I have a Skoda Octavia 2014 1.6 diesel dual dry clutch 7 gears. When it changes gear from 2 to 3, while it is on the 2nd gear, car shakes and feels like it fails to translate the engine power into pushing power. This becomes more apparent when it requires more power, example in a hill or when there are more people in the car. It feels just like in a manual car when you switch from (ex) 1st gear to 3d gear by mistake while it has no enough speed and when you try to accelerate, it simply shakes.

The issue becomes apparent if I try to accelerate. If I try to accelerate even more, it becomes worse. If I steep off from the throttle and then step on again, it sort of gets better.

I feel like it does appear when I drive at low speed longer time (i.e. switching from/to 2nd gear more frequently). If I drive at a higher speed for some time (ex. in a longer distance trip), the issue with the 2nd gear sort of minimizes or goes away even if I have to drive at a low speed again in which case car goes between 2nd gear and 3d frequently. After a short time (maybe days) of driving at low speed in which case 2nd gear comes into the picture more often, the issue reappears. 

Sometimes it disappears entirely - car switches gears just as smooth, and then suddenly it appears again (sometimes quite concerning noticeable). Also, I feel that with time, it has become more apparent than before.

There is no issue with other gears (of this same nature), only 2nd gear. What I could observe so far, it looks like it only happens when going from 1st gear to 2nd (and then trying to go to 3d), it never happens when going from 3d gear to 2nd (let's say during an uphill in which case I'm not driving fast enough to maintain speed so it decided to go down to 2nd gear) even if accelerate then hard so it drives on 2nd gear or goes to 3d gear again.

No errors appear on any reading, related to Gearbox or Engine. I've also tried a recalibration of the gearbox with OBD11 (gearbox went quite harsh for some time until it learned the kissing points again) but that did not solve the issue either. The harshness from the gearbox reset went away, however the issue with the 2nd gear remains just as before.

Does anyone have an idea?!


P.s.

I don't think it has to do with any joints/mounts, as the symptoms seem to be related to the 2nd gear itself, only, not to the rest of the car. Not to mention that on the last inspection, no issues were observed with any joints/mounts.

I've consulted a mechanic, he wasn't sure.. he just assumed it might be a sign of clutch wear and tear which wasn't convincing enough simply because he just guessed.. I didn't get though how could that happen to 1 gear only (I don't know much about the gearbox setup).

 

[Edit]

 

An additional info; I tried to test it by shifting gears manually and I could not reproduce the issue (maybe I didn't try much enough.. even in D it does not happen sometimes, or maybe it simply doesn't happen when switching gears manually) which indicates that the issue might be not a mechanical issue, however there is a detail there which I feel is making a difference; When switching gears manually, it only allows me to switch to gear 2 when the speed is at minimum around 15 km/h - that' quite many rpm for gear 1. This does not happen when in D though.. In D, it switches from 1st to 2nd gear even at 7-8 km/h. Why I feel this is relevat.. well, what I could observe is that, when in D (in which case I'm experiencing the issue) if the manages to surpass the shaking point (cuz it starts shaking and then at some point it simply manages to reach a point where it does not shake anymore) even if I step on the throttle all the way to the bottom, it does not shake any more... This "after shaking point" in D and 15 km/h in manual, both have that high rpm in common. 

 

P.s.

If you say, well then just step on the throttle more so 'with more rpm it gets away with it'.. Well.. not really. When it starts to shake, you simply need to step off from the throttle to smooth things up.. The 'surpassing point' come after a mix of time x throttle level x speed.. Idk..

 

 

Doesn't sound right to me, I have the dq200 7 speed dsg box, second Octavia I've owned with this transmission, always had 100% smooth gear changes in all gears, no matter what speed I'm at. 

If you are wanting to keep it, may be best to have an independent gearbox specialist for them to take a look & give you their opinion. 

Edited 18 October, 20241 yr by Phoenixboy

28 minutes ago, Phoenixboy said:

Doesn't sound right to me, I have the dq200 7 speed dsg box, second Octavia I've owned with this transmission, always had 100% smooth gear changes in all gears, no matter what speed I'm at. 

If you are wanting to keep it, may be best to have an independent gearbox specialist for them to take a look & give you their opinion. 

Thank you.

 

The problem is that I can't really find a real specialist per se in my area, therefore I posted it here hoping for someone with such an experience or knowledge to run into this post and give me a hint on what could possibly be the root cause.

