G'day.

 

Can some one tell me if they have the same experience in their VRS Mk III, btw I hadn't noticed this on the test drive.

• The gears shift very quickly up, I suppose so that you don't have high revs and therefore save petrol, this obviously sometimes make the car feel heavy being at a high gear at relatively low speed.  Is this common for others?
• When I need to accelerate (ie when i need to overtake) it seems to take a while to drop down gear and take off, I thought it was a turbo lag? I think I am grasping at straws here.
• Also when I slow down to stop, dropping from D3-D2 there seems to be a little stutter or jolt.  This irritates me a fair bit....

Anyone have a similar experience? or is there really something wrong with my gear box.

How long have you had it for now?

 

It can take the gearbox a while to adjust to your driving style, if you want it to remain in gear a little longer give it a bit more welly and it will start to adjust to how you drive.

 

I don't get a noticeable stutter when it changes from 3rd down to 2nd?

Yes. Use tiptronic or sport mode.

The next gear up or down its 'ready' on the other shaft. If it's a drop of one gear needed then the clutches swap and you go. If you need to shift two gears down, then the ears are on the same shaft/clutch so the clutch has to disengage, the gear change and the clutch reengage.

Could you do a perfect down change every time with out seeing the road, traffic conditions, whilst braking etc?

If you're at really low revs when you boot it to overtake, the DSG will try to go down 2 gears say 6th to 4th, which is where you get a bit of lag due to it being the same clutch plate and therefore the 4th isn't yet available, try planning your overtake a little more in advance with a little less throttle or simply pull back the gear selector to get sport mode gears, which tends to give the go-go without the DSG lag.  Not so easy if you've got a pedalbox set to maximum, as with anything a little practise is required.

In drive, it will go up through the box quicker to save on fuel normally so it can feel a bit lifeless.

As said, use the paddles

I have moaned about this too.  DSG in the 'sporty' vRS changes way too quickly and I find it in 5th by 35MPH. Sport mode is the opposite and it revs its nuts off before changing.

 

Something in the middle would be better.  There's a thread on here somewhere about one of the tuning shops who can change the settings so it's more usable, but I can't find it right now.

 

The clunk on downchange is something I've had many times. Much worse when in manual mode. The DSG software is far better at it than I am, but not perfect, especially 3rd to 2nd while braking to take a tight bend.  It defo feels like a shudder on those occasions.

If you are accelerating really slowly (presumably because you're stuck behind a middle aged woman in a Peugeot) then the DSG will shift up quickly.

I normally accelerate fairly quick so I don't have that problem. If I give it the beans it will redline before shifting even in "D".

With some experience you learn to control the gears with the accelerator: a bit down and it shifts down one; 1/3-1/2 down and it shifts down twice; floor it (ALL the way down!) and it shifts down thrice. I can "preload" one gear down by pushing the accelerator a bit before overtaking. If I want to do a really fast overtake I'll use the paddles and shift down twice maybe thrice half a second before I start the overtake (normally you can see when the road is clear; the DSG cannot not...)

I have no problems going from 3rd to 2nd, but there might be a difference between the DSG7 in my 1.4TSI and the DSG6 in the VRS. And the shifting is obviously also different between TDI and TSI.

Edited 19 October, 201411 yr by jthyssen

I test drove a 150 TDI DSG last week and when coming to the end of the motorway slip road (leaving motorway) I noticed a jolt which felt like I'd released the brakes and then applied them again.

Having read this thread I now realise it was the down change on the DSG. Hasn't stopped me buying the car and nice to know I wasn't going mad

I have moaned about this too.  DSG in the 'sporty' vRS changes way too quickly and I find it in 5th by 35MPH. Sport mode is the opposite and it revs its nuts off before changing.

 

Couldn't disagree more about this, i find that in sport mode the DSG holds on the gear for to long, the revs get far to high for my liking.

Edited 20 October, 201411 yr by Crogers

Couldn't disagree more about this, i find that in sport mode the DSG holds on the gear for to long, the revs get far to high for my liking.

