Engine revs without foot on accelarator

[SoupDragon]

Just returned from the dealers, Silbury Skoda at Cramlington. I spent about half an hour with one of the service mechanics. He had not come across the problem before and was non judgemental. We spent time low-speed manoeuvring round a car park and I eventually provoked the rev rise. The Skoda man then drove around for a bit and was able to provoke the rev rise fairly easily and when I drove back to the Skoda car park, we got the rev rise in spades just as I was parking the car. The surge can be provoked when the car is being driven very slowly in 1st or reverse and the steering is at full lock and the car is climbing an incline, which does not have to be steep, and, to adjust the speed, the driver puts a little pressure on the clutch to allow it to slip a little. The Skoda man says that in slow manoeuvring, the engine will provide a little more power to prevent stalling, and the action of pressing the clutch reduces the load a little and the engine revs up. The above described circumstances all contribute extra load on the engine and hence the automatically-supplied extra power is more than usual and so the surge is more noticeable.

I completely accept this diagnosis because we were both able to provoke the surge and it makes sense. It is not a fault but a deliberate engine action that under the described conditions is more noticeable than usual. The Skoda man said that the 150 ACT engine has been used in large numbers in the VW Golf without  problems. So in future I will try to avoid the set of circumstances but that won't always be easy. At least I will know what is going on. I thank Silbury Skoda for their time and interest.

[Gabbo]

Whilst I agree with the technical explaination of this issue from the dealer, it still doesnt explain the reason to rev to 1800rpm.

The same feature is available on all the other VW engines & doesn't cause revving this high.

 

This is clearly an issue of ECU calibration or the 1.5TSI has limitation that they are trying to protect against.

Does the 1.5TSI have a DMF perhaps?

 

Maybe Worth a look on the VW forums to see if anyone else has the same problem with the Golf equivelant.

Or a sneaky trip to the VW dealer to ask to test drive one around the car park??

[BigKev2]

soupdrragon. i fully understand how you feel but i am of a different opinion. we should not have to struggle and work round  a feature that we dont need.  i wont give up till they remove this software.

[Gabbo]

44 minutes ago, BigKev2 said:

soupdrragon. i fully understand how you feel but i am of a different opinion. we should not have to struggle and work round  a feature that we dont need.  i wont give up till they remove this software.

 

If the feature is calibrated correctly you wouldnt even know it was there.

This kind of feature is common-place from all manufacturers these days, so they wont remove it, they just need to make it work correctly as it does on the 1l, 1,2, 1,4 & diesel engine variants.

 

Edited 9 February, 2018 by Gabbo

[gregoir]

Seems to only be a problem on 1.5l.

My 1.4l idling increases by only ~100rpm when the clutch is let in.

[ords]

Maybe when a few owners have had a crash / driven into a wall because of this "feature" and sue VW they'll take notice and look into it.

 

What with the cheating scandal. their arrogance knows no bounds.

[Smiorgian]

Just spotted this thread and so glad I’m not the only one. 1.5 SEL 4000 on the clock. 

 

Randomly revving to 2000+ when manoeuvring at low speeds or pulling away. Makes me look / sound like a learner again!

[DaveLees]

52 minutes ago, Smiorgian said:

Just spotted this thread and so glad I’m not the only one. 1.5 SEL 4000 on the clock. 

 

Randomly revving to 2000+ when manoeuvring at low speeds or pulling away. Makes me look / sound like a learner again!

Are you making your dealer aware? 

The more people who bring it to the attention of Skoda the better.

[SoupDragon]

I will add a bit more to my comments on my visit to Silbury Skoda on Friday. I am suffering from a cold (just a man flu) and on Friday, it was really testing my patience. I was driving around for about 30 minutes and trying to make sense but I only wanted to get away and sneeze in private. However, the Skoda man was interested in the problem and wanted to get to the bottom of my complaint so I wanted to show him what was happening. We did achieve this and my thoughts were: well now I know, it's 1) not a fault  and 2) I maybe able to avoid it. I also thought that as the engine loosens up, the effect might be less obtrusive. However, the post from Smiorgian shows that it is not going to go away. Skoda man said that if it continues to be a problem I can return and it will be registered as a customer complaint and the complaint returned to Skoda, but I am happy at present to experiment and work with the feature. I think that many cars have 'features' that you learn to work around but you have got to recognise and understand them first. Note to 'Ords', the effect does not happen if the clutch is fully released, only when crawling and a smash is unlikely. My first concern is that it makes you sound like a divvy and it may cause extra clutch wear.

