I have been driving my wife's 1.6 CR TDI estate for the past few days and have found that it's nearly impossible to drive at 30mph in 4th gear. Under any acceleration it feels rough and judders until it hits about 35 minimum. On a half decent hill at 30 in 4th the car will decelerate.

 

I am coming from the old 1.9TDI (110) which pulls smoothly in any gear from idle. Before i get shouted at, I understand and appreciate the new engine is higher geared and has less torque lower down than the older 1.9 diesels, but i didn't expect to have to stay in 3rd gear on urban roads. I have never driven another car that wouldn't comfortably sit at 30mph in 4th gear and accelerate.

 

1st, 2nd and third gears are very useable and smooth from 1,300 rpm, but anything under 1,500rpm in 4th and 5th produces a very uncomfortable driving experience. 

 

Is this a gearing issue, a torque issue or both?? I have been considering a tuning box to get some extra low down umph at some stage, but i may have to start looking sooner rather than later.

 

 

For what it's worth my 2.0 CR140 in a Superb will also grumble at anything less than 1,500 RPM in 4th.

 

Things are still relaxed in 3rd so it's no issue for me.

50km/h should be ok with 4th gear... won't respond on accelerator pedal like in 3rd because of low revs but anyway should be without any juddering.
You should begin with deeper investigation-diagnostic. Fuel pressure,fuel quantity in the injectors, air mass and vacuum leaks. 

Do you have 5 or 6 gear box?

Edited 13 March, 201511 yr by IngusSeflers

50km/h should be ok with 4th gear... won't respond on accelerator pedal like in 3rd because of low revs but anyway should be without any juddering.

You should begin with deeper investigation-diagnostic. Fuel pressure,fuel quantity in the injectors, air mass and vacuum leaks. 

Do you have 5 or 6 gear box?

It's a 5 speed. It wasn't that long ago that it had a full service and while it was in the mechanic ran a full diagnostic check with no issues. It is generally used for short runs (school runs of 3 mile round trip in traffic). It's 2010 with 30k miles and 15 of those were in the first 18months before we bought it.

 

Its been run on supermarket fuel to date, so i may try some premium fuel or an additive and a bit of spirited driving. 

For what it's worth my 2.0 CR140 in a Superb will also grumble at anything less than 1,500 RPM in 4th.

 

Things are still relaxed in 3rd so it's no issue for me.

Would you keep it in 3rd gear in a 30mph area?

 

Maybe i just have to change my driving style.

Yes, I am paranoid about straining the DMF (Dual Mass Flywheel).

 

I appreciate that the 2.0 is very different to the 1.6 but at 30mph in 3rd my RPM is well below 2,000 rpm so very unobtrusive.

 

I figured the increased fuel consumption might go someway to offsetting a premature DMF repair!

Had the same issue and ended up with the EGR valve needing replaced. Expensive, but engine now runs like new.

 

Now making sure every 4th fuel is premium diesel and the car gets a good run once a week - other than the usual 30 mile (urban road) daily commute.

Drive it like a pretol

Drive it like a pretol

Will that affect the MPGs??

 

I have spent the last 10 years driving a 1.9 TDi (Octavia) and then the 5 years before it driving a 1.9 TDi (Golf). Both had bags of low down torque and i have been used to them pulling away smoothly from tickover in every gear. My Octavia (mK1) now has 170k miles, has had a tuning box (for mid range driveability) and panel filter upgrade since 30k miles and a decat for the past 70k miles. It always returns 600+ miles per tank mixed runs (no motorway cruising).

 

Also noticed that it takes a while in-journey before the mpgs in the new 1.6TDI start to impress. On a cold run on my commute (10 miles urban) the 1.9TDI will do better than the 1.6tdi, but on a longer 30mile mixed run it's the opposite by a large margin.

Drive it like a pretol

FFS!!!

WHY!!!

Since the DSG "drives" it like a diesel.

Got near 75,000 miles on the 1.6TDI engined DSG Octavia.

No clutch issues or judder, yet, but then not yet out of the extended warrenty

sigh (most probably)

When I had an Ibiza FR 1.6 TDI for 7 weeks I also found the same.

 

The gearing is quite long and with the smaller capacity engine it seems to struggle if the revs are too low.

 

I too wanted to drive in 4th at 30mph but found any throttle input more than just a tickle to maintain speed resulting in a horrible grumble and it just didn't sound happy.

 

I used 3rd instead. It was happy and that and the engine wasn't screaming or anything.

 

The DSG box will usually keep the revs at 1500rpm+ apart from when slowing/braking.

 

Phil

FFS!!!

WHY!!!

Since the DSG "drives" it like a diesel.

Got near 75,000 miles on the 1.6TDI engined DSG Octavia.

No clutch issues or judder, yet, but then not yet out of the extended warrenty

sigh (most probably)

DSG is very different than 5 speed manual.

DSG cannot be "very" different, by that i mean the DSG "pulls" surprising high gears at low engine rpms.

From my observation.

Though I mostly do not accelerate harshly

M

When I replaced a 1.9pd with a 1.6cr the first thing I noticed was that at 40mph I was forever changing from 5th to 4th whereas the 1.9 would pull from 40mph in 5th. At 30mph 4th was OK as I recall. I solved the problem when I next changed the car by going for the 1.6cr with the 7 speed DSG. The range of the 7 speed gives more flexibility and a better drive with only 1-2 mpg penalty overall. The 1.6cr is much smoother through the rev range, but lacks the bottom end punch of the 1.9pd. It really is a case of adapting your driving style to get used to the 1.6cr.  

The 7 speed DSG has different gear ratios so hard to compare to the 5 speed manual. Also the DSG will change down as soon as you push hard enough on the throttle.

 

The temptation in a manual is to just keep pushing on the throttle without changing down.

 

Phil

On 14/03/2015 at 20:22, Rab-k said:

Had the same issue and ended up with the EGR valve needing replaced. Expensive, but engine now runs like new.

 

Now making sure every 4th fuel is premium diesel and the car gets a good run once a week - other than the usual 30 mile (urban road) daily commute.

 Did this cure the issue of struggling in 4th and 5th gear low revs? Having a similar issue myself 

Edited 21 October, 20232 yr by agjb90