2016 Audi S6 Vlog: Launch Control Fail

June 21, 2016: Scary moment happened here while I was gathering footage of the Roc Euro.

I was in Dynamic/Sport mode, traction off, pushed the brake pedal as hard as I could, pushed the gas pedal well past the kick down point, let go of brake..launch and BAM!!! Loud noise and transmission seemed stuck. I reviewed the video a number of times and if you look close it went from S1 to D4 as if it skipped gears. It was really weird and scary. Freaked me out. I babied it for about a mile but everything was normal. Shifted fine after that. No codes, no errors, nothing. Drove for another 30 miles or so in all modes and no problems. I didn't however try launch control again. I am freaked out to try it and really don't want to push my luck.

I shut him down for the night and looked in the engine bay, under the car and no leaks, weird smells, no ticking, nothing. I suppose thats good news but WHAT THE HECK happened?

From what some people are telling me, the trans went into limp mode due to excessive wheel spin and if that's the case then it makes me feel better about it. I think next time I won't launch at such a high RPM. I think there is just too much torque.

[Cup_]

Yep, that's a failure to lock. It's not nearly as harmful to the trans as it feels and sounds. The transmission tried to lockup as per the programming for launch control, but probably sensed over torque and jumped to a higher gear to prevent damage. Since you were hardly moving, that higher gear was probably too high, and so it just left it in neutral instead. The readout will remain "in gear" even though its in neutral though as the readouts are usually based on what gear the transmission "wants" rather than what gear it truly is in.

[Pawan]

I have an S4 with the dual clutch, it's modified and stage 2, ecu and TCU tune. Mine does this occasionally too. I think the TCU is just trying to keep itself safe. I don't worry about it whenever it happens, I just shift it back into gear and go full throttle again.

[djpeak]

I would "like" the video but I just can't purely on what happened. Super scary, I would have definitely been nervous when pulling away. I'm glad all seems normal now. Probably just a safety thing.

[benlucas]

Just had APR stage 2 and the TCU Tune done today. This isn't very comforting to see! Glad everything is okay.

[rezenclowd]

Too much torque, too much weight, too much driveline mass...etc. The heavier they are the faster they fail.

[ChrisMajestic]

I was NOT expecting that. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the TCU tune.

[rakanysm]

Hey! Same thing happened to me ... it happened about a year ago .. mein is 2014 and had about 48000Km ( Live in Germany) .. and mein and non of any type Tuning!!! .. and its running pretty well now .. haven't had any issues yet .. even though I always drive Dynamic or Manuel and Wieldly !!

So I think it should be a Safty Thing .. Because Ive done 100s of Lauches after that and get normally between 4.2-4.5s from 0-100 km ..

[alexroyal]

I have heard that the S-tronic can't take the huge amount of torque. That is why Audi is putting the tip-tronic transmissions in the high torque cars such as the RS7.

[videoshistories]

How many launches were done before this happened? There are temperature control parameters that are set to prevent failure...

[georgeshamuel]

It's the transmission safety, sometimes it will tell you "transmission failure" and you just have to turn the car off and on so it will reset it self. Try not to launch it pass 4K rpm and you should be ok.

[TheToxicFPS]

Seems like you're having issues with gearbox. Go to Audi

[TomRopez]

oh dude crap city. did you fill your pants? sciblades probably right it should be some safety thing cutting in. makes a lot of noise. is the car OK apart from launch?

[MichealC]

Ok now that didn't look right. You did damage anything did you. That would not be cool.

[ccoddington]

I would have pooped a cookie. I can imagine your heart sinking. I would take it in to be safe.