ADS - Pros vs Cons?

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

I received my 2010 Audi S6 on Monday, and of course I went straight towards checking out every feature of the car and religiously reading the owner’s manual to gain more insight on all of these gadgets. But from reviewing the manual and messing with the features and being an avid lurker for AR’s S6 C6 platform, something wasn’t adding up - no Audi Drive Select (ADS).

So I’ve been googling different phrases to get a grip on first what ADS is and if it’s an option on our S6s. Thus far I’ve found out that our cars don’t have true ADS, but the MMI can be hacked and modified to support such a feature to some capacity. Is there any cons to modifying our cars to have auto, dynamic or comfort settings? What are the benefits? Does this impact Sport mode in the transmission at all given that this “hack” isn’t the true ADS offer in C7+ models?

I’m just curious, and hopefully this isn’t a moronic question.

I also found a how-to picture guide on it for a S4 through AW forums.

#2

What are the benefits?*

#3

ben.e.fits*

haha, this forum erases that three-letter “n, e, & f” combination for some reason.

Anyways, I’m not really sure what having a faux ADS setting would really bring to the table. Launch control would be neat, but our transmissions don’t support it anyways, so it wouldn’t work. Otherwise, the two C6 drive modes (regular and Sport) work pretty well, especially after a JHM TCU tune. I’ve never really cared that I didn’t have ADS.

#4

After looking at it more closely, it looks like those modes are essentially what ADS is if the vehicle doesn’t have ADS already. Unless you want to change out parts, add others and create a Frankenstein Audi! :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

Pretty sure that ADS was meant for the B8 and newer cars. I had to deal with it a lot on the full ADS package B8 cars with the adaptive suspension and steering. A lot of people used to joke that just getting the rear sports diff package on a B8 car was the ADS lite version.

The different modes Comfort, Auto, Dynamic, and Individual change how the car drives. In my experience the B8 cars that didn’t come with ADS normally only were able to change how the engine and transmission operated after the car was reprogrammed to have the options. In Comfort mode the engine and transmission were really lazy and smooth for cruising, Dynamic mode was supported to feel more sporty with quicker upshifts/hard downshifts and a more aggressive throttle response, Auto mode was in between Comfort and Dynamic modes along with being the default setting usually, and finally Individual mode was there to let you select your personal preference between the different settings. Individual mode was great when cars came with ADS originally because I would set the steering and suspension to Comfort mode and then the engine, transmission, and rear sports diff to Dynamic mode for an easy, smooth, and fast drive.

#6

Ya I would say, based on Jimmy’s description above, that the D mode is the equivalent of ADS “Auto” mode (slightly sluggish shifting and throttle), and the S mode is the equivalent of ADS “Dynamic” mode (hard shifts, aggressive throttle response, higher revs). So all you’re really missing are the “Comfort” mode (who cares), the Individual mode that lets you pick and choose aspects from the other modes, and of course Launch Control (which is a feature in the ADS Dynamic mode).

Launch Control, by the way, is the main reason why the C7 has about a 2-second 0-60mph advantage over the C6, even with comparable curb weight and horsepower. It mimics the results you’d get if you “dump the clutch” with a manual transmission, and if I remember correctly, Audi doesn’t recommend doing it more than a few dozen times during the life of the car. At any rate, our ZF transmissions aren’t physically capable of it, something to do with the pressure plates or something (Justincredible talked about that somewhere a couple years ago)