Haldex failure thread

[Santisilver]

Another one here.

Audi S3 FL 2018.
48000 km


I’ve noticed some slight drone vibration at certain rpm last summer. Dealership said that it’s normal in these sport cars and it’s special differential. couldn’t believe what I heard from them. My car was not ok.
I moved to another place in the meantime and went to the closer dealership so that they can create a troubleshoot. Car is still under warranty.
2 weeks ago I’ve noticed with winter tires that car in second and third doesn’t have the same kick ass feeling and traction control light blinking as a Christmas tree. I Mamés on tires and cold weather.
Last week I switched to summer tires and same reactions in sunny and dry weather. Car is constantly loosing traction.
I decided to scan with OBD 11 and jackpot, fault code C111204, haldex clutch pump.

Sent an email to the dealer. If they don’t answer on Monday I will directly book a day for the service.

Attached video and photo

[900HP]

I just purchased a 2015 S3 with 63,000 miles on it and had no rear wheel engagement. Front wheel drive smokey burnouts (from both wheels) while entertaining do not really get you anywhere.

I was prepared for the worst........ differential replacement, control module replacement, and/or pump replacement.

However, after looking into it I found that whoever serviced the Haldex unit previously did so incorrectly. I was able to run the pump initialization procedure and it will now do a full launch in light rain with very little if any slip. Just a heads up to make sure your stuff is being serviced properly. I'm still going to change the Haldex fluid and clean the pump screen but I wanted to look into it first.

[17nano3]

I have a preowned 2017 A3 S-line w/ 43,300 miles, i put 2900 miles on it since i purchased it in July 2020. Car seemed to be driving/launching fine, i changed my Haldex fluid since i was going to do an IS38 turbo swap. There was metal in my fluid but my haldex pump filter was clean. I drove it some & then changed the fluid again (2x in 2 weeks), again had fine metallic flakes. Took into the dealer & at 1st they said all is working fine, i didnt dispute that but said fluid shouldnt have flakes mixed into it. They kept the car for another day to talk to Warranty person, long story short, they said they found damage during addition investigating. They replaced the Rear Differential, i believe the invoice called it a Power Drive Unit. Needless to say my stock warranty ends tomorrow, 4/13/21 and this was replaced last week. Very lucky for me we didnt do the Tune 1st.

[KeepItTidy]

1. How you discovered you had the issue :
im a previous s3 8P owner , i bought this S3 8v2 from a non audi dealer, and didnt drive it before buying. within 10km's after driving off the showroom i knew something was wrong. Major torque steer and the traction control light would not stop through 1 2 and 3

2. Mileage : 38,000km
3. Model year : 2018 s3 sedan
4. Any error codes : on a test drive with the technician, after the third hard acceleration the car gave a Haldex pump error
5. What was done to fix it, and was it under warranty? audi replaced the haldex pump and new oil under warranty.

car is as good as new!

[Jon B.]

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...ery-quot-noise

2018 RS 3, just under 40k. Getting replaced under warranty. Will post more about it tomorrow when I pick up. Right now they're telling me the Diff is essentially four-five weeks until available.

[MikTip]

Everyone needs to read this:

https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/sec...9473689/page-2

Dealerships putting in the wrong oils....

[sleepingSG]

I’m totally lost.

Have a new rear diff. The awd was working and then BANG. A grinding noise when I acclerated. Now i have a broken ‘coupling’ if someone kind. Dealer replaced it.

Still no AWD! Fwd as ever. What could possibly be the issue now. The crank shaft is turning for sure. Video and grinding sound confirms that. But still all new rear end and no AWD!


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[sleepingSG]

Oops


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[MikTip]

I’m totally lost.

Have a new rear diff. The awd was working and then BANG. A grinding noise when I acclerated. Now i have a broken ‘coupling’ if someone kind. Dealer replaced it.

Still no AWD! Fwd as ever. What could possibly be the issue now. The crank shaft is turning for sure. Video and grinding sound confirms that. But still all new rear end and no AWD!


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Dealer replaced and its still broke? The dealer missed something....

Take it to a different shop or get pissed off at the dealership service manager

[aviator355]

Just had my second Haldex pump failure on my 2015 Audi S3.

