Love my '03A4Q3L.6spd (13K miles). Got in the car tonight and started
her up. Outside ambient temp reads +6F. Waited about 30 seconds.
Getting into first was no problem. Second was another story. I didn't
want to force it, so I did a double clutch and raised the RPM a
little. It finally slipped in with a little coaxing and grind. No
problem once the car was moving for a few min. The questions are is
this normal? Should I let it warm up a little longer in the extreme
cold? Will any damage result?

Thanks

Howard

 

howitzer wrote:
> Love my '03A4Q3L.6spd (13K miles). Got in the car tonight and started
> her up. Outside ambient temp reads +6F. Waited about 30 seconds.
> Getting into first was no problem. Second was another story. I didn't
> want to force it, so I did a double clutch and raised the RPM a
> little. It finally slipped in with a little coaxing and grind. No
> problem once the car was moving for a few min. The questions are is
> this normal? Should I let it warm up a little longer in the extreme
> cold? Will any damage result?

This is from my experience with a little less driven A3 (I believe it
has the same 6-gear-manual). Grind sounds pretty bad, at least I haven't
had any problems at around -20C (+6F is somewhat equal), the 2nd is
perhaps a bit frozen, but goes in pretty easily. But maybe if there's
water condenced & frozen in there, it could do that.

- Yak