[Smiorgian]

1 hour ago, DaveLees said:

Are you making your dealer aware? 

The more people who bring it to the attention of Skoda the better.

 

I haven’t as yet to be honest, been busy/ lazy but your right I really should do. Although I have a feeling there’s zero feedback loop between dealers and factory. 

[DaveLees]

2 hours ago, SoupDragon said:

I will add a bit more to my comments on my visit to Silbury Skoda on Friday. I am suffering from a cold (just a man flu) and on Friday, it was really testing my patience. I was driving around for about 30 minutes and trying to make sense but I only wanted to get away and sneeze in private. However, the Skoda man was interested in the problem and wanted to get to the bottom of my complaint so I wanted to show him what was happening. We did achieve this and my thoughts were: well now I know, it's 1) not a fault  and 2) I maybe able to avoid it. I also thought that as the engine loosens up, the effect might be less obtrusive. However, the post from Smiorgian shows that it is not going to go away. Skoda man said that if it continues to be a problem I can return and it will be registered as a customer complaint and the complaint returned to Skoda, but I am happy at present to experiment and work with the feature. I think that many cars have 'features' that you learn to work around but you have got to recognise and understand them first. Note to 'Ords', the effect does not happen if the clutch is fully released, only when crawling and a smash is unlikely. My first concern is that it makes you sound like a divvy and it may cause extra clutch wear.

I agree that if nothing can be done,it will a case of adapting to the ' feature'. Things could be worse!

Edited 10 February, 2018 by DaveLees

[SashaGrace]

Wow, if I’d have bought a 1.5 TSi and it did this I would have to think about rejection. I live on an incline and have to parallel park on the street, which involves reversing uphill on hard lock everyday. The revs rising to 1000-1100 is normal and quite handy, but any more than that is unnecessary. The clutch wouldn’t be fully let out during this manoeuvre as the space is too tight to allow it. It’s bad enough the DSG box is so jerky at this speed, now they add a feature to an engine to counteract a problem (fair enough) but creates another! That’s simply not clever 

[SoupDragon]

Dave, Sasha, Smiorgian, I lived with a Fabia with a DSG for three years and I never grew to love it even though I admired it. Maybe I was not worthy but I always found it unpredictably jerky/jolty when pulling away and that is why I wanted a manual gear box in my new Octavia.

[xman]

Just random thoughts. Might be completely wrong. Maybe this "feature" is something to game real world emission tests (legally)?

 

My old cars don't raise revs but try to stop the engine dropping below idle, i.e. considerable torque at very low revs, probably in an inefficient part of the engine mapping.

 

The 1.5tsi will have been put through the latest emissions test (WLTP/RDE) , could owners be stuck with this behaviour?

 

The other thing is the Miller cycle thing. When first announced almost 3 years ago VW claimed max torque from 1300rpm. Latest specs show its 1500rpm. When I drove one briefly, accelerating in high gear from low revs reminded me of the 1.6 cr diesel. Flat and a bit gutless and that I believe was down to limiting emissions. Surprising considering the hype I read.

[ords]

8 hours ago, SoupDragon said:

I will add a bit more to my comments on my visit to Silbury Skoda on Friday. I am suffering from a cold (just a man flu) and on Friday, it was really testing my patience. I was driving around for about 30 minutes and trying to make sense but I only wanted to get away and sneeze in private. However, the Skoda man was interested in the problem and wanted to get to the bottom of my complaint so I wanted to show him what was happening. We did achieve this and my thoughts were: well now I know, it's 1) not a fault  and 2) I maybe able to avoid it. I also thought that as the engine loosens up, the effect might be less obtrusive. However, the post from Smiorgian shows that it is not going to go away. Skoda man said that if it continues to be a problem I can return and it will be registered as a customer complaint and the complaint returned to Skoda, but I am happy at present to experiment and work with the feature. I think that many cars have 'features' that you learn to work around but you have got to recognise and understand them first. Note to 'Ords', the effect does not happen if the clutch is fully released, only when crawling and a smash is unlikely. My first concern is that it makes you sound like a divvy and it may cause extra clutch wear.

I pointed out in an earlier post that Skoda will do extra business as cars come in with premature clutch wear

[BigKev2]

Well I started this post a short while ago and as we are now almost at four pages it seems a lot of you share my frustration. The 1.5TSI is a lovely engine, as is the Octavia. Low down torque is great, the car will crawl in second gear without protest.

