Have any Q5/SQ5 owners experienced a rattling "rat-a-tat-tat" vibration while under hard acceleration in low-traction situations ie. snow? We have some pretty deep snow and I was "enjoying" myself until I noticed this annoying vibration, seemingly coming from the brake pedal, but I'm not sure. I couldn't isolate it. I turned traction control off and it was still there. I'm wondering if this is just normal, but I never experienced anything similar in my '09 Q7. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Not sure, but this may have something to do with what I'm experiencing.

- found it on the Audi UK website

 

as stated above, it sounds completely like ESP kicking in the ABS.

 

Agreed. It only seems to be in pretty rough and deep snow. I guess it's doing me a favor by "helping", but I wish there was a way to disable it. Thanks for your response.

 

I would say abs as well. If I hit the gas around the corner the traction control cuts the throttle but if I am sliding laterally the abs kicks on one side to stabilize. That might be what it is.

If you're still worried just take it by the dealer to have someone go for a drive with you. I've had to take mine in twice I'm not afraid to admit.

 

After playing around for the last day, I am pretty confident the car is behaving the way it was designed. It is when the car is getting loose that I feel the vibration, and I'm also pretty sure it's just the ABS putting things "right". I was just a bit nervous since I was expecting the same type of performance as the Q7 I had previous to the SQ5. Eventhough, my 3.6 lacked the power, it was still pretty fun to blast through the snowy streets in. (So's the SQ5, of course!)

 

The brake pedal does give a lot of "feedback" when ABS kicks in on ice and snow, much more than on my older A4. I wondered if this was on purpose to "alert" the driver to unusual conditions. What setting did you put "drive select" on? Over the first few drives the manual says the SUV adapts to your driving style (breaking in period). I leave it on "dynamic" and found that the first few 100 km were more "harsh" (abrupt acceleration, relatively abrupt stops). Now much more smooth. Maybe I'm simply getting old.

 

I'm 100% confident the issue I thought I was having is just the ESP applying brakes to the wheel that is losing traction to push the torque to the wheels that have more grip. It's just such a more active system than on my 2009 Q7 that it threw me for a loop. I'm also pretty sure you can't fully turn the ESP off. It seems to kick in once you hit 30 or so km/h. I'm going to keep playing around with it in different settings, though.

 

Sounds good. I always thought the ESP felt like "power loss" combining action on the throttle in general and cutting power to 1 or some of the wheels when the sensor feels a discrepancy between the rotation you apply on the steering and the actual rotation of the car body, some measurement of loss of control. Very useful on the highway when you hit ice and/or do an emergency steering manoeuvre. I haven't felt it through the brake pedal ("rat-tat-tat") though as you describe. Apparently it can also selectively apply brakes, maybe go as far as activating ABS in snow/ice conditions? If I want to skid in the snow on purpose for fun I turn it off.