Hi all

My journey to work takes me up a hill with traffic lights at the top. When stopped at the lights I am still on a slope facing up the hill. The lights stay red for ages so into Park it goes (I generally always go into park when stationary anyway). Upon change of the lights, it is harder to go from Park to Drive. It's like slamming it into drive, it clunks into drive and the car jogs with it. This doesn't happen on flat road. Any ideas folks?

Thanks

Sorry. Should of said. It's a 1.8 TSI DSG.

Thinking about it, it is slamming into reverse as that is the first position it is going into from park. I really wish I'd written this down before I typed it here! Anyway, now I've got it straight in my own head, any ideas?

Thanks

Rather than 'park' you should pop it into neutral and apply handbrake - as you would on a manual if you take your foot off the clutch.

The whole drive chain 'shunt' will disappear then as 'park' locks up the system, which I think is what you are experiencing, as you are asking the car to 'park' and then 'un-park' on a gradient. Park should only be used when, bizarrely enough, parking I think...and engine turned off.

Neutral is there for just the type of situation you are describing - depress button and move to N, then when ready to go, without needing to press the gearshift button again, simply flick into drive without any winding up of the whole system and off you go. Test handbrake/hill start procedure the first couple of times though to avoid roll back.

Dave

I'm with Wile7 on this. I nudge the car into neutral when sitting at the lights (unless its for a while then I turn off too). I only use Park when parked, and rely on the handbrake or hill holder when waiting on a slope.

As above you should just use N. When using park on a hill it then rests on the parking pawl (a toothed disc which is locked into place) which is probably what you can feel jolting.

The advantage of using N when stopped is that all that's required to get back into D is to put your foot on the brake and nudge the stick down (don't even need to press the button) so it's quicker and safer. Plus if you get even a light shunt from behind in park you run the risk of breaking the gearbox!

Thanks folks. Seems obvious now you say. N it is. I'll give it a go in the morning.

Thanks folks. Seems obvious now you say. N it is. I'll give it a go in the morning.

Are there any instructions in the manual? 

The only notes in the manual are to not use the accelerator to hold the car on a hill, to use the brake to hold you (duh!). 

A much more pleasant experience today.

It should not be necessary to move the selector to N during normal trafical stops. Of course it is a bit straining to depress the brake pedal for some time, but it should not be necessary to engage N. As long as you press the brake pedal "with a certain pressure" the cluch is unengaged. You will notice it, the engine "calms down" on the revs. If you slowly release the brake pedal, the clutch partly engages. The more you release the brake, the more the clutch engages. You can feel the clutch engages (the car starts to creep and the engine revs increases to avoid a stall) on flat road. The same principles applies in hills.

I always took the (non-DSG) autos I've had over the years, out of D whilst at traffic lights or stationary for exactly the reason Phil-H cites. However, I also do the same with the manual vehicles (which I prefer to drive). I was taught to always put the car in neutral with the handbrake on when stationary when I had my driving lessons 40 years ago.

Grumpy Old Fart

Edited 19 April, 201610 yr by numskull

Me to numskull. My first ever auto was my previous car which was a Rover 75 (I know but actually it served me really well). Having said that it had nothing on the Superb. Before that I always had manuals. I was a police driver for more than 16 years and we HAD to take it out of gear and apply the handbrake each time we came to a stop. Mind you, we also HAD to double de clutch when changing down a gear too! The old habits are dieing hard!

I will say I am massively impressed with the DSG. It is smooth and picks up from stationary so much quicker than any non DSG auto I have driven.

In relation to fatzy's response. If it is a brief stop I do just use the foot break but I didn't realise that disengages the clutch too.

So much to learn.

I always took the (non-DSG) autos I've had over the years, out of D whilst at traffic lights or stationary for exactly the reason Phil-H cites. However, I also do the same with the manual vehicles (which I prefer to drive). I was taught to always put the car in neutral with the handbrake on when stationary when I had my driving lessons 40 years ago.

Grumpy Old Fart

Funny this.

We were taught Parking Brake (handbrake) only to be used when parking.  Exeption for hill starts.

Explanation was that footbrake brakes all wheels, parking brake brakes only two wheels. 

Parking brakes, in those days, could vary a lot.  Relatively poor and weak parking brakes would still be accepted by the testers.

Oh yes, I remember now.  We had a lot of british and east-european cars in Norway back then

Thinking about it, it is slamming into reverse as that is the first position it is going into from park. I really wish I'd written this down before I typed it here! Anyway, now I've got it straight in my own head, any ideas?

Thanks

I just want to comment on the slamming into reverse. The DSG's controller will not go  through / stay in R when going from P to D or S. It would not engage.

Equally when rolling forward in D and you accidentally slip into P rather than N the controller does not allow you to destroy the gearbox.

As an example, if you are stationary on the road as last man in the line without the foot on the brake, the trafic behind may be unaware of the standing cars. I think it is far better to warn them with my brake lights, maybe I don't get rear ended. I would for certain not be standing there with my parking brake applied.

If your car is equipped with the start/stop feature, the engine will stop after half a minuter or so (if all parameters are within the set limits). Engine starts as soon as you release the foot brake, and the clutches starts to engage.

The DSG is basically a manual gearbox with automatic clutches. It has NOT an oil converter for the transferring of power from the engine to the gearbox (that is old-style automatic). It is very cleverly designed and more efficient than all other automatic gearboxes today.