 

To clarify something; I notice now that I have emphasized so much the 'driving at high speed, driving at low speed' in my first comment.. (because that's what I felt was the case) however I believe (as far as I can observe now) that it is all coming down to having an issue with/at gear 2, and, the more it is used the more noticable becomes. As simple as that I'd say. The fact that it goes aways sometimes.., well, I feel it simply happens (regardless 'driving low speed / driving high speed). Sometimes it goes somewhat away, to become apparent again later. Idk..

11 hours ago, Celcius said:

Thank you.

 

The problem is that I can't really find a real specialist per se in my area, therefore I posted it here hoping for someone with such an experience or knowledge to run into this post and give me a hint on what could possibly be the root cause.

 

To clarify something; I notice now that I have emphasized so much the 'driving at high speed, driving at low speed' in my first comment.. (because that's what I felt was the case) however I believe (as far as I can observe now) that it is all coming down to having an issue with/at gear 2, and, the more it is used the more noticable becomes. As simple as that I'd say. The fact that it goes aways sometimes.., well, I feel it simply happens (regardless 'driving low speed / driving high speed). Sometimes it goes somewhat away, to become apparent again later. Idk..

Is it better, worse or no different from a cold start?

It's concerning that it's an intermittent fault. Even if you can't actually attend a gearbox specialist, there's nothing to stop you phoning one up and asking for advice.

You might be lucky if you find a helpful one, they may be able to diagnose your problem by talking to you.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=DSG+gearbox+experts+UK

If you really hit it off and have confidence in the tech, it might be worth driving some distance to get the problem sorted once and for all.

 

41 minutes ago, EnterName said:

Is it better, worse or no different from a cold start?

It's concerning that it's an intermittent fault. Even if you can't actually attend a gearbox specialist, there's nothing to stop you phoning one up and asking for advice.

You might be lucky if you find a helpful one, they may be able to diagnose your problem by talking to you.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=DSG+gearbox+experts+UK

If you really hit it off and have confidence in the tech, it might be worth driving some distance to get the problem sorted once and for all.

 

I haven't observed a difference in that.. What I have observed though is that if I do a quick launch of the car while driving, I feel it immediately brings it to the table.

 

P.s.

Intermittent.. yeah, however not sure if that's an appropriate term anymore to describe it.. I seems now it is always there - it simply waits for a heavier weight in the car or a slight uphill to manifest

 

Sounds very similar to my DQ200 however mine will slip rather than judder. Like yours it's intermittent and it improves/disappears when driving in manual mode. Temperature seems to play a part but I can't identify any specific trend between hot and cold, dry or damp. I also have a suspicion that engine loading plays a part but have not found a way to investigate further.

 

I suggest the following in this order:

1. Find someone with a VCDS who knows how to interrogate the transmission system. My money is on a solenoid valve problem in the Mechatronic which may be sticking due to the lack of oil changes in the DQ200. ( Skoda say it's not needed, my 180k mile DSG oil change would beg to differ ). A VCDS showing live data can compare pressures needed vs pressures delivered to the valves along with lots of other useful information, but again you need someone who knows what their looking at....which isn't me by the way.
2. If one is available, get the transmission software updated at your Skoda dealer. It may not solve the problem but would hopefully change the way your DSG shifts between gears and could prove that the 2nd gear clutch is actually OK. I had mine done but if anything it made it worse as the slipping became evident during other gear changes after the upgrade. Cost of an update should be about £100, hence this is one of the first things to try.
3. Next thing would be to get the Mechatronic and transmission oils changed. As mentioned above, this is deemed unnecessary by Skoda, but that's total BS. No oil will last forever and it's a relatively straight forward and cheap process to get done. The only downside is that you can't change the Mech oil filter unless to strip down the unit to get to it and I wouldn't recommend that unless you get a repair kit with new gaskets and seals for reassembly. Cost for my oil change was £38.59 for the oils ( there a two ) + £75.00 labour.
4. Next option would be to have the Mechatronic reconditioned. There are companies that will run benchtop diagnostics on the unit and hopefully identify what the problem is. Your symptoms do point to a bad solenoid IMO but they would be able to confirm. Downside is that you'd have to get the Mech unit removed and posted to the re-manufacturing company so you'd be without a car for a couple of weeks. A special tool is required to remove and refit the Mech from/to the transmission, it's not too expensive but it's only function is just that. Cost of a refurb in UK starts at about £700.
5. Lastly if all of the above have failed, you may need a new clutch pack. Cost of this for me was £391 for the clutch, £323 for a new flywheel. The flywheel may not be needed but as the clutch is getting done it's saves repeating the biggest cost of the job which was £500 ( 10hrs ) labour. The new clutch pack has done absolutely nothing to fix the problem but did manage to drain my bank account by a tidy sum so this is why I'd carry out this step last.

