Crizz

Our 2014 Q7 3.0TDI has been an awesome vehicle so far, but there is an issue that the dealer cant fix and I thought i'd run it by other owners to see if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

Under load (ie traveling up a grade) the engine seems to momentarily cut out or "chug". It only happens if the transmission stays in the same gear (ie - it doesn't downshift). Its very brief (a fraction of a second) but is noticeable to anyone riding in the car and happens repeatedly while the engine is under load.

It happens consistently with an increase of throttle, but not enough of an increase to cause a downshift.

The car only has 12k miles, but I've had it to the dealer three times for this issue. They replicated it and did a "re-adaptation" of the transmission that seemed to help, but we are back to it doing it all the time again.

It seems to be worse with warmer weather. The problem almost completely disappeared during the coldest winter months, which happened to be right after the dealer did the "re-adaptation" so I'm beginning to doubt that it had any effect.

We've had some very dramatic temperature swings in the midwest over the last couple weeks, and like clockwork the Q7 drives great when its been cold (less than 30) and it chugs alot when it's been warm (60+).

Edd W

Try resetting the transmission adaption again - turn on the ignition but do NOT start the engine. Hold down the accelerator pedal for about 10 seconds - fully to the floor so you can feel the kick-down switch operate. Turn off the ignition and then try driving and see if it has made any difference.
When you say driving up a gradient, when sort of engine revs does it drop to before changing down a gear?