case of life & death. Audi is putting the people driving their vehicles and others around at risk by not recalling an unit or units known to cause problems.
At ~61,000 miles the 2012 audi s4 started driving rough in low gears. The car has hesitation issues followed by & jerky acceleration/deceleration in low gears out of & into a stop. The reverse gear has similar hesitation & jerky acceleration. Car then started periodically displaying the message: gearbox malfunction: you can continue driving dealer diagnosed the error code as p179e - drive position sensor electrical error, which is tsb 2032211/1
My car is having jerky shifting whenever the vehicle is driver, especially once the engine gets hot. I have had felt the car jerk forward a countless amount of times and have gotten whiplash a couple times where I've been in pain. Transmission on my audi s4 is giving the same issues as many others have encountered on audizine.com and audiworld.com, with the same symptoms. Audi needs to rectify this issue and do a recall on all b8/b8.5 s4 vehicles!
My 2011 s4 started getting the "transmission malfunction continue driving" light at about 40,612 miles. At the same time my vehicle would jerk when stopping and acceleration. When shifting down the gears make a clunking noise specially from 3rd and 2nd gear. I was able to use my extended warranty that I bought because audi didn't want to cover my vehicle. Audi service advisors recommend changing the mechatronic and circuit board but my warranty only authorized the circuit board. My vehicle still jerks when stopping as it downshifts and when I accelerate from a stop.
Dsg transmission is shifting very rough and sometimes slips. Also lurches forward suddenly from a stop causing the car to lunge forward.
My s4 threw the "gearbox malfunction, reverse disabled" as well as a TPMS error code while in traffic, and went into limp mode and would not allow me to accelerate. Very dangerous, and inconvenient. Limped home at very slow speed while transmission clunked and struggled to change gears. The code has gone away since I restarted the vehicle, and now it lunges forward when you're coming to a stop, which makes you feel like you've been hit from behind. Taking off from a stop is bouncy and super jerky. If I hesitate before accelerating from a stop, it will sometimes go smoothly. The engine RPM's surge while coasting to a stop, or going down, hill especially with foot off the pedal.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Audi S4 jerking
Which Audi S4 years have jerking or lurching problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2010 (15 complaints), 2011 (8 complaints) and 2012 (3 complaints).
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