 

Now I didn't follow the steps above in the order in which they are listed and consequently still have an bad DSG. I don't know anyone who knows much about VCDS so point 1 has still not been carried out successfully. 

Points 2, 3 & 5 have been done and I still have a bad box.

19 hours ago, Celcius said:

When switching gears manually, it only allows me to switch to gear 2 when the speed is at minimum around 15 km/h - that' quite many rpm for gear 1. This does not happen when in D though.. In D, it switches from 1st to 2nd gear even at 7-8 km/h.

 

This is totally normal behavior.

 

One question, have you tried driving in D but selecting Sport mode. This will cause the gear changes to extend well beyond the normal rev range and could influence whether the judder appears or not.

This thread may be of interest.

 

https://mhhauto.com/Thread-DQ200-0AM-DSG7-mechatronic-software-interchangeability?page=6

18 hours ago, Gammyleg said:

Next thing would be to get the Mechatronic and transmission oils changed. As mentioned above, this is deemed unnecessary by Skoda, but that's total BS. No oil will last forever and it's a relatively straight forward and cheap process to get done. The only downside is that you can't change the Mech oil filter unless to strip down the unit to get to it and I wouldn't recommend that unless you get a repair kit with new gaskets and seals for reassembly. Cost for my oil change was £38.59 for the oils ( there a two ) + £75.00 labour.

Absolutely get those oils changed. 👍

On 19/10/2024 at 14:22, Gammyleg said:

 

This is totally normal behavior.

 

One question, have you tried driving in D but selecting Sport mode. This will cause the gear changes to extend well beyond the normal rev range and could influence whether the judder appears or not.

Hey.. thank you for all the comments.

 

Regarding driving in D Sport... That's a great point.

 

Yes, I've tried that too (I had forgotten to mention it although the test was slight.. I tried again more thoroughly) and the outcome is as follows:

 

- If I switch to D Sport while in gear 1, the symptom does not appear.

- If I switch to D Sport while in gear 2, the symptom is the same as when not in Sport (now, what does "the same as when not in Sport" mean.. the answer goes back to what I tried to describe before with the speed or the surpassing point after which the issue does not appear anymore... and I'm emphasizing that because I think I've found a pattern there which is also explaining the 1st scenario above. One thing to note, the difference between 1st and 2nd scenario, is that in the first scenario, it does not switch to gear 2 at 7-8 Km/h, while if you switch to Sport while in gear 2, it turns that you are (can be) in Sport in gear 2 at (ex.) 7-8 Km/h.)

 

Now.. I tried to observe that 'surpassing' point and that seems to be "speed 15 Km/h"). If it switches to gear 2 and the speed of the car has not reached at least about 15 Km/h, judder can manifest at any point you step harder on the throttle; if the car manages to be at 15-16 Km/h plus, then you can freely press the pedal.. And this seems to be constant.

 

Now, what is different with the 1st scenario of switching to Sport while still in gear 1.. well, just as I mentioned before with manual mode in which case it does not allow you to switch to gear 2 at 7-8 Km/h or so even if you want to, similarly, with Sport it does not switch to gear 2 until you reach a higher Rpm by which time the car is going at 15-16 Km/h at minimum while still in gear 1.

 

So if I were to summarize it, I'd say that, based on my observation, the judder appears in the following scenario:

 

- gear 2, and

- speed less than 15 Km/h, and

- car needs more power to move, ex. in an uphill (even if slight) or more people in the car (even if 2) or aggressive start (even if slight) etc

 

If in gear 1 (even if speed is less than 15 km/h), or, if speed is more than 15 km/h (even in gear 2), car accelerates smoothly.

 

***

It would be great elaborate the logic behind any possible root causes.. ex. if we say solenoid.. how does that apply to the scenarios and symptoms above.. why or how could it cause (if it causes) a symptom which is experienced, in certain scenario, and why not in a different one.

Edited 26 October, 20241 yr by Celcius

On 19/10/2024 at 15:17, Gammyleg said:

Sounds very similar to my DQ200 however mine will slip rather than judder. Like yours it's intermittent and it improves/disappears when driving in manual mode. Temperature seems to play a part but I can't identify any specific trend between hot and cold, dry or damp. I also have a suspicion that engine loading plays a part but have not found a way to investigate further.

