Loading up the transmission parking on a grade

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SFkjeld

Active member
Joined
Dec 26, 2016
Messages
43
We have found that stopping our eTron on a downhill grade, you must be careful about how you shut off and restart the car. If you allow the transmission to hold the car in Park for even a second, instead of the parking brakes, you are in for a nasty restart. Because when you try to take the car out of Park again, you will get a nasty clunk from the transmission. A clunk that cannot be good for the car. We've found you need to stand on the brakes once you've come to rest of the hill. Remain on the brakes will you move the trans to Park then set the Parking brake. Then you can get off the brakes. When you are ready to leave next, again get on the brakes. Start the car, pull the shifter out of Park and free the parking brake. Should be smooth.
 
I guess. I have owned a few (not many) auto trans cars, but never one this dramatic in this regard. The pop when it releases the trans in loud and shuddering to the car. I do not believe it is this bad in other cars, tho can't imagine why it would be.
 
Fraktl":3u124v5l said:
I think this is good advice for any car, not just an e-tron.
Yeah, I never rely on the transmission to hold the car. Not good for any transmission.
 
It's actually not a question of relying on the transmission. I don't think anyone does. It is about the method of turning off the car. If on a grade, if you let up on the foot brake during the process of turning off the car or restarting it, then you will be greeted by this enormous thunk. A thunk that has got to be taking its toll on the transmission.
 
I completely agree with rfortson. I've made it a habit to always engage the e-brakes.
It's all in the sequence of actions that the driver does.
When parking, I shift to P and engage the e-brake before releasing the (foot) brakes.
When I'm ready to drive off, foot's firmly on brakes, release the e-brake and shift to D.
 
I believe this may be (somewhat) characteristic of many dual-clutch automatic transmissions, not limited to just our e-trons.
 
I find the following works well for me:

1) With foot brake pressed, put car into neutral
2) Set parking brake
3) Slowly release foot brake, letting the parking brake take hold (the car may slightly move, allowing the parking brakes to take the full load)
4) Press foot brake, shift into Park

This allows that parking brake the opportunity to completely take the load before shifting into Park.
 
Remember when e-brakes were called parking brakes? And manual transmissions were called standards?

You are feeling the engagement of the parking pawl. In regular transmissions, a spring releases the parking pawl which has a tooth that slots into a notch on a metal ring that is connected to the transmission output shaft. A dual clutch transmission has two shafts that mechanically connect to the output shaft. I have seen a grand total of one DCT disassembled (from a race prepped M5). In the one I saw the parking pawl engaged a small lock wheel attached to the 3rd and 4th gear shaft instead of a larger ring on the output shaft. Assuming this is true for Audi, a smaller lock wheel means greater gear ratio, which means the vehicle will roll more before the tooth locks into the notch compared to a non-DTC. So it may be that you are used to regular transmissions and everything is working fine.

That said, if your car is rolling more than a few inches you may have a damaged pawl. You would want that looked at under warranty if possible because DTCs are a pain (read: expensive) to take apart.

If you typically park on an incline you should put the brake on before you shift into park.
 
hangtime10":2qxyocv9 said:
I completely agree with rfortson. I've made it a habit to always engage the e-brakes.
It's all in the sequence of actions that the driver does.
When parking, I shift to P and engage the e-brake before releasing the (foot) brakes.
When I'm ready to drive off, foot's firmly on brakes, release the e-brake and shift to D.


Isn't this what they teach in driving school....?
 
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