My 1.9 TDI estate runs @ 40 mph with out my foot on the pedal,the car has only done 600 miles from new.

I am told by the dealer that this is a feature of the diesel VW's so that you do not stall & can creep in 1st gear without using the accelerator pedal.

When I take my foot of the accelerator between 900-1300 rpm the revs remain the same & the car does not slow without use of brakes & gears.This is very disconcerting when coming up behind traffic & releasing accelerator with no retarding effect from engine.

Having previously driven diesels fitted with exhaust brakes I am not very happy.

Advice welcomed

If you are in top gear and letting the car cruise in gear with no accelerator input then you are not in proper control of the car. It is, in my opinion, perfectly OK for the engine to want to stay running rather than stall to save damage.

Have I totally missed the point you are trying to make?

Welcome to briskoda

It is normal anti-stall, drop it in a lower gear - sounds like you're in 3rd or 4th to hit those kind of speeds.

If used properly it can actually be extremely handy. Not sure why you would prefer the engine to stall - I had that once and it is NOT a nice feeling, you get a very loud bang and it stops.

If you are in top gear and letting the car cruise in gear with no accelerator input then you are not in proper control of the car.

How so? and how is that any different to using cruise control? :confused:

Shift down to 2nd gear. Then you will get the retarding. Once at 1000rpm the engine reaches the point where retard stops and it will try not to stall. At this point you either need to dip the clutch to coast, or start shifting down the box. Personally, 40mph in tickover sounds like 5th gear? For best engine braking you should be shifting down to 3rd gear @ 40mph, then into 2nd gear around 20mph, then dip once that gear reaches 1000rpm which should only be about 5 mph I guess.

40 sounds a bit fast. Typical gearing is 30ish MPH/1000 rpm, typical tickover 850 rpmish, so I'd expect 25-30 in top gear, feet off the pedals- but that will produce a lot of vibration and wreck the DMF.

Until you are used to the highish gearing and strong torque combined with an anti-stall feature, it can feeel like the car is running away with you. When i had my first TDI VAG car it did surprise me.

You probably need to change down earlier .

What is the tickover speed?

How so? and how is that any different to using cruise control? :confused:

If you hit danger and need to take action, your car is going to do absolutely nothing if you plant the throttle at 1,000 rpm in 5th/6th gear.

You should always be in the gear that give you optimum control of the car

My 1.9TDi runs at about 25-30 in 5th at minimum revs if I remember right (where you'd normally expect a car, especially a petrol engine, to start juddering and threaten to stall). 40mph is definitely too high for this to happen. Mine quite happily runs at about 30-35 in 5th without this kicking in.

Can't say I've ever really used this in 4th or 5th, but in 1st, 2nd and 3rd I find it a handy feature for running in crawling/slow traffic. Just dip the clutch when you want to lose speed.

I have tried and it is possible to accelerate on the flat to about 25mph or so without touching the accelerator (albeit quite slowly)

Just shows how much torque this engine has so low down the rev range - in my works multi-storey car park, I can even go up the (fairly steep) ramps in 2nd without touching the accelerator :eek:

If yours is holding the speed at 40 in 5th at up to 1300 rpm, it needs checking by the properly by the dealer. if it was just at 900rpm, I would say that's pretty much what mine does. It is different to other diesels I've driven but I got used to it pretty quickly.

you can drive any modern car on idle if your careful enough, nowt to do with how good the car is really, i could do that in my works transit when i had it and that was a 2.3 petrol pulling a 2.5tonne transit van.

my octavia will do hill starts with 2 or 3 passengers on the ramps of multistorey carparks without using the throttle

Doesn't have to be modern. Any car will do it with a bit of care- I was taught the technique in a mk2 Escort.

Is the OP being serious?

Is the OP being serious?

Lol.

What I was thinking. Have you no concept of vehicle control and how it works?!

Just change down a gear!

Mine will crawl along quite happily in any gear without stalling if i'm steady on the clutch. Can even set off in second on the flat without using the throttle.

But agreed 40 does sound quite high for tick-over crawling in 5th. Mine only does 20 in 5th on tick over!

phil

Is the OP being serious?

Checks 1st of April involvement who knows :confused:

If you hit danger and need to take action, your car is going to do absolutely nothing if you plant the throttle at 1,000 rpm in 5th/6th gear.

You should always be in the gear that give you optimum control of the car

Ok, just when have you suddenly needed full power acceleration whilst in queueing traffic?

Indeed, and frankly I am very capable of changing into a gear appropriate for acceleration, most like many other people I'm sure - When I'm stuck in a queue there is no need to accelerate hard, as a matter of fact it is the last thing to do

Ok, just when have you suddenly needed full power acceleration whilst in queueing traffic?

When you spot a gap.

Rob.

Is the OP being serious?

I reckon so, sounds a bit like he's describing something similar to what's been discussed here.

Ok, just when have you suddenly needed full power acceleration whilst in queueing traffic?

May I suggest you read a bit of this:

Roadcraft: The Police Driver's Handbook: Great Britain. Home Office: Amazon.co.uk: Books

i would rather my engine run than stall, but i would rather have my foot resting on the accelerater pedal, but all to them selves i guess..... : /

If you hit danger and need to take action, your car is going to do absolutely nothing if you plant the throttle at 1,000 rpm in 5th/6th gear.

Likewise if you need to stop suddenly, if you're in a lower gear then while you're moving your foot from the accelerator pedal to the brake pedal, you'll already be slowing down as a result of engine braking...thus reducing your braking distance.

As you say...use the right gear to give you optimum control of the car.

Rob.

May I suggest you read a bit of this:

Roadcraft: The Police Driver's Handbook: Great Britain. Home Office: Amazon.co.uk: Books

I've got a copy, and don't consider it, or any other "advanced driving system", to be the "complete answer to how to drive fast and/or safely". Yes, I've been in queues where fast pickup was necessary, but I've been in many more where best economy revs and observation were more comfortable and sensible.

you can drive any modern car on idle if your careful enough, nowt to do with how good the car is really, i could do that in my works transit when i had it and that was a 2.3 petrol pulling a 2.5tonne transit van.

my octavia will do hill starts with 2 or 3 passengers on the ramps of multistorey carparks without using the throttle

it'll also pull the front off a capri on very little more than idle

I've got a copy, and don't consider it, or any other "advanced driving system", to be the "complete answer to how to drive fast and/or safely". Yes, I've been in queues where fast pickup was necessary, but I've been in many more where best economy revs and observation were more comfortable and sensible.

Fair enough, but I can't ever see how top gear running on tickover is an appropriate gear to be in for the speed. It just isn't.

In the case of queues, It is mostly 1st/2nd I would do this in, rarely 3rd, as by the time you get up to 'idle in gear 3' speeds, you are likely to be varying your speed sufficiently to bother a bit. Car control in 1st is not particularly great, so crawling 'off-accelerator' in 1st makes sense.

In 6th it doesn't really

Fair enough, but I can't ever see how top gear running on tickover is an appropriate gear to be in for the speed. It just isn't.

I'm not claiming that it is, mostly because (well other than possibly a Superb V6 Tdi) there almost certainly isn't a standard Skoda that can go that fast at idle in top; an Octy TDi130 6speed (~35mph/1000rpm) would need 1142rpm, and my Tdi110 (~30mph/1000rpm) would need 1250. 40mph at typical idle revs needs a gear ratio of 50mph/1000rpm!!