2010 Audi S5 Transmission and drivetrain Problems

“When driving in hot weather, on a busy boulevard, coming to a red light, as automatic transmission shifts down to first gear, car lurches forward with a strong bang in the transmission. Almost hit pedestrians in the crosswalk. If I was not heavy on the brake pedal there would no doubt have been injuries. This is not an isolated incident. It has happened many times and without warning. Audi service tells me it is the mechatronic unit in the transmission malfunctioning when it gets hot. Needs to be replaced. …”

“After driving in stop and go driving for a period of time the transmission starts to act up. When coming to a complete stop the car will shift down into first gear after the stop and cause the car to leap forward. I have almost rear ended several cars as a result of this. It is a well know problem with the Audi s-tronic transmissions found in the Audi S5 cabriolet and the Audi s4 models. The oil in the mechatronics unit heats up and causes problems with the circuitry which causes the issue. I have already had it in once for a software update to the tune of 800 dollars which did nothing. …”

“A gearbox malfunction intermittently occurs, leaving the car in a non-moving state. When this issue occurs, an attempt to start the vehicle from a dead stop will move the vehicle only enough to get you into traffic and potentially get broadsided or rear-ended. The car simply stops moving right when you need it to move in order to merge into traffic. It will not move but remains running and in gear. I've spent over $3000 dollars to fix the issue (replaced mechatronic unit and battery) but the error still occurs. …”

“Car started of going on limp mode about once a month then it started to get more frequent. Limp mode was supposed to be designed to put your car into a lower gear to protect the transmission, but instead of doing that the car would shift itself into neutral position while on the freeway causing me not have a full control of the car making it very dangerous to pull over. As soon as I turn off the car and turn it on the car would run normal again. While driving on the freeway it will go off on limp mode into the neutral without warning. …”

“While driving in traffic the car will lose power without warning. Which makes it very dangerous to pull over almost hitting upcoming traffic with no acceleration. Audi says it's a mechatronic unit.”