Audi S4 Avant: PH Fleet
The Sport Differential in 'our' S4's is broken... or is it?
Read our full Audi S4 Avant (2017) review
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.
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.
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?
Got this sports differential fitted to mine (Love it too!) but a not a single dealer can tell me what the service interval is on it
I've had everything from -
18,000 2 years - No that's the engine
You mean the gearbox? - No
Its sealed for life like the gearbox - no it's not
to....
you don't have that fitted to your car because it's not an RS - **head butts wall in frustration**
The joys of un educated service people
After that I wanted to save some company car tax and I've got an A5 with plenty of bells and whistles. It drives okay but the best thing about it is the tech. Drives itself on the motorway and the system is very competent. Comfy seats (I'm getting old, clearly) virtual dials, loads of cool stuff.
I've got a hankering for something more exciting so probably going to build a track car soon and then when the A5 is up for replacing I'll probably go for another S model or finances permitting an RS/AMG/M. One things for sure, they are well engineered and sometimes cars have issues, that's part of life it's how well your dealer looks after you that matters.
Got this sports differential fitted to mine (Love it too!) but a not a single dealer can tell me what the service interval is on it
I've had everything from -
18,000 2 years - No that's the engine
You mean the gearbox? - No
Its sealed for life like the gearbox - no it's not
to....
you don't have that fitted to your car because it's not an RS - **head butts wall in frustration**
The joys of un educated service people
Got this sports differential fitted to mine (Love it too!) but a not a single dealer can tell me what the service interval is on it
I've had everything from -
18,000 2 years - No that's the engine
You mean the gearbox? - No
Its sealed for life like the gearbox - no it's not
to....
you don't have that fitted to your car because it's not an RS - **head butts wall in frustration**
The joys of un educated service people
Will check some Indy specialists and see what they estimate time wise as well as could be easier to chuck it at one of those, there's also the discrepancy between ZF and Audi over the box also so may get that done before I hit 50K
In other news the car is now back from Audi with no warning lights illuminated. They report having investigated the fault and not discovering anything; I'll take it from that it was a fault code and they've cleared it and all is good. I will of course report back if that changes. And have a quick look under the car to see if there's any suspiciously clean or fresh looking components underneath. Y'know, like a new diff casing or anything like that!
Cheers,
Dan
presumably it's not beyond the real of possibility for a s4 owner to do the occasional track/airfield day.. would that have invalidated your warranty?
It's not impossible but i can guarantee that the assumption is there because it's specifically a performance variant. I'm not sure many owners would readily admit to doing track work, whether it was in fact the case or not. They'd probably struggle to identify where and how it's been used.
However I have never experienced steering so absolutely disconnected from the car and road. It was truly awful.
I was looking for a daily hack not a car to have fun in as such but the steering was just so poor that I knew that it wasn't for me and frankly can't see how anybody could put up with it.
A real shame because I liked the look of the car and the interior.
The car isn't as enjoyable as I would imagine it would be with it, but at effectively a 12% on cost to the lease it wasn't viable for me and I still think its a good car.
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