[1.2 TDI ANY] Tiptronic mode not working

[A2_1.2TDI_RO]

Hi!

 We recently bought an Audi A2 1.2TDI 3L. The car drives fantastic. Everything works as it should.

We encountered a problem today, the tiptronic mode/manual mode is not working. It shows the gears 1,2,3,4,5 when selector is in manual/tiptronic, but when pushing it to + or - it not changes the gear. 

In Drive, cars drive flawless. For example if it is in 3rd gear and switching to manual/tiptronic, shows in the cluster that I am in 3rd  but also no change of gear, I have to switch it back to automatic mode.

Wait for your answer! I live in Romania and here there aren't that much 1.2tdi specialists. I write in english because I don't know german  . I post on this forum because the guys from uk don't have that many 3L, all of them being Left Hand Drive.

Thank you!

[Lupo_3L]

Dear Romanian A2 Driver,

 

In fact there haven’t been any 1.2 A2 exported to the uk, so it’s rather unlikely someone from there might help you out. 

The first thing to do is to check the transmissions fault codes.

Well known problem with high mileage is the failure of the microswitches that confirm the position of the gear lever.

It might also be possible, that the transmission settings procedure was not done properly i.e. the lever was not pulled to (-) all the way. 
If you have vcds you could check the microswitches of the gear lever as well as the lever potentiometer.

 

Best regards!

Bearbeitet 11. November 2020 von Lupo_3L

[janihani]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb A2_1.2TDI_RO:

It shows the gears 1,2,3,4,5 when selector is in manual/tiptronic

 

Then would be the switch F257, detect if the lever is in tiptronic mode or automatic mode, will working, otherwise the display won't switch the display.

 

It's a very good advice to buy a diagnose cable. It haven't be a expensive VCDS cable. You can buy a cheap "blue" cable, and work with VAG Com 409.

 

With a diagnostic cable you can check, if the switches, sensors ... working well, see Wiki.

[Martin]

What you could do is called "Grundeinstellung" in German, I don't know what the correct english term is. It's some kind of gearbox callibration program that checks and callibrates all the sensors.

One of the steps is that it records the max- and min sensor values of the lever in manual mode. You have to move the lever to the top position, wait for the step to complete, then move to the min position and wait again.

If you don't move the lever far enough, or release it too early, wrong sensor values will be recorded and the gearbox control unit will not correctly detect your lever movements in manual mode.

 

This Grundeinstellung can be executed with the diagnostic cable and VAG Com that @janihani mentioned.

 

There have been a few rare cases where the Grundeinstellung considered some sensor values to be totally inconsistent, aborted and thus rendered the car unusable until this faulty part was replaced (in my case it was the hydraulic gear mover). So you should be a bit wary executing the Grundeinstellung.

[janihani]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Martin:

called "Grundeinstellung" in German, I don't know what the correct english term is.

 

in english: basic settings

 

Short cut/acronym/abbreviation for GetriebeGrundEinstellung is GGE.

[A2_1.2TDI_RO]

Thank you friends!

A lot of good answers. I have a VCDS V2 cable, that I use for my other cars. I will do a scan on the car as soon as I arrive home (my mom have the a2) and I think too that one of the switches around the gear selector is dead. If so, can they be found in new condition still or I have to search them on scrap cars?

Have a good week-end!

[Lupo_3L]

They can be found new. Original they are from Burgess. Unfortunately I don’t have a spare part number. 
But these switches are built solid so you can open them and clean the contacts with sandpaper. 

[janihani]

 

[A2_1.2TDI_RO]

Hi! I came back with the results of the gear levier switches.

Here the car is in D, slightly low voltage. -works fine

Here the car is in tiptronic mode

Here the car is in tiptronic - (MINUS)

only 1V voltage and when in chaneel 16 on minus it still shows like it is on tiptronic middle, not plus or minus.

Here the car is in tiptronic + (PLUS)

it shows minus position(-  MINUS) T-MI (i think) and NOT T-PLUS like it shoud.

 

Can this be solved with a calibration of the gear levier? Thanks!

 

 

[Lupo_3L]

Could be also a broke cable of the gear recognition potentiometer. 
You can observe the value while bringing the lever from stop position to tip tronic position. It will decrease from around 4V to around 1V. 
should there be an immediate voltage drop to around 0,1V, the cable will be broken. 
Easy and cheap fix!

 

[A2_1.2TDI_RO]

46 minutes ago, Lupo_3L said:

Could be also a broke cable of the gear recognition potentiometer. 
You can observe the value while bringing the lever from stop position to tip tronic position. It will decrease from around 4V to around 1V. 
should there be an immediate voltage drop to around 0,1V, the cable will be broken. 
Easy and cheap fix!

 

Thanks! I've tried and it starts from around 4V in STOP to 1.02V in MINUS. I will see if there is this voltage drop that you are talking about but look what I write down here.

 

I have driven the car today so the news are: driving on D position, runs fine, no problem at all and then when moving the levier to tiptronic, drops one gear for example from 5th to 4th and when pushing the levier to +(UP) it downshifts instead of upshifts. When pulling to -(DOWN) it does nothing at all.

 

One more thing, it is just me or for the few first minutes at the first start of the day it needs more accelerator/gas to start moving, after it warms up a bit it start moving with very small amount of throttle. Is the hydraulic oil responsible for this? (Now in Romania being, 0 degrees Celsius)

 

[Lupo_3L]

Same here. When it’s very cold I sometimes need full throttle to get the car out oft the parking space while the engine won’t even turn much higher. After a few seconds, it acts normally. 
 

In case you don’t have that voltage drop it will be the Micro switch. 
You can easily open it, sandpaper the contacts and measures their function. 

Bearbeitet 19. Dezember 2020 von Lupo_3L