2018 Audi Allroad

[MiniDave]

As the title suggests, I've added a new car to my stable - a 2018 Audi Allroad. My 2009 Clubman was getting quite a few miles on it and was in need of some fairly serious money spent on it if I were to keep it "forever", I decided that a newer car might be a better investment.

We have a 2014 Allroad that we've owned for 4 years now and have had zero issues, problems or things needing to be fixed - can't ask for much more than that. We bought it in July of 2020, just as the pandemic was getting going and before everything in the automobile marketplace went crazy. It had 70K on it and 4 years later has just turned over 80K.....no she doesn't drive much and most of the rest of the miles we put on our cars are in my MINI/Minis. The 2014 era Audi cars don't have a stellar reputation in terms of reliability, but we owned a 2004 Allroad, which most pundits claim as the worst car ever made, and ours was mostly trouble free- I did have to replace one of the air suspension bags - 6 times! - but that's because I believed the "buy American" hype and replaced the OEM one with one made in Florida. To their credit they honored their lifetime warranty and sent me new ones each time one failed, but it got old replacing them. Anyway, we've had good luck with our Audis.

So......with all that said, Rose found this one at a local Ford dealership, we drove out to see it, liked it and the next day I traded the MINI and a big check for it and drove it home.

It's a one owner, 2018 with 14,500 miles on it. Yep, I verified the mileage with Audi before I bought it, and it checked out - all the services were done by Audi, and it's had three so far - 10, 20 and 30K majors with oil changes at 5k intervals in between. They traded it on a big Ford diesel dually pickup.....must have horses or an RV to haul. The Audi was an extra car that sat at their vacation home, hence the low miles and absolutely clean condition.

I'm planning to use this thread to document all the incredible amount of tech on this car, most of which I haven't figure out how to use!

Teaser Photo.....

[94touring]

Have you figured out the tow lights yet?

[MiniDave]

There are some interesting differences between this car and our 2014, both have the 2.0L 4 cyl turbo motor, but the 2018 has 252hp and 275 torques, vs the 2014 at 220/250.

The 2014 has an 8 speed automatic gearbox, the 2018 has a 7 speed dual clutch gearbox - and there def is a difference in how it works and feels - I'm not sure yet which I like better. The 8 speed is super smooth and efficient - we've seen as high as 30 mpg on long trips with it. The 2018 is rated for 3 more MPG, some of which is due to the gearbox and some due to high tech - such as stop/start - which I don't like. The problem is you have to shut it off manually with the switch every time you cycle the key (start the car). I'm looking into whether I can turn this off permanently with the VAGCOM or not.

The 7 speed dual clutch - for those who don't know or haven't driven one -  is actually a manual gearbox with a hydraulically operated clutch, so no clutch pedal, but very definitely a manual gearbox, and depending on how you drive it, can snap off really quick gearchanges or be so smooth you can't even feel it. It also has a set of flappy paddles and a manual mode, along with an "S" mode. When you pull away from a stop it feels very much like someone letting out the clutch, tho it's super smooth and never bogs down. The engine makes boost just off idle but pulls strongly all the way to the 6700 limit, so it's very easy to drive, but sometimes the rising boost catches me unaware and it accelerates harder than I want it too - the 2014 can do this too. Depending on how you drive it, you can feel the shifts as you go up thru the gears, or if you're real easy on the go pedal, you almost can't tell that it shifted. One other thing I'm still getting used to is that when driving around town it upshifts till it's only turning 1200 PRM or so. At idle at a light or in park you can't hear or feel the engine running and it's quite a bit smoother and quieter than the 2014 which is a little growly.

The 2014 has a normal shifter, but the 2018 has the goofy electronic shifter style knob, similar to a BMW. It's ok once you figure it out, but switching back and forth you do have to stop and think first....it'll be ok once I've had it a while. This car also has Audi's MMI (Multi Media Interface) which is fairly easy to use also once you learn what all the buttons do - and it has one more party trick - the top flat surface of the knob is also a sort of writing tablet, that lets you enter numbers and letters by drawing on top of it.

[MiniDave]

Have you figured out the tow lights yet?

Not yet, been too damn hot outside to work on them, but I have the PWM box, so I'm halfway there!

