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525D autobox software

I have one of these, May 2004, one of the first and I have never been impressed with the settings controling the gear changes. For such a torquey engine it holds the lower gears much too long often making it feeling undergeared. I have asked the local dealer a number of times if there is a reprogram available but they don't seem to know what I am talking about!

The car was in recently for attention to another (engine) fault and I was loaned a 525i. Its speeds for change (up or down) bore no relation to my car. I use mine very often in 'manual' just to get into higher gears but this other car was fine and when I tried it in manual it was much slower to drop to a lower gear.

Fuel economy is poor for a diesel, it gets the same to the gallon as my previous petrol A6.

Anyone any info?

Thanks

Syd

Reply to
sydspence
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I thought this too on the only (earlier) E39 diesel I've driven. My guess was that it's to prevent torque convertor overheating - and possibly for economy, given that if the engine is constantly running in the area where the TC is working hard, all that wasted heat has to come from somewhere.

The one I drove wasn't a steptronic. But on my petrol steptronic, you can't persuade it to stay in a higher gear than it would in auto anyway at low speeds.

Was that an auto or manual? But anyway, that surprises me.

FWIW, I think the real way forward with diesel autos would be to have no torque convertor. So a form of SMG. When BMW get round to adopting the Audi twin clutch system to give changes near as smooth as a 'conventional' auto.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

A little off-topic........but I love the Audi DSG tranny in my TT. I have a "real" manual when I want it. And, for traffic jams or when I'm just feeling a bit lazy, I have a silky-smooth autobox at my disposal.

Rob

Reply to
+ Rob +

Yes - I was impressed by the one I tried. Do Audi offer it on a diesel?

The good news is that the BMW SMG will adopt the twin clutch system in a couple of years.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Thanks for the replies but I'm still left wondering if new software is available or possible to reset the gearchange points.

I hope its not set like this because its a diesel, sort of defeats the benefit of all that torque.

The fuel comparison with my previous A6 is even more odd because when I had it I used it mainly for going to my city centre office, about

15minutes of nose to tail. Since I've had the BMW I have 5 minutes of suburban driving and then 15 miles or so of 50-60 mph driving!

The second A6 I had was a 1.8T and I would have expected the smaller engine in a largish car to be quite thirsty but not so. The Audi auto box is apparently just about the best in the world and actually gives better acceleratiion and mpg than the manual.

Syd

Reply to
sydspence

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