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Molly coddling my gearbox


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I think my DSG gearbox is fantastic.  (Perhaps I should say  "so far" or "touch wood" or "that's buqqered it").

So I try to treat it exactly as it expects and don't fry anything by driving like a hoon. The long thread on here about clutch slip has worried me a good bit.

Question please.  After I select D/S or R I lift my foot off the brake pedal quickly and then always wait about a second or two until creep has begun before applying any throttle at all. (Different for hill hold obviously---I'm on about normal non hill hold starts).  Is this the "kindest" way to treat the clutches? Or not?

And second question:  what is best ----lifting off the brake pedal quickly to let the gearbox get on with it or caress the damn thing like an egg shell and make the box wonder if I really want to go or stay.

I've read loads on the DSG box and not found anything definite.

Many thanks

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I'm no DSG expert by any means but I don't think you should worry about it and just enjoy driving the car.

 

Your much more likely to have a failure due to poor manufacturing or some sort of inherent defect and bad design rather than you wearing the clutches out.

 

Just treat it with a bit of sympathy like you have been doing and stick to the service schedule

 

 

Edited by SuperbTWM
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There is Hill Hold Assist, if you have pressed the brake hard enough for it to be on take your foot from the pedal to the accelerator and go.

Use your hand / Parking brake as needed. Just drive it.

It is an Automated Manual, 90 or 110 ps is not causing issues with the DSG's with issues, just faulty parts, 

and out of more than 2 million Skoda built you are going to just be unlucky if you get a bad one.

 

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1 hour ago, HopeImRight said:

Question please.  After I select D/S or R I lift my foot off the brake pedal quickly and then always wait about a second or two until creep has begun before applying any throttle at all. (Different for hill hold obviously---I'm on about normal non hill hold starts).  Is this the "kindest" way to treat the clutches? Or not?

 

I do the same because I find it the smoothest way of moving off - which is surely the kindest way to treat clutches, DMF, driveshafts..... and passengers.

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I see no point on molly coddling any car. If they are not able to take being driven on the road by a variety of human beings without breaking they are not fit for purpose.

 

Just drive normally and enjoy it.

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On 21 March 2018 at 20:52, HopeImRight said:

I think my DSG gearbox is fantastic.  (Perhaps I should say  "so far" or "touch wood" or "that's buqqered it").

So I try to treat it exactly as it expects and don't fry anything by driving like a hoon. The long thread on here about clutch slip has worried me a good bit.

Question please.  After I select D/S or R I lift my foot off the brake pedal quickly and then always wait about a second or two until creep has begun before applying any throttle at all. (Different for hill hold obviously---I'm on about normal non hill hold starts).  Is this the "kindest" way to treat the clutches? Or not?

And second question:  what is best ----lifting off the brake pedal quickly to let the gearbox get on with it or caress the damn thing like an egg shell and make the box wonder if I really want to go or stay.

I've read loads on the DSG box and not found anything definite.

Many thanks

The same thread had/has me worried also. Subconciously waiting for it to fail.  But posts on here are reality....failures are seldom the fault of driving style, although I wonder how many customers are told it's their fault?  All my other autos have been 'proper' autos and I rather like that engineering. Certainly the old Volvo one gave every impression of being bombproof. We shall see.

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You don't have to molly coddle it, it's a tough box, and normally a very tough clutch. Mine slips when cold as you may already know but it's not my fault, just bad parts. In fact, the more you molly coddle it the more clutch wear you are likely to encounter. Dry clutches like to lock up quickly to avoid wear, heat and glazing. So foot off brake and onto throttle and go, that's the best way. Don't let it creep unnecessarily as that causes all the things you don't want. With my car the clutch slips when cold after the first start of the day or if the car has stood a long time during the day. The clutch discs absorb water/moisture which causes slipping if the oil temperature is under 60c with a large throttle setting. I have to have several passengers too to make mine slip. Being fixed soon!

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It's certainly not 'mollycoddling' to drive a car with respect and refrain from pushing everything to it's limits. To me it's common sense.

 

The DSG is a fantastic box. I regret almost daily swapping mine for a manual and am hell bent on buying another DSG as soon as SWMBO agrees to it :giggle:

 

The thread on 'clutch slip' was enough to put anyone off buying a DSG and I was disappointed this fantastic box appeared to take  something of a slating. My view is that when reading threads on Forum's such as this it pays to keep in mind many of the contributors are the 'unlucky' ones with genuine problems and that there's a huge amount of satisfied people who don't post.

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Very true. 

There should be no need for people to go to the Social Media.  The Main Dealership Service Staff should know about 'Snagging issues'.

 

So as long as in small numbers, then easy for Skoda / VW Group to address, and no need for Main Dealerships to pan off owners.

With 'They all do that'  or 'Never seen that before',  there are TPI's.

These guys are long enough with VW Group to sort things out. In the UK and not getting the issues resolved tell them.

http://fleetworld.co.uk/top-level-staff-changes-at-volkswagen-group-uk 

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I'll be writing to Rod McLeod next week regarding a Citigo order problem.Thanks for the link.

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I think the smoothest, fastest and kindest  pull away, is to let the car start to creep before applying throttle,  this often means releasing foot brake pedal pressure a fraction of second earlier, so that the clutches are engaged just when you want to be moving. I believe hopping straight from brake to throttle results in jerky starts and sudden over-acceleration from rest because initially the car doesn't move, cos the clutch hasn't engaged, throttle pressed more so drops from 2nd to 1st and then whoosh 'bat out of hell' mode. 

 

Note that the ECU monitors actual footbrake pedal pressure, with stop/start you can control whether the engine cuts out or not, or starts using footbrake pedal pressure, similarly the clutches engage/disengage based on brake pedal pressure.

 

 

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If using a DQ200 at sprints / 3/4 miles, and it is a Hand Brake not a Electric Parking brake you hold it in D with the hand brake not the foot brake,

handbrake off and floor it.

They are not made of chocolate.

But then there are 28 versions of DQ200 and they do have software to match the engines /power

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15 hours ago, thamestrader said:

I think the smoothest, fastest and kindest  pull away, is to let the car start to creep before applying throttle,  this often means releasing foot brake pedal pressure a fraction of second earlier, so that the clutches are engaged just when you want to be moving. I believe hopping straight from brake to throttle results in jerky starts and sudden over-acceleration from rest because initially the car doesn't move, cos the clutch hasn't engaged, throttle pressed more so drops from 2nd to 1st and then whoosh 'bat out of hell' mode. 

 

Note that the ECU monitors actual footbrake pedal pressure, with stop/start you can control whether the engine cuts out or not, or starts using footbrake pedal pressure, similarly the clutches engage/disengage based on brake pedal pressure.

 

 

 

I for one love stop/start although I feel I'm in the minority, being able to start the engine just before the traffic lights change by easing the pressure on the pedal is great.

 

Also what you say about easing off to engage the clutch packs is very true until I gained confidence in the hill hold I'd jump from one pedal to the other and it is very jerky.

 

Overall having the DSG since June last year I've had no issues with it and it's easily my favourite gearbox that I have used.

 

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