Cold weather Audi owners…shifter and belt issues?

[Montreal Ray]

Man, its been cold here in Montreal. I kinda enjoy winters here cause I do a lot of skiing, but man what a freaken week we’ve had! It’s been as cold as –28 C WITHOUT the wind chill. Today was the first mild day, -7. Yeah mild LOL

On to my car

When ever it goes below –5 C and I first start my car in the morning, the serpentine belt squeaks until it warms up. I took it to the dealer last month and they said the serp belt was done, they replaced it under warenty. I told them that I don’t think it’s the belt, If I were to guess Id say it’s a bad auto tensioner, sounds like the squeak is coming from the bearing.

Its not a big deal, but for the first 5 mins the car sounds like shit. Anyone else experience this?

Second cold weather problem is the shifter (manual). Like the belt, this problem goes away once the car is warm.

If it goes below –15 C I have to yank the thing out of gear with a LOT of force, it is completely frozen. I can not drive the car unless I let it warm up for 10-15 minutes. That’s one problem, the other shifter problem is 1st gear, this one take a lot longer to warm up. I need to drive 10-15 minutes or 1st gear is hard to engage.

This is my second A4, my first one was a 2000, never had these issues.

Thanks,
Ray

[{PMS}fishy]

Gear box turns into cement when it gets that cold. I have the similar issues. Just let it warm up, and drive easy until its fully up to temp.

[ataylor]

yeah I notice all of the same things, in the same conditions..and they all go away in the manner you described. Heading to dealership tomorrow to get the belts checked out/replaced under warranty now..

[Montreal Ray]

Gear box turns into cement when it gets that cold.

Wondering if the shiter bushings get water/humidity in tham and then freeze over?

[Cronogr]

Same problem with the shifter here if it's cold enough u need to use extra strength to change gears (1st is like frozen) but when the car warm up it's ok so i think it's normal the same happens to my b5, as for the timing belt never had an issue like this

[Montreal Ray]

yeah I notice all of the same things, in the same conditions..and they all go away in the manner you described. Heading to dealership tomorrow to get the belts checked out/replaced under warranty now..

Have them check the tensioner as well and let us know what they way

[Montreal Ray]

, as for the timing belt never had an issue like this

I was referring to the serpentine belt, the belt that runs the alternator and other accessories

[EMAXX]

I don't have the belt problem, but I do have the shifter problem. It scares me sometimes when I'm driving and I can't get 1st to engage, or if I can't even get the shifter to move. I've found that if you put it into second again, then bring it down to 1st, sometimes it's a little easier to engage. I just feel like one of these days, the shifter or something inside is going to break.

[Bmeister]

That's normal aging and more prone to happen when it's really cold. Serpentine belts that squeak when cold can be a sign the belt is in its last days or has been compromised by cleaning chemicals. Replace it yourself. It takes all of 15 minutes to replace a serpentine belt on the A4 2.0T, so I wouldn't let a dealer dirty up my car and waste a few hours of my day to do something that easy....even for free. Drive up some ramps, pop off the engine cover, pull on the tensioner, remove the old belt, feed in the new belt, release tensioner so it applies pressure and then start the car.

[BriAnders]

Same problem with the shifter here if it's cold enough u need to use extra strength to change gears (1st is like frozen) but when the car warm up it's ok... as for the timing belt never had an issue like this

same problem here, i think this is the third thread i've seen about the cold shift issues in the past month. i wonder if its an issue for all model years or if there's a certain year when maybe audi made some changes to the gearbox to take care of this?

[grizzles]

B7s really suck a fat one when it comes to cold weather. I don't have the belt issue but I have the frozen stick issue, the takes forever to start and makes your car look like junk issue, and the trunk doesn't close issue

[Bmeister]

same problem here, i think this is the third thread i've seen about the cold shift issues in the past month. i wonder if its an issue for all model years or if there's a certain year when maybe audi made some changes to the gearbox to take care of this?

