NABS4

AFAIK the RS5 was the first to use Audi's in-house developed Crown gear centre differential, which replaces the Torsen differntial. 2013 S-tronic S4s also use this diff.

The 2013 Q5 first drive review by AW's Kris Hansen, states that the Q5 also uses the crown unit. I have seen no evidence that is the case from any Audi sources. Can anyone confirm?

Coolieman1220

I thought that the crown gear was only for the rear diff? The center should still be Torsen. I could be wrong.

CrustyNoodle

As OP stated, the RS5 et.al. Uses the crown gear centre diff - an interesting design that also includes a few electronically controlled clutches that enable it to bias torque to a much greater extent than the torsen centre diff. Maybe this will be the cure to all the stupid ramp tests that you see Audi's subjected to in comparison to BMW's.

Don't know if the Q will get this diff though - here's hoping!

Heresy64

FWIW, here's the info from the Audi web site.

Transmission Eight-speed Tiptronic® automatic transmission with Audi quattro® all-wheel drive
Front Differential Hypoid gear, electronically locking (EDL)
Center Differential Torque sensing providing automatic and variable front to rear power proportioning
Rear Differential Hypoid gear, electronically locking (EDL)

Still looks like torsen to me. But I'm no techie.

NABS4

That's a pretty generic description of the function which could describe both a Torsen and Crown set-up, IMO.

Heresy64

Same section from the S5 page on the web site.

Transmission Six-speed manual transmission and quattro® all-wheel drive system with asymmetric/dynamic torque distribution
Front Differential Hypoid gear, electronically locking (EDL)
Center Differential Crown gear (S tronic® dual-clutch transmission) / Self-locking (manual transmission)
Rear Differential Hypoid gear, electronically locking (EDL)

kleinbus

I saw article about Audi developing Crown gear to replace Torsen and eliminate/reduce the Torsen resistance requirement (spins freely without resistance/tire on air).

So they are working it but I haven't seen new info which vehicles would have it and I assume is some day all of the models using Torsen would have it in size required (Q7 prolly "heavier" than A4)

This very same functional principle applies to middle diff and rear diff like Torsen today as there is Torsen middle differentials and there is Torsen front/rear differentials as well...

bhjr21

This is from the UK site: http://www.audi.co.uk/new-cars/q5/q5/quattro.html

where it states the new Q5 uses the Self Locking Centre Differential, which is the same as pre-facelift.

for the RS5 it states http://www.audi.co.uk/new-cars/a5/a5...k/quattro.html

that it uses the Self Locking crown-gear centre differential. That is crown-gear is specifically mentioned, but only for the RS5. Thus there seems to be no difference in the way the centre differential is described for the 2013 Q5 on any specific country website, whereas on those webseites the RS5 centre differential is described as crown-gear, which suggests the 2013 Q5 has the same centre diff as the pre 2013.

Gear Junky

There's an error in this write up, the SQ5 uses an 8sp automatic and not the S-Tronic 7 sp stated so if there's one error there may be others like stating it's now using crown-gear instead of regular TorSen.

Until Audi confirm it I'm on the fence.