Thursday 8th June 2017

Audi S4 Avant: PH Fleet

The Sport Differential in 'our' S4's is broken... or is it?

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There was always a risk booking in a car so dominant in its wide-ranging competence for a long-term test. The S4 Avant is an interesting Audi, but in an understated way. Great ownership proposition. Potentially a bit dull to write about.

Read our full Audi S4 Avant (2017) review

Uh-oh...

Hence my perverse excitement at the strident alarm and bright yellow warning shouting "Sport Differential: fault. Please contact workshop." Something to write about beyond 'goes well, got a nice interior' and all that!

OK, if this had actually resulted in an expensive shower of metal parts in my wake along the M1, the rear axle locking up mid-corner or something similarly dramatic I may have been slightly less sanguine. As it was the bong bonged, the dashboard lit up yellow ... and not much else. No nasty noises or sensations, nothing in fact untoward at all, my assumption being that when there's a fault with a system like this the failsafe is to default to 'open' the clutches and leave it working as a conventional open differential. So, I continued to my destination and when I fired the car up for the return journey the warning had gone. The old 'IT solution' seemed to have worked, indeed.

Bong! Oh. No, it hadn't.

I used the S4 a couple of times in the following days with no return of the fault and the car driving as normal. But it was clear I was going to have to put a call in to Audi and get it looked at. "Has the car been on track?" was the reasonable question from them when I did so. No. Indeed, its main use has been typically S4 Avant-like duties as a fast family estate in the hands of James and me.

And it's all been going so well!

Both of us have enjoyed the extra dynamic verve the £1,200 optional Sport Differential brings to the S4, my memory taking me back to a surprisingly sideways demonstration of its abilities on a slithery little track in Majorca at the launch of the previous supercharged V6 version. It's no Mitsubishi Evo all of a sudden, but with the ability to manage the torque across the rear axle the S4 can do something about the traditional nose-heavy Audi dynamics if you're confident on the throttle. Indeed, when I spoke with the man from GKN who helped Ford calibrate the Drift Mode enabling Twinster system on the Focus RS he said he was running an S4 at the time and was impressed with the Sport Differential's scope.

In a previous report James described the Sport Differential as "an expensive tick on the options sheet but for the way it elevates the S4 from merely fast Audi into a genuinely involving driving machine it's worth every penny." I'd stand by that. When it's working. One response on Twitter was certainly interesting, @Cazooch saying "Had the same fault on our Audi S5, had to replace the whole diff."

We'll find out what Audi has to say on the matter once they've had a look at the car.

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FACT SHEET
Car: 2016 Audi S4 Avant
On fleet since: January 2017
Mileage: 7,976
List price new: £44,415 (As tested £49,770 comprising Misano Red paint for £645, Quattro sport with Sport Differential for £1,200, 19-inch diamond cut wheels for £550, Light and Vision pack for £750, Adaptive S Sport suspension with damping control for £900, Audi phonebox with wireless charging for £325 and on the road costs of £985)
Last month at a glance: Less Vorsprung due to potentially duff Technik - car currently in workshop

Previous reports:
Audi S4 arrives on the fleet
Audi S4: Review
Getting to grips with another AWD Avant
Hang on, an Audi with appeal beyond just the showroom?
What's the square route of S4?

[Ved]

At least the steering worked on yours! More than can be said for the one I'm rejecting They don't make them like they used to, if they did make them that way in the first place.

Edited by Ved on Thursday 8th June 12:09

[Ved]

W124 said:

It just felt overloaded with tech for absolutely no reason at all.

I found this in the brief few days I had with it. Very distracting but I have come from very low-tech cars. I think with time it'll settle and owners will find their favourite options to fiddle with. Having so many ways to do the same thing isn't particularly welcoming.

Edited by Ved on Thursday 8th June 14:21