PREVENTION of CVT INADVERTENT ROLLING

The Audi Multitronic CVT allows the car to roll down hill when the brake is released and the accelerator has not yet been depressed enough to engage the CVT transmission. In effect, it acts as if it is a manual transmission in neutral. If the car is on an incline whose downward direction is opposed to the direction selected by the driver, the car can roll in that opposite direction. A driver who is familiar with the CVT is able to handle this situation by making sure that the accelerator is appropriately depressed to quickly engage the CVT or the driver can use the electronic parking brake to prevent any rolling when on a slope; If the driver’s seatbelt is connected, the electronic parking brake will automatically release when the accelerator is depressed.

But there is still a problem if the car is being driven by anyone not knowledgeable about the behavior of the Audi CVT. Last year, it cost $655, plus $115 for rental car expenses, to repair and repaint the front bumper on my 2010 A4 p+ fwd which was damaged when it was valet parked and subsequently retrieved by attendants at a hotel garage that had inclined parking spaces.

There are reports of other similar incidents and close calls for other Audis with the CVT transmission posted on various forums on the internet. If the Audi Multitronic CVT is ”performing as designed” then the Audi designers did not fully embody the company ethos of “progress through technology” in this instance. A transmission should only act as if it is in neutral if the driver has selected neutral on the gear shift.

There are other Audi models that have an Audi Hill Hold Assist safety feature which is described as follows:
"Audi hill hold assist helps the driver perform a hill start. When the foot brake is pressed for some time when stationary, the braking pressure that has been built up is retained momentarily after the foot brake is released. Thanks to this automatic brake intervention, the system makes it easier to perform a hill start without rolling backwards."

Audi has not made this feature available on the A4 platform. When I discussed this with Audi Owner Customer Relations they said that there are no current plans to offer this feature on the A4. Because this is already used on other models, it should be easily implementable on this model. If you think that this feature should be added to the A4 platform, please submit an email using the following link under subject “Other”:
https://secure-www.audi.com/us/brand...formlayer.html
or contact them at 1-800-822-2834.

If enough of us request this functionality, maybe Audi will decide that they should offer this as a TSB or as a low cost enhancement.

 

I would just add that even if a driver does know how to handle the car properly, they still can't always prevent the car from rolling in an unintended direction.

I always use the parking break trick to get the car to startup without rolling, but sometimes the transmission has still not engaged when the break automatically releases and the car still rolls the wrong way. On my A5, whether I press the accelerator or not, the transmission has a delay before it engages. Very unnerving. It's a miracle I haven't hit the wall in my parking garage yet, where I park on a slight grade.