Hello,
New Audi Owner here 👋🏼
I bought my 2018 Audi Q5 last May, Im the 2nd owner. Its the first Audi I've ever owned.

A couple of months ago while driving in the rain (driving 60-65) I noticed that I would fishtail, almost like my car wanted to hydroplane. So I slowed down a bit more, I then switched lanes & the same thing happened. I originally thought that it was because I had never driven an SUV or an Audi before, I had my Scion TC for 10years & I never slid or fishtailed in it so I thought maybe I just don't know how to drive an SUV in the rain... BUT today my husband had to drive to Austin in the rain & he came back saying the same thing - the Q5 would fishtail/slide, he was driving about 70.
So now I know it isn't just my driving.
We bought new tires in October (Yokohama YK740 GTX) - So I don't think its the tires...but could it be? Or is there a button somewhere in the SUV that I'm supposed to push when I drive in the rain? Should I take my car in for service? Alignment or for what?

Thank you for any insight you can offer me!

 

At 60+ mph hitting 1-2” of puddled water can make any vehicle hydroplane. Its a horrible feeling and you dont want to be messing with the steering at the same time. Especially in highways that have truck ruts and crowned divides between lanes. Easy to get several inches in a long track. Same thing in winter with ice forming in there, but worse. I’ve felt In my 2018 Q5 what you are describing but no worse than other SUVs. I was driving on a very icy highway and the ditch was fulll of Jeep Cherokees. Their particular automated 4 wheel drive power control made them very susceptible I guess to not handling that specific weather condition. Weird. Perhaps yours hit a similar patch of non-traction/traction changes in a frequency that tuned into the traction control function of the Audi and caused it to misread the power/brake applications to the tires. Usually a good thing, but this time it may not have worked.

 

I have owned three Audis and all of them will slightly hydroplane when hitting water in road ruts. It's not comfortable but it is normal, and the ESP will keep the vehicle under control. Reducing speed in wet, snowy, icy conditions is wise. I also note you are in TX. The south has a lot of "black ice" from oil baking into the pavement and then rising to float during the first part of a rainstorm. I saw a car slide off the road into a bridge support in Dallas during a storm (I had sheltered under the bridge at the time because I was riding a motorcycle).