1. How you discovered you had the issue: Both times I started getting wheel hop, torque steer and one major front wheel drive burnout when trying a launch. Second failure was after I tuned Stage 1, much easier to induce wheel hop with the extra torque.
2. Mileage: First at 20,000 miles, second at 42,000 miles
3. Model year: 2015
4. Any error codes: 16670 – All-Wheel Drive – C1113 07 [008] – Mechanical Failure
5. What was done to fix it, and was it under warranty? First failure fixed under warranty, second by an independent Euro shop. I bought the replacement pump from Urotuning and had the shop install it, making sure to follow the install steps outlined in:

https://www.haldexrepairs.co.uk/gene...-repair-guide/

The shop hadn’t used the trick of blowing out the Haldex system with compressed air through the fill port before, I asked them to and they reported quite a bit of grey fluid came out. They’ll use that trick from now on.

I am now back to normal, thankfully no transfer case or rear diff issues.

[sleepingSG]

Dealer replaced and its still broke? The dealer missed something....

Take it to a different shop or get pissed off at the dealership service manager

I’m out. Switched to the S6 4.0 V8tt.

Proper Quattro is amazing I doubt I’ll return to hAWD. I sadly can’t even tell you if the Haldex is as good as Quattro since it never worked.

But actually i enjoyed the light weight car for what it was. Still fast as a Caymen and I have track time to show it.

The main reason I left aside from the never ending issue with the Haldex was the lack of LSD. The engine being all front of the front axle was a bummer but manageable.

Too bad. An A3 range size 4 door car with a proper Quattro and read sport diff would be so great. But it’s not meant to be as the A3 will have one more generation in 2026 before going electric.

The S6 is heavy but damn if isn’t nice and the torque is massive and instant.


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[type911]

2016 S3 63k miles rear end only engages to 20% so spin city with any hard acceleration from stand still. Dealer replaced pump and serviced haldex. they say all is fine. all wheels turn on the lift. Yet under any hard acceleration, it doesn't engage more than 20% via datalog using obd11. Dealer still says its working as it should. I'm done with them. drives the same as it did before they replaced the pump. Taking it to an indie shop to see if they can figure it out.

[n0ferz]

Hey guys,

I found the fix on this thread and this is why I am telling my story to try to help all those with this issue before buying any parts!!!

Story below:

I bought a 2016 S3 in May this year with a little over 46k Kms (~28,750miles). The PO did an oil and haldex fluid change at Audi before selling it to me and I have been using the car as a daily all this time with no issues at all.

I upgraded it to APR stage 1 (ECU & TCU) and everything looked fine for some time and LC was working properly and the car ran a lot faster at 1/4mile and you know, more power more fun!!!

I noticed that the rear was not engaging when I deciced to use LC a few weeks ago and thought that it was caused by the tires (they needed replacement). I started reading as well about the haldex failure and decided to check the filter since Audi doesn't clean it according to the stories posted online and noticed that the filter was not that clogged or dirty but did clean it some more and added new fluid. Still no AWD after that. Replaced all the tires with new PS4S, still no AWD.

I scanned the car with OBDEleven and got the code: All Wheel Drive (AWD) mechanical malfunction - Code: C111307 and it was on this very same thread that I read that when you have this code most of the time you can fix it by using the PUMP MOTOR function with the OBDEleven.

I plugged the OBDEleven waited for the tranny fluid temp to reach 52C like the instructions dictates and started the pump motor process with the engine ON and the car still in a parking lot, it took a lil over 1 min for everything to finish and after that I drove the car a few miles like I normally would with no launches or anything then later that night I went out and did some launches and I have my AWD back and the car is kicking ass again so if you have this same error I strongly advise you to run the pump motor function with OBDEleven first before buying any parts or whatever.

Hope this helps someone!

[BenM1013]

Hi everyone,

I bought my 2015 S3 two months ago with ~38,000 miles on it. When I tried launch control for the first time it just spun the front wheels until I let off. I figured it was just because the front tires were some awful economy tires that were put on before I bought it, and thought nothing of it until I put new wheels and tires on the car. I put 19x8.5 rotors on wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4s and tried launch control. Found the same issue, just did a full-on front wheel drive burnout. I thought it might be the pump, but then I figured I'd give the OBDeleven fix a try that's been mentioned in here before. The car has ~41,000 miles on it now.

It ended up working. Here's my experience fixing it with the OBDeleven.

I went into the OBDeleven and scanned the car. One AWD fault came up, code C111307 "Mechanical Malfunction". I drove the car until the transmission fluid temperature was above 52C. Then, I went into "Basic Settings" in the All Wheel Drive control module and tapped "Pump motor" while the car was turned on, in park, with the parking brake on. I waited a minute or two for the process to finish, then drove the car for about 10-15 miles. Parked the car, ran some errands, came back, and drove it another couple miles. Then I tried a pull with traction control/ESC on in first gear from around 10 mph. Finally no wheelspin or traction control light blinking! The car felt good. I tried a launch with ESC OFF after and the car feels like a rocket.

