Sport Mode Enabled on 01 S8

[PaulW]

I have the first year of a facelift S8 in the states, 2001, which I think is equal to a 2000 in the rest of the world. It still had the shfiter positions PRND432, not PRNDS.

I purchased a transmission control unit from an 02 S8 and installed it in my car.....and now have sport! It's awesome! The 02's and 03's in the states came with sport, the 01's did not....

Here is the link to the audiworld thread with a lot more pictures and discussion.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/147177.phtml

[IT_S8]

Nice mod. I had thought it would be as simple an ECU mod as I've two S8's, one with factory 'S' and one without....

As you say - The 'S' mode really does make a difference to the drive, and interestingly in the UK we also got the sport option > 2001 so most people probably enjoy it without realising, and everyone else probably doesn't know it was available on later cars..

Also, with the 2002 upgrade, you should be able to use the tiptronic buttons on the steering wheel without having to shift into tiptronic first, then it will fall back into S or D if you dont change gear for about 10/15 secs or if you stop driving hard....

[Duffy3074]

That's interesting, I didn't know about that!

Another thing for the shopping list for me Paul!

[PaulW]

I just went out and tried to recode my ECU to rest of world S8, but the module would not take it. Then I tried to recode it to any of the A8 settings, it would not take it.

It would only take USA/Canada S8 codes, either pre or post 01 settings....and in either setting sport mode is enabled, but the tip does not work unless the shifter is in tip.

So I would make sure you get a TCU out of a A8 or S8 depending on what you have.....someone just bought a A8 TCU today for his S8, we'll see in the next day or so if it works.....now I think it won't.