 

I suggest the following in this order:

1. Find someone with a VCDS who knows how to interrogate the transmission system. My money is on a solenoid valve problem in the Mechatronic which may be sticking due to the lack of oil changes in the DQ200. ( Skoda say it's not needed, my 180k mile DSG oil change would beg to differ ). A VCDS showing live data can compare pressures needed vs pressures delivered to the valves along with lots of other useful information, but again you need someone who knows what their looking at....which isn't me by the way.
2. If one is available, get the transmission software updated at your Skoda dealer. It may not solve the problem but would hopefully change the way your DSG shifts between gears and could prove that the 2nd gear clutch is actually OK. I had mine done but if anything it made it worse as the slipping became evident during other gear changes after the upgrade. Cost of an update should be about £100, hence this is one of the first things to try.
3. Next thing would be to get the Mechatronic and transmission oils changed. As mentioned above, this is deemed unnecessary by Skoda, but that's total BS. No oil will last forever and it's a relatively straight forward and cheap process to get done. The only downside is that you can't change the Mech oil filter unless to strip down the unit to get to it and I wouldn't recommend that unless you get a repair kit with new gaskets and seals for reassembly. Cost for my oil change was £38.59 for the oils ( there a two ) + £75.00 labour.
4. Next option would be to have the Mechatronic reconditioned. There are companies that will run benchtop diagnostics on the unit and hopefully identify what the problem is. Your symptoms do point to a bad solenoid IMO but they would be able to confirm. Downside is that you'd have to get the Mech unit removed and posted to the re-manufacturing company so you'd be without a car for a couple of weeks. A special tool is required to remove and refit the Mech from/to the transmission, it's not too expensive but it's only function is just that. Cost of a refurb in UK starts at about £700.
5. Lastly if all of the above have failed, you may need a new clutch pack. Cost of this for me was £391 for the clutch, £323 for a new flywheel. The flywheel may not be needed but as the clutch is getting done it's saves repeating the biggest cost of the job which was £500 ( 10hrs ) labour. The new clutch pack has done absolutely nothing to fix the problem but did manage to drain my bank account by a tidy sum so this is why I'd carry out this step last.

 

Now I didn't follow the steps above in the order in which they are listed and consequently still have an bad DSG. I don't know anyone who knows much about VCDS so point 1 has still not been carried out successfully. 

Points 2, 3 & 5 have been done and I still have a bad box.

I bought a Superb 2016, 1.4 TSI a few weeks ago. And now I'm facing the vibration issue. It doesn't happen when the car is cold after driving it for an hour in the city when I accelerate from the red light, I feel vibration and feel like the engine is shaking for 1-2 seconds. 
Skoda technician did a quick drive and told me I needed to replace the clutch and Flywheel. Which is 2000 Euros 😞  But they didn't diagnose the car properly. So what should I do first? 

1 hour ago, SM_Sabir said:

I bought a Superb 2016, 1.4 TSI a few weeks ago. And now I'm facing the vibration issue. It doesn't happen when the car is cold after driving it for an hour in the city when I accelerate from the red light, I feel vibration and feel like the engine is shaking for 1-2 seconds. 
Skoda technician did a quick drive and told me I needed to replace the clutch and Flywheel. Which is 2000 Euros 😞  But they didn't diagnose the car properly. So what should I do first? 

 

Sounds exactly like in my case. I found though that while cold, I don't quite feel it, however in my case it starts doing it quite shortly. If it is the clutch (which I too suspect), I guess as it warms up from the friction, it doesn't have the capability to grip enough or... Idk.

 

What is making me believe even more that it is the clutch (or I should say not the gearbox/flying wheel), is that I have observed that it happens in reverse too. Quite hard to catch that as you normally drive rarely in reverse and not under a lot of load, however as it has become so apparent in my case, I could notice that too. Why, because gear 2 and R are mapped to the same clutch.

 

Anyways... I hope it is not the flying wheel too, let alone the gearbox, however I'm still not sure as I haven't fixed it yet. Someone said to me that it is the release bearing... Idk.

 

Btw, what made him suspect that it is the flying wheel too, in your case?!

 

And lastly, treat it gently until you fix it. What I do is I don't push it hard.. and when that doesn't even work, I switch it to S in which case it keeps in gear 1 for longer. In my case it only judders in gear 2 under 15km/h so I've found the S as a workaround when needed as sometimes it doesn't even give me the chance to play with the throttle.. even slowing down/not pushing hard doesn't work (i.e. as soon as you touch the throttle, it starts juddering).