That's exactly what he is saying lol!

In my experience the dsgs all exhibit these odd behaviours in one way or another. You can adapt your driving a bit to suit it. The dsg7 is definitely smoother/better than the dsg6 (but not as robust). You could just avoid it all and get a manual.

Thanks for all your feedback I love this forum, get faster and more knowledgeable replies than asking the bloody Dealer.

 

Let me clarify the stutter or jolt a bit more, it's a little like it's trying to hold onto 3rd gear and it's reluctant to drop down to 2nd gear when it does you get a little forward jolt, like it's freed up from being held back.  Just strange really strange.

 

@andyvee - had the car for just a little under 3 months and about 3400 kms.  So you are saying it's an adaptive gearbox, does that mean the dealer can reset it? yeh in Australia, it's really hard to put your foot down in most places, there speed and red light camera's everywhere, and you could be travelling from a speed 40kmh to 50 to 60 to 80kmh on a stretch of road.  

 

@ben4012, @themanwithnoaim, @Bindinbear - thanks for the clarity and advise, yes going up the gears quickly to save fuel is bloody annoying, specially when driving in a lot of traffic (which btw I turn off the stop/start)

 

@smeghead - totally agree with you, in normal mode, changes to fast, mate I am at 6th gear on 60km.  and yes the sportsmode, won't change to 4th unless it hits 4000rpm which then has me in a pickle and making sure I havent got a speeding fine. Yeh not sure a tune up shop in the UK would be any good for me in Australia.

 

@jthyseen - thanks for advise on mucking about with the accelerator, must try and take more notice.  What's DSG7 and DSG6? is that the number of gears? so my VRS has 6 gears, DSG6? 

Yes. Dsg6 is the wet clutch 6spd dsg, found in the TDI and vrs. Dsg7 is the dry clutch 7 SPD found in lower power models. In oz, that's 103tsi or 132tsi models.

DSG6 is a wet clutch 6 speed version capable of handling more torque, the DSG7 is a dry clutch 7 speed version limited to 250Nm of torque well, till you remap it anyway

I had also hoped that 'Driving Mode Selection' on a DSG equipped car would allow/enable a middle ground between the under-revved Drive mode and the over-revved Sport mode ... no such luck :( ... I'm still considering whether to take a gamble with DSG7 (and a smaller and good enough engine) or pay several thousands extra just to get the apparently more reliable DSG6

Edited 21 October, 201411 yr by FilipC

How long have you had it for now?

 

It can take the gearbox a while to adjust to your driving style, if you want it to remain in gear a little longer give it a bit more welly and it will start to adjust to how you drive.

 

I don't get a noticeable stutter when it changes from 3rd down to 2nd?

 

I hope it is not frowned upon to resurrect old threads.

 

I have been trying to find out about DSGs as my car sometimes accelerates erractically i.e. a light press of the accelerator can cause the car to accelerate faster than expected (not dangerously so just more than anticipated). It hasn't happened enough for to estabilsh a trend/pattern.

 

Does the DSG adjust to driving style and if so is there a way to reset this. My car is used thus I would rather it was adjusted to me rather than the previous owner which maybe the cause of my issue (I have the 6 speed wet clutch box).

I think there's a way of "resetting" the box learning algorithm using something like open door, close door, key in position 1, accelerator to floor for so many seconds, turn key to 0, open door, and probably patting your head and rubbing your belly...

 

It does adjust to your driving style and learns the way the mechanics of the gearbox works but takes a few miles (well into the hundreds).  Have experienced this on 3 DSG cars now (and an ASG one in the wife's Citigo) but it takes a while.  A used/ex-demo car could have some very strange habits as well..

If I remember correctly, no doors open, ignition on (do not start engine) and press gas pedal to the floor, you will hear a click sound. Let go of pedal and set ignition to off - remove key and wait untill mfd turns off.

Next time you start the car the dsg box will be reset and ready to learn your driving record.

Thx Frallan, I did a similar procedure with no success but last time I did not wait for the MFD to turn off. I will try again.