Definitely worth a shot to try fixing the problem this way. Considering my local Audi dealership does not remove the Haldex pump to check the filter during the fluid and oil change for the system. $110 order from UroTuning that took three days to get from Florida to Vegas instead of a ~$200 diagnostic at Audi plus whatever the cost would have been for them to fix it.

[S3DAN]

*SOLVED*
Good afternoon everyone. I had all the same issues as described where I would just do a FWD burnout even on brand new Michelin super sports using launch control. I would lose traction at anything more than half throttle in first, second would burn rubber too. (APR 93 stg1 high TQ)

SOLVED

YOU ARE MOST LIKELY ENGAGING LAUNCH CONTROL IMPROPERLY

In order to engage launch control you must first be OUT of dynamic mode first.

1)be in comfort/auto/individual
2) hold traction control button until OFF
3)wait until the warning clears from your dash
4) NOW SWITCH TO DYNAMIC
5) Launch

In other words, if you are in dynamic mode to begin with and you switch off traction control and perform a launch, you will do a burnout.

ADDITIONALLY, if you or a shop has performed a Haldex service and not primed the pump afterwards your haldex will essentially stay in a limp mode.

If you have VCDS/carista/possibly Cobb, you need to go to adaptions and prime the pump as described previously in this thread and then you need to make sure you are performing the LC correctly. I was burning through 4th and getting a ~7s 0-60. I am getting 3.8s 0-60 consistently now. And due to the pump prime the day to day driving is greatly improved. Long time reader but I have joined specifically to add this in hopes it helps someone. Lots of 8v owners(like me) are doing LC wrong and spending a lot of money trying to fix working parts it seems. Happy new year yall.

[A4_n00b]

1) No prior symptoms. See #4.

2) 25150

3) 2018 S3

4) Started the car after work one super cold evening and out of the blue was greeted by multiple error lights (ABS, ESC, TPMS, etc.). The car idled and drove fine so I was able to get home despite all the dinging and flashing from the dash. I ran a VCDS scan that came back with Data Bus errors in several modules.

5) Thankfully covered under warranty (and got the PODS recall done while the car was there).

[imloualvaro]

I've been experience some front wheels spinning so I decided to reset my haldex pump with vcds, and after that I got some hard vibrations when im driving. PWM increase to 16% when my vehicle is in park mode, and when I release it increase to 20%~25%. No DTC errors, no oil leak. I did clean all AWD adaptations, pump reset, pump disengage/engage. I did same process with obd11/vcds 22v/ ODIS. The Haldex fluid has been changed and screen inspected. The fluid looked normal. The filter was clean. The oil in the differential was also changed. Pump earth wire is ok. Everything looks normal. And now vehicle got able to do launch control without spin front wheels, but PWM still acting hard every moment causing hard vibrations. I did some vcds log with wheels and speed from each wheel still correct.

When I disconnect haldex unit, going to FWD my vehicle stop to juddering. And Im not able to launch control uphill when haldex unit is plugged-- got some rpm decrease when I try to do, only able in downhill.

[TreizeRXH]

I've been experience some front wheels spinning so I decided to reset my haldex pump with vcds, and after that I got some hard vibrations when im driving. PWM increase to 16% when my vehicle is in park mode, and when I release it increase to 20%~25%. No DTC errors, no oil leak. I did clean all AWD adaptations, pump reset, pump disengage/engage. I did same process with obd11/vcds 22v/ ODIS. The Haldex fluid has been changed and screen inspected. The fluid looked normal. The filter was clean. The oil in the differential was also changed. Pump earth wire is ok. Everything looks normal. And now vehicle got able to do launch control without spin front wheels, but PWM still acting hard every moment causing hard vibrations. I did some vcds log with wheels and speed from each wheel still correct.

When I disconnect haldex unit, going to FWD my vehicle stop to juddering. And Im not able to launch control uphill when haldex unit is plugged-- got some rpm decrease when I try to do, only able in downhill.