[MiniDave]

So I need to wire in some trailer lights for the upcoming trip to MMEMW this July, the wiring in the Audi is very complicated, not just because it's multiplex coding but it also ties into all the other systems, like the backup camera, park distance sensors, the sensor under the car that opens the deck lid and on and on.....

So, while I have a multiplexing box, tying it into the car's wiring harness is proving to be very complicated. But as always, getting onto the right forum provides the answers in the form of a very cool device to integrate the trailer lights without even tapping into the vehicle wiring. The module has 4 sensors that you put the intact wire into and it reads the voltage by induction. The control module learns which voltage does what and feeds the correct signal to the trailer lights. It's a little spendy - around $200 - but not clipping any of the car's wires means I don't have to program anything. Slick.

I have one on order now, should be here in plenty of time to get it installed in the car before the trip.

https://www.tekonsha.com/product/119251_zero-contact-universal-modulite

[MiniDave]

We drove the silver Audi to dinner tonight, and Rose was reading the manual and trying several of the various goodies to see how to work things, here's tonight's discoveries.

First, she was disappointed to find that it does not have a heated steering wheel - not that we drive that much when its super cold out, but she was looking forward to trying it. We have heated seats front and rear, heated windshield and headlight squirters, and heated mirrors but no heated steering wheel.

Next, we found that the car can recognize traffic signs, like speed limits and such. Why I need this ability I don't know yet but there it is. It did something interesting tho, as I was going down a long hill my speed crept up and at some point a  little green lite came on - a foot pushing on the brake pedal. We guess it was because I was more than 20 mph over the speed limit. Didn't make any beeps or buzzes but I did notice it.

Things it does NOT have - and I'm grateful about - the lane warning thing, where it nudges the steering wheel if you drift to close to the line. Doesn't have the speed sensitive cruise control where it watches how close you get to the car in front and changes your cruise setting to match. I hate that!

Does have little beeps if you're too close to a wall or another parked car - adjustable no less - in front and of course the beepers for when you're backing up, along with a really clear back up camera.

In the pic below you can see a row of buttons (with plenty of them blanks too)....the left button (Drive Select) changes the suspension settings. Choices are Offroad, Auto, Comfort, Dynamic, and Individual. I haven't tried offroad yet, but like Goldilocks, I found Comfort a little too soft, Auto seems just right for most driving, Dynamic not only stiffens things up but also changes the responsiveness of the steering, shifting, brakes and accelerator. Individual allows you to change all of these parameters to your own settings.

The next button (with the red light on) turns off the start/stop feature.

Next one turns off the skid control

Next one puts up a menu to change the park distances and how loud it beeps.

Next one is hill descent control - not sure yet how that works as I haven't been offroading with it yet.

The last one turns off the display above the dash - where all the menus read out and the nav is.

In that pic you can also see the start button, a place to plug a USB in to charge a phone or play music, and a 12V socket. The white lines in the cupholders light up so you can find them at night and don't spill your drink trying to put it back in the holder at night! The little open book emblem between the cupholders? Those are all over the car - I guess to tell you to go read the manual to learn how to use your cupholders or other bits? Wait till I show you where the manual lives!

I got one bit of good news today, the dealer got the title, so tomorrow I can go pay the state their ransoms and get it registered and plated.

BTW, I've only scratched the surface of all the stuff it has!

[94touring]

"Things it does NOT have - and I'm grateful about - the lane warning thing, where it nudges the steering wheel if you drift to close to the line. Doesn't have the speed sensitive cruise control where it watches how close you get to the car in front and changes your cruise setting to match. I hate that!"


I've had some rental cars with these features and hated it!

[MiniDave]

So I got the Tekonsha device and I have it partially wired in - it requires a constant 12V supply so that it doesn't lose its memory. I've got that done and have the box mounted in the car, but I don't know which wires are for what function in the tail lights - rt turn, lt turn, brakes and running lights. I don't want to probe wires with my 12V deadlight as if they are multiplexed wires it could kill a computer.....I have a friend up at school where I used to teach and he said he can get the info for me tomorrow.

So I'm kinda stopped on this project, the only other thing I can do is start figuring out where to send the 4 wire plug out and mount it.

I found one other button, the one that turns off the rear view camera and distance warning beepers. I don't know yet if they'll activate with the car behind on the hitch or not, so that's an experiment I have yet to do too.