This is not poking at you personally, so please take no offense to the following:

Whenever I read a comment like this I have to wonder if this is the first time some people have ever previously owned a car or at least one with a manual transmission? Grease, gear lube and oil and even fuel get thicker when colder and will eventually freeze to solids as you approach colder temperatures (i.e. absolute zero is -459F degrees and even gases solidify). As you may be aware, modern cars are built to better and tighter tolerances for longevity and this, combined with very cold temperatures, is what causes the shifter and transmission gears to be noticeably harder to engage.

I experienced this on cars from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc. from top tier marques such as Mercedes, Porsche, BMW all the way to the ordinary Chevrolet brand along with popular Asian marques too. This is one case where it is true and accurate to say "they all do that". With every manual transmission vehicle this (hard shifter, slow shift, grind, etc.) is what happens; it is physics. If you want a sloppy gear box that clatters all the time so you don't pull a tendon trying to shift it, then we'd see complaints of noisy transmissions that don't last long. To conclude, it isn't some "defect" that ONLY affects VW/Audi engineering that I see alluded to on many topics around here.

[BriAnders]

This is not poking at you personally, so please take no offense to the following:

Whenever I read a comment like this I have to wonder if this is the first time some people have ever previously owned a car or at least one with a manual transmission? Grease, gear lube and oil and even fuel get thicker when colder and will eventually freeze to solids as you approach colder temperatures (i.e. absolute zero is -459F degrees and even gases solidify). As you may be aware, modern cars are built to better and tighter tolerances for longevity and this, combined with very cold temperatures, is what causes the shifter and transmission gears to be noticeably harder to engage.

I experienced this on cars from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc. from top tier marques such as Mercedes, Porsche, BMW all the way to the ordinary Chevrolet brand along with popular Asian marques too. This is one case where it is true and accurate to say "they all do that". With every manual transmission vehicle this (hard shifter, slow shift, grind, etc.) is what happens; it is physics. If you want a sloppy gear box that clatters all the time so you don't pull a tendon trying to shift it, then we'd see complaints of noisy transmissions that don't last long. To conclude, it isn't some "defect" that ONLY affects VW/Audi engineering that I see alluded to on many topics around here.

prior to my Audi, i've driven a '85 Mustang GT, '94 & '02 Chevy Cavaliers, and a '94 Ford Taurus SHO... they all had manual transmissions and i never had this sort of problem with any of them (maybe on 1 or 2 occasions but never with this sort of regularity). granted, they are not as new as the A4, so they probably weren't anywhere near the same design tolerances. but my point is, they don't "all do that."

in one of the previous threads on this topic i wrote about the effects of thermal expansion and how that may affect shifting, so i know what you're talking about. my comment was more or less just pure speculation as to what i thought might possibly be a design flaw.

[Montreal Ray]

Thanks for the replies eveyone!

[BerinG]

I got the car in november and had the same belt squeak.. goes away after a few minutes. The shifter started sticking this last week for some reason. Its been very cold here for a while and i didn't have this problem last month or the beginning of this month with the same temperature. (-20*C). It first started when we got lots of snow (thick). I'm wondering if snow gets stuck under and melts/freezes.. wonder how "accessible" that area is.

Have never had this happen on any other manual car either.

Everything freezes on this car ;) ..bottom of rear window fills up with ice, left side of the wind shield builds up with water/ice and freezes (then to your wiper), windows stuck most of the time, hand brake just started too.. seems like theres lots of gaps for ice to build up

[aaron1085]

im looking into a B7...with a 6 spd. Do you guys leave your cars in first gear with or without the ebrake on overnight in the winter months? Of do you leave the car in nuetral with the ebrake on?

[BriAnders]

neutral with e-brake

[audi.a4]

i have noticed the belt squeak this winter also. I got the car in Oct and it didnt make the noise but as the weather got colder I started to notice it. I was planning on taking it to the dealer to check it out cause it actually annoys me. Is it covered under warranty?