I am still awaiting a response from Skoda UK to my request to have the pull away assist removed or toned down. They say my request has been raised to Manager level and I will be contacted direct. I have almost found a way to pull away without swearing when its say from traffic lights or a junction. Slow parking or stuck in traffic and the air is blue. The wife helps by saying 'you seem to rev this car a lot' .

For those of you that share my frustrations perhaps you should do what I have done - go on line and fill in the contact form for Skoda Customer Services explaining your feelings.

Isnt it odd that we have stop start to save fuel then rev the engine to waste fuel.  

 

[RoscoPColtrane]

Reading through this thread am I right in thinking that some of you have this problem on a random and intermittent basis, some only have it with steering lock on an incline and some have it pretty much every time they pull away, be it straight, winding, flat or hilly? BigKev2 seems to have it most of the time while SoupDragon not so much.  It seems Skoda have messed something up but it would be interesting to confirm if individual owners are having the problem to a different degree.

[gregoir]

21 hours ago, SoupDragon said:

 I think that many cars have 'features' that you learn to work around but you have got to recognise and understand them first. Note to 'Ords', the effect does not happen if the clutch is fully released, only when crawling and a smash is unlikely. My first concern is that it makes you sound like a divvy and it may cause extra clutch wear.

 

I had to look 'divvy' up. A north eastern expression of disapproval derived from the mining industry.

Unlike my usage of it being something positive i.e. a  divvy ( cash dividend) from the Coop when I was a wee bairn in Leith.

 

And yes, the Miller cycle mentioned by Man. Interesting if that is the problem at low revs.

Edited 11 February, 2018 by gregoir

[Salp]

In my experience there is no consistency.  I reverse park in the same space at work.  Sometimes i control the revs, other times the car increases the revs on my behalf.  

 

My current issue is the car being jumpy when cold. Whether that is connected to the same 'controller' is my new concern.  

[BigKev2]

My rev monster is there on every pull away and reverse. Mostly kicks up to 1800 RPM then I drag it down by lifting the clutch.The revs however are not as high when engine is cold. Maybe that's because fast cold idle trumps rev monster.

I too suffer from jerkiness when cold. It falters until the engine temp is up to normal, only in 1st and second gears.

Apart from the above the car is a delight, tried crawling in third gear at 900 rpm today, no protest. So the last thing it needs is extra revs to pull away  

[Gerrycan]

24 minutes ago, Salp said:

In my experience there is no consistency.  I reverse park in the same space at work.  Sometimes i control the revs, other times the car increases the revs on my behalf.  

 

My current issue is the car being jumpy when cold. Whether that is connected to the same 'controller' is my new concern.  

Actually on my 1.4tsi engine where the engine increases to 1000 rpm when using the clutch, this is an intermittent occurrence as well. Doesn't do it every time you pull away or every time you pump the clutch without engaging gear.

I get the lurching when cold issue (since new) as well but that is also intermittent. I did leave it with the dealers once overnight but they said they could not replicate it. Of course they only get one shot per day and I was not prepared to leave it for an extended period for them to play with.

It is not a big issue as it clears in a few hundred metres but what is interesting is that fuel consumption is markedly worse over the first kilometre when it occurs

Car always starts first time with no problem or hesitation or roughness during idle.

[DaveLees]

It is not intermittent with me with the high revs, and I notice it more when the engine is hot, although that may be because I always reverse into parking spaces, hence slow speed manoeuvring.

Fortunately I do not have the jerkiness, or lumpy change of gears.

gregoir - re 'divvy', BigKev2, SoupDragon and myself all got our cars from dealers 'up north' hence the regional expression!

[SoupDragon]

I also get the slight lumpiness when the engine is stone cold, it clears in about a minute of driving and does not bother me. I always drive very gently when the engine has just started anyway. The surge in revs is annoying and I think that if I can not learn to tame it I will make a written complaint, now that the garage knows exactly what happens. The power steering must affect the engine power requirements, just try turning the wheel when the engine has cut out due to the start/stop system. That's another thing, the engine is so quiet and vibration-free that I do not  notice  it has stopped unless I look at the indicator.  I still have only 500 miles on the engine but I have given it a gentle poke now and then and it really goes well. Apart from these 'features' I find the car very pleasant and easy to drive. It's a canny motor.

[Gabbo]

If you let the engine idle drive (clutch is released & no Accelerator pedal pressed, engine is running on the idle-controller - easiest to do in 1st gear but quite possible in all gears on a flat surface) does the engine still rev at 1800rpm or does it drop back down to 1000rpm?

Edited 12 February, 2018 by Gabbo

[BigKev2]

clutch out it crawls at 8000. only kicks up to 1800 at first part of clutch lift.