Bound transmisson

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SFkjeld

Active member
Joined
Dec 26, 2016
Messages
43
Has anyone seen this? Park your eTron on a modest grade, even a slight grade. Set your parking brake AFTER placing the trans in Park. Restart the car. In ours, the transmission is bound to the point of feeling locked when you try to get into Reverse or Drive. Huge clunk when you do finally get it out of Park. Cannot be good. Have never seen another car that behaved like this.

If the parking brake is applied while in gear and released before selecting a gear, all is fine. But get it out of order, and it feels like you are knocking a gear tooth off.
 
If you think logically, you're applying unnecessary stress to the transmission as you put it into park, then release the brakes and engaging the e-brake afterwards. You get a slight roll when you do it in this sequence.
This applies to all cars and transmissions.
Put the car in park without releasing the brake and then engage the e-brake.
 
If you have an etron, try your sequence on a hill. Won't work. You will get the clunk.

To avoid, when you stop the car on the hill... start with the brake pedal. Then apply the Ebrake, then select Park.

And when you are ready to go again, you have to release the ebrake the last in the sequence. Anything else gets the clunk.

Btw the sequence doesn't matter on most cars.
 
My e-tron on an incline if I hold the brake pedal, select park, apply e-brake then release the brake pedal, I get no clunk next time I take it out of park.

If I hold brake pedal, select park, release brake pedal, apply e-brake, I get a slight roll back after the brake is released and a clunk next time I take it out of park.

Haven't tried it on a steep hill but as long as the e-brake is holding the car properly I would imagine it would be the same behavior. Maybe your e-brake is slipping?
 
SFkjeld":8xhqgut6 said:
If you have an etron, try your sequence on a hill. Won't work. You will get the clunk.

To avoid, when you stop the car on the hill... start with the brake pedal. Then apply the Ebrake, then select Park.

And when you are ready to go again, you have to release the ebrake the last in the sequence. Anything else gets the clunk.

Btw the sequence doesn't matter on most cars.


I do have an e-tron and have been driving it for ~37,000 km since I got it Feb 2016. I always engage the e-brake before releasing the (foot) brake and I never get that problem of a "clunk" / "thud" when moving out of P, regardless of what incline I'm parked on.
For my 30 years of driving, I've always been a believer of using the emergency brake (that includes the type you engage using your foot), doesn't matter what my cars' transmission type.
But who knows, maybe there is a issue with your e-tron that needs to be addressed.
 
Trodderus":300t486b said:
My e-tron on an incline if I hold the brake pedal, select park, apply e-brake then release the brake pedal, I get no clunk next time I take it out of park.

If I hold brake pedal, select park, release brake pedal, apply e-brake, I get a slight roll back after the brake is released and a clunk next time I take it out of park.

Haven't tried it on a steep hill but as long as the e-brake is holding the car properly I would imagine it would be the same behavior. Maybe your e-brake is slipping?

If I put the ebrake on after coming to a stop, then select Park, I am ok. Again, so long as I release the ebrake just prior to selecting D or R. Any other sequence produces the pop/clunk. So I don't think it is the ebrake slipping.

Ok, that settles it. I am taking my car to a dealer to check it out. Thanks!
 
Any auto-trans car will do this if you set park, release the foot brake and let the car lean all its weight against the parking pawl in the transmission before you set the parking brake. The parking pawl is a pin that inserts into a gear and keeps the gear from turning and the car from rolling down the hill. Its all in tension, and you have to pull hard to pull the pin out of the gear and it releases with a pop.

Set the parking brake before you put the car in park, or at least before you take your foot off the brake and you won't bind it all up with the car's weight leaning against the parking pawl.
 
Not really, not like our etron. Have driven many automatics, never one that binds and pops like this. Never one this sensitive. One poster talked about locking, which I think ours could.

We are taking it to the dealership in the next few weeks. We'll see.
 
I have noticed this 'pop' a handful of times as well. Until it was mentioned here I didnt think too much of it, I'm pretty sure it has happened on a flat surface of my driveway as well. Definitely weird, but fairly rare in my experience (over 8 months).

Ian
 
If you set the parking brake before you release the brake pedal, then release parking just before putting it in gear, its fine. Get the order wrong, especially on the slightest grade, it's gonna pop. And no, not all automatic transmission cars do this as dramatically.
 
I wonder if other dual clutch transmissions might do this? I think I experienced this once, on a pretty good grade. Since that time, I've never messed up the order of operation of the brakes.
 
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