IT_S8 Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Theres a long story behind this, which I'll shorten significantly. For a long time we've had an A8 which never kicked down, no matter how hard you hoofed it. It numbed performance somewhat, but good for the mpg... Since the 99 facelift, kickdown is activated by a physical button underneath the go pedal. We got a 52 plate S8 in last week - also no kickdown. In the process of trying to figure out how to remove the switch, we discovered it turns. 1/4 turn clockwise turns the switch on, 1/4 turn anti clock turns it off. You can hear the difference just pushing the button whether a switch is activated or not. No idea if this is by design, and cant begin to think why a modern car would have this 'feature' but if we've got 2 cars here with it switched off, I wonder how many other owners have never unleashed the full fury... If you want to know if kick down is working: Drive along in tiptronic mode, set to 5th for example and hoof it. Only kickdown (or pending engine stall) will move tiptronic out of 5th, so if it doesnt move, check your switch and welcome to the cheapest performance mod ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Does this mean, you might have bought an A8/S8 with 'duff gearbox' when all along, it has been fine? Might be worth looking through some A8's to find those with the kickdown problem with people just trying to get rid......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie61 Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Might be worth looking through some A8's to find those with the kickdown problem with people just trying to get rid......... [/ QUOTE ] how would you know though, try and get a sneaky test drive on your own, if I was selling my car for buttons and sone guy fiddled under the dash and fixed it he'd be driving home in what he came in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 If it changes gear smoothly into all gears and goes into reverse without an issue, then it might be worth a punt....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ant Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 [ QUOTE ] Drive along in tiptronic mode, set to 5th for example and hoof it. Only kickdown (or pending engine stall) will move tiptronic out of 5th, so if it doesnt move, check your switch and welcome to the cheapest performance mod ever [/ QUOTE ] would this also apply to a 97 ? do >99 have a physical switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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