Is there a way to make the 1.4 tsi retard faster so it slows the car down using the engine breaking rather than the breaks, have tried to get it to do it in all three modes, to no avail, it would be rather handy for going down hills in the snow

 

What you have is just manually changing down gears, foot off accelerator,

but i use 'S' for decelerating,

just off the throttle and stick back from 'D' to 'S', no touching the brake pedal.

Edited 19 December, 20178 yr by AwaoffSki

Small petrol engines don't give much engine braking. I would suggest using a lower gear, but I've had mine advising me to change up while engine braking down hill because the engine speed was getting quite hight (but not into the red). High revs should at least be putting a decent amount of charge into the battery,

48 minutes ago, Rodge said:

Small petrol engines don't give much engine braking. I would suggest using a lower gear

Second that, my daily drive before my current 1.4TSI had a 4.2L V8 which had so much engine braking that you often only needed brakes to actually come to a halt (except when having fun!!!) but my other car has a 1.0L in-line 3 and that has so little engine braking it's almost non-existent. It's a case of adapting your driving style to the characteristics of each car.

I have commented on the lack of engine braking on my 1.4tsi a number of times.

Useful for maximising fuel economy on the flat but miss it on a steep hill and I empathise with your snow issues.

Sure these engines are small for the size and weight of the cars but they do not have the pumping losses (drag) associated with throttled ports on older carby and standard injected engines.