Audi A3 E-tron Forum and Electric Vehicle News

After six months with the e-tron, I've had a pretty bumpy road with it - two week-long stays in the shop for different CEL codes, and now, a couple new problems have developed.

1) "Shudder" at low speeds. When the car is creeping (either in D or R) with no gas applied, it now has a tendency to shudder - the drivetrain sort of vibrates. Seems to be related to the EV side of it, not gas. Has progressively gotten worse over the past month or so, and I've booked another service appointment for them to check it out. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen consistently, so there's a good chance I'll be told they can't reproduce and send me on my way.

2) This is a weird one - I can't turn off the AC, seemingly. The light on the AC button turns on and off as it should, but even when off, I get the notice in MMI that air conditioning is reducing my range. Maybe a bug? Can't tell. Don't notice any difference in HVAC performance, temperature, or odor when the system is on or off, so it's very hard to know whether the AC is actually turning on and off as it should.

And here's an even weirder one (although it's so trivial, I don't actually consider it a problem): one time on a road trip, the blue lights on the two temperature dials both went out. No other lights were affected. Only happened once for about two hours. What makes it so strange to me is that it couldn't be that a single LED was defective or burnt out, because both dials were affected. But why in the world would those two blue lights be on a separate circuit from the rest of the lighting in that area of the console? Bizarre!

Hi Asa3,
the shudder issue I myself have experienced and read others on the board also have once in a while as well. It seems to happen as you describe, when creeping forward on EV mode. What I've found to be the key factor is the battery level being very low when this happens.
See if that is the same for you. I haven't heard anyone find a resolution, it is somewhat disconcerting when it happens, I just brake and start again..




Ian
2017 e-tron Technik

Yes I think you're right, it's only when the battery level is low. I will do some further testing on it this week...

I’ve also experienced the shuddering at low speeds and a very low or depleted charge. 2018 etron with 1800 miles on it. It’s pretty unnerving, and definitely not something I’d consider acceptable or normal. I can pretty reliably repro when the battery is depleted though, so I may have the dealer take a look when they’re installing the homelink that was missing from the car.

Same problem here. My etron will shudder while running in electric at low speeds (~ 10 mph and slower) when the battery is about half drained and below. I first noticed it when backing up and now when in rush hour traffic. Anyone brought theirs into the dealer for a diagnosis?

Yep, dealer essentially said, “this is normal. If enough people complain they might do something about it.”

Hi there, just got my a3 etron last week and so far been fairly happy with it except the shuddering issue as described and I wasn't even on low battery, I had about 50% of battery left in EV mode. Wondering if anyone has eventually gotten the issue fixed or this is still an unsolved issue?

Probably not, it seems to be the case that everyone will have to wait until Audi says something about it or find an actual long-standing solution. It is surprising to hear that your shudder problem starts even when you have about 50% of battery left, I wonder if it could be something more? Have you taken it in to get checked by any chance?

It happens during low speeds like someone mentioned <10mph. I have an appointment with the dealer tomorrow so hoping to get some answers and as it doesn't occur all the time I'm hoping I can replicate the problem when I am there.

I don't recall where I read it but I read that this is not uncommon with dual clutch transmissions. For those of us who have experience driving a manual transmission, it's similar to the shuddering when a manual clutch is not engaged properly and a dual clutch is essentially an automated manual. It also stated that it is the reason why the car rolls backwards on a hill. This is my first car with a dual clutch transmission so I have no other reference point but it made sense to me.