I have to ask this question to all of you because I’ve owned 2 A3 8V’s with quattro (a 2016 A3 in the black optics and my current 2017 S3) and I’ve never yet experienced any haldex issues:

Are you guys launching every five minutes???? In nearly 100k miles between both my cars I’ve never had any issues


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[XMetal]

I have to ask this question to all of you because I’ve owned 2 A3 8V’s with quattro (a 2016 A3 in the black optics and my current 2017 S3) and I’ve never yet experienced any haldex issues:

Are you guys launching every five minutes???? In nearly 100k miles between both my cars I’ve never had any issues


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Our S3 is my wife's car...so no, my wife is not launching her car every five minutes...at least I don't think she is It's got the Haldex pump replaced at about the 20k-mile mark as previously posted on this thread. Having said that, I think you've just jinks yourself on your S3! Never say never

[imloualvaro]

I have to ask this question to all of you because I’ve owned 2 A3 8V’s with quattro (a 2016 A3 in the black optics and my current 2017 S3) and I’ve never yet experienced any haldex issues:

Are you guys launching every five minutes???? In nearly 100k miles between both my cars I’ve never had any issues


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My car has less than 20k and I always on economic mode. And now I discovered that my pump is tired, and I should replace it.

[MikTip]

https://www.haldexrepairs.co.uk/gene...-repair-guide/

[ChatYTB]

My car has less than 20k and I always on economic mode. And now I discovered that my pump is tired, and I should replace it.

U probably never took car for proper spin and everything in car lost its muscles 💪

[Khyy]

Attached video and photo

Did anyone with an RS3 have a similar experience but no codes were being thrown? This is exactly what is going on with mine, I'm on stage 2 e85 Unitronic OTS map with a brand new set of MP4S (probably 500-700 miles on them now, so broken in) and cannot figure out for the life of me what is going on. I've got new tires because of it, I changed my tune around and still had the same issues on less aggressive regular fuel maps and I've tried the OBD11 pump motor resets but this never works as it just keeps spinning for 10+ mins before I have to manually cancel it. Oh, I've also scanned for codes while driving it and having the ECS light pop on when hard accelerating. I don't like doing very many launches, but of the 2 I did try, the first one spun and the second one hooked fine, though there feels like a lack of traction and power accompanied with torque steer.

I feel like I have every symptom of a broken haldex but there are no codes. So that I can stop wasting money and time, what did anyone in this position do? My next stop is probably to replace the fluid, but a part of me figures if I am going to be down there anyways the haldex is pretty inexpensive and maybe I should get that too. I've had the rear diff checked too, that is fine and there are no weird noises/sounds. Long story short, has anyone not gotten codes but had a haldex failure?

[randomguy15]

I have had quite the runaround with the haldex system in my 2016 S3 with 70k. At first I started getting some front wheel spin under acceleration and in the rain. I have a stage 1 OTS from 034 motorsports. After some quick research I did the "pump basic setting" in OBDeleven. The pump made some rather awful screeching noises for a few minutes then stopped. It did restore some all wheel drive but only for a few days. Had the pump replaced soon after. After the service, the car still exhibited some fwd characteristics. So after another basic setting, (which sounded much better this time) the car puts its power down great. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. I have found that every few weeks, or in some cases months, I have to redo the "pump basic setting" in order to maintain AWD. I'm not sure if the controller is going bad, my fluid has been changed at least twice, and the screen was mostly free of debris, cleaned regardless. I did note that when the car is stock ECU and TCU, I didn't seem to have these issues. But with a Stage 1 OTS, it seems to "adapt" wrong after a few weeks. Not sure why. Has anyone else noticed this or have any advice?

[okie21]

2017 S3 with 54k miles. Bought it 4 and 1/2 months ago with 45k miles. I have no rwd, launching is nothing but front tire spinning. I checked pump volts and amps with OBDeleven. I'm getting 1.9 - 2.1 volts with the engine running. Sometimes it'll show 0. Amps are showing between 1.0 - 2.0 . Driving, the numbers didn't really change from that. I did the Haldex service a few weeks ago. Drained, refilled fluid, pulled the pump and cleaned the screen. There was a little bit of dark sludge, which I believe is normal. I primed the pump and everything seemed fine. I was able to launch with no traction issues. Now this. So...do I need a new pump or could it be something else?

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[ChatYTB]

I am rebuilding rear diff .. Now I have stripped down my old diff. and bearings worn and inside is mess since January 2015 :D
And pics after cleaning :) When now am thinking that people changing fluids in this rear diff it is totally pointless and useless as the mess which is inside will mix again with the new fluid/liquid and will be messy straight away ..only if the unit inside is somewhat flushed but even that won't help as there are two magnets which should catch the metal files but not all ..


ATTACH=CONFIG]316127[/ATTACH]

[FlyPenFly]

Are 2020+ vehicles safer from this kind of failure?

[ChatYTB]

Are 2020+ vehicles safer from this kind of failure?

Don't do launches or donuts or spinning rear wheels on place..

[wack0]

You may have a bad controller. You can determine this by opening the haldex clutch in the actuation setting.

Can someone expand on this please? I have a 2016 TTS with tons of front wheel spin and no codes. I changed the pump and did all the things with OBD11 and it isn't helping.

I did notice that when I ran the Clutch Actuation > Close procedure, there was a loud whining noise the entire 30 seconds. There was no noise for the Open procedure. Is that normal?

[Davethaboss]

Can someone expand on this please? I have a 2016 TTS with tons of front wheel spin and no codes. I changed the pump and did all the things with OBD11 and it isn't helping.

I did notice that when I ran the Clutch Actuation > Close procedure, there was a loud whining noise the entire 30 seconds. There was no noise for the Open procedure. Is that normal?

It was awhile ago since I last wrote this but, when you do a pump basic setting my understanding is that it is supposed to make a loud purging noise for like 20 seconds. I changed the haldex fluid a couple months ago and I remember doing a similar thing.

As far as actuating the clutch I do not remember it making a loud whining noise. I remember it being a loud high pitch noise last I remember when using the [Close] procedure. However most of the time, I could never close the clutch because it wouldn't let me.

My issue actually stemmed from a broken haldex pump. The thrust bearing inside the actual pump was broken and resulted in complete failure of the pump. Ironically, no codes were thrown. I could monitor from live data that the haldex clutch was not engaging or working at all.

I went through 2 pumps from FCPEuro until the last one they sent me worked.

I suggest monitoring some live data to get a better understanding. Because that's what helped me realize it was the pump and NOT the haldex differential.

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[wack0]

Thanks Dave! I also got my pump from FCPEuro - I'll try looking at live data

[wack0]

So I drove around monitoring live data today, when I got the tires spinning the percentage shot up to 95-100% - so I think that's a good sign? Maybe I just have shitty tires?

I also verified that the driveshaft is turning.

Also APR Stage 1 93 high-torque. Maybe I just need to accept that I need a new rear diff?

[ChatYTB]

What is torque of all 12 bolts to put rear diff back together ?

[FlyPenFly]

Don't do launches or donuts or spinning rear wheels on place..

Got ya, so if you don’t abuse and do early fluid changes is it pretty reliable? I might do a APR stage 1.

[wack0]

Has anyone had success updating the Haldex controller software version, and it fixed the problem? I asked my local dealer to update the software, they claimed they did it but it did not fix the problem - then quoted me $7k total for a new rear diff. When I got home I checked the version number with OBDeleven and it was the same as before. Not very happy with that dealer right now!

[wack0]

Has anyone had this issue? I looked at the Haldex controller on my car and compared it to the Haldex info in ODBeleven, and the numbers are very different! Can this problem cause AWD to fail?

[MikTip]

Has anyone had this issue? I looked at the Haldex controller on my car and compared it to the Haldex info in ODBeleven, and the numbers are very different! Can this problem cause AWD to fail?

First of all...what is this? Audi? A3? S3? Year? miles?

The dealership updated it at some point after it left the factory...original SW version 7083...current version 7754 which can change everything else...but it wont change the sticker

Software doesnt cause failure...its 1's and 0's....

The motor in the haldex are known to fail.

Also OBD 11 isn't always "reliable" reading the Audi modules accurately...VCDS is.

For issues with the haldex you need to see its error code...

https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/who...tware.9359341/

[wack0]

It's a 2016 Audi TTS with 92k miles. Thanks MikTip - I'm just having a hard time accepting that I need a new diff so I'm trying to rule everything out. Very annoying.

[MikTip]

It's a 2016 Audi TTS with 92k miles. Thanks MikTip - I'm just having a hard time accepting that I need a new diff so I'm trying to rule everything out. Very annoying.

Ya dont need a new diff...maybe new haldex motor but first prine the haldex punp motor and with OBD11

[ReggieNoble]

It's a 2016 Audi TTS with 92k miles. Thanks MikTip - I'm just having a hard time accepting that I need a new diff so I'm trying to rule everything out. Very annoying.

Needing a new diff all depends on how the pump goes. If it explodes, then it will send metal all throughout the diff and it will get in between the clutches and they will slip even with a new pump. If it just seized, more than likely you can put a new pump in and be fine.