 

Let us know if you manage to find what was the exact issue and how could that hurt it more if not fixing it sooner.

3 hours ago, Celcius said:

Why, because gear 2 and R are mapped to the same clutch.

So are 4 & 6. Do they show signs of weakness too?

1 minute ago, Gammyleg said:

So are 4 & 6. Do they show signs of weakness too?

Yeah, they are I know, however, as I mentioned:

4 hours ago, Celcius said:

In my case it only judders in gear 2 under 15km/h

 .. only in gear 2 and under 15km/h.

 

I've explained the behaviour in my previous comments quite extensively.

Did you fix it?

2 minutes ago, Driverro321 said:

Did you fix it?

No I havent yet, however I think I certainly know the reason behind it. Not sure why noone really could come up with such a hint before - not sure if this post didn't get proper attention or people simply don't know.

Anyways, the juddering seems to come from clutch wear and it needs a replacement. Recently the clutch "distance" something error (forgot what the error exactly says) has shown up in the obd11 reading too.

I've managed to find a way aroud it though so I'm not in a hurry te replace it. When I want to accelerate (and I know it needs a bit more power) I simply switch to sport so it keeps in gear1 for longer. Once it gets a bit of speed (before getting to gear2) I switch to D. The idea is to avoid that gear2-high-friction that happens at low speed until it reaches a bit of momentum.

Edited 10 November, 202510 Nov by Celcius

3 minutes ago, Celcius said:

No I havent yet, however I think I certainly know the reason behind it. Not sure why noone really could come up with such a hint before - not sure if this post didn't get proper attention or people simply don't know.

Anyways, the juddering seems to come from clutch wear and it needs a replacement. Recently the clutch "distance" something error (forgot what the error exactly says) has shown up in the obd11 reading too.

I've managed to find a way aroud it though so I'm not in a hurry te replace it. When I want to accelerate (and I know it needs a bit more power) I simply switch to sport so it keeps in gear1 for longer. Once it gets a bit of speed (before getting to gear2) I switch to D. The idea is to avoid that gear2-high-friction that happens at low speed until it reaches a bit of momentum.

Yeah I think it's clutch too. Is it slipping? It seems to wear it because of the gearbox software which puts high pressure on the clutch when driving on 2nd gear on low RPM. It almost moves off on 2nd gear instead of putting it to 1. For me it only happens during acceleration on low RPM on 2nd gear. Is it the same for you too? Whats your car and how many kms do you have on your clutches?

Edited 10 November, 202510 Nov by Driverro321

2 minutes ago, Driverro321 said:

For me it only happens during acceleration on low RPMs on 2nd gear

Same here. If you read the entire thread, you'll find that I do the exact same description but with different words.

However, if you 'master' playing with the gear stick, you'll be able to drive it for thausands and thousands more km just as fine (even a driver-passenger won't notice what's happening except that he might notice you're touching the stick every now and then). And not only.. this experience has tought me an exceptional lesson on how to save the clutch, which I will certainly put into practice even with a new DSG clutch - Every uphill (while if you have to start from a stopping or even worse, you have to drive very slowly), switch to D-Sport to avoid that unnecessary wear. It keeps it in gear 1 with higher rpm -clutches in full contact (no wear due to half friction, as per my understanding).

12 minutes ago, Driverro321 said:

Whats your car and how many kms do you have on your clutches?

Octavia 2014 1.6, around 240k (I don't expect cluteches were ever replaced before.

Edited 10 November, 202510 Nov by Celcius

4 minutes ago, Celcius said:

Same here. If you read the entire thread, you'll find that I do the exact same description but with different words.

However, if you 'master' playing with the gear stick, you'll be able to drive it for thausands and thousands more km just as fine (even a driver-passenger won't notice what's happening except that he might notice you're touching the stick every now and then). And not only.. this experience has tought me an exceptional lesson on how to save the clutch, which I will certainly put into practice even with a new DSG clutch - Every uphill (while if you have to start from a stopping or even worse, you have to drive very slowly), switch to D-Sport to avoid that unnecessary wear. It keeps it in gear 1 with higher rpm -clutches in full contact (no wear due to half friction, as per my understanding).

Octavia 2014 1.6, around 240k (I don't expect cluteches were ever replaced before.

I think it's just software fault. Even if you put new clutches, the software is made to put first gear very rarely so it almost always moves off on 2nd gear. Even on hills with very low RPM and low speed it still goes with 2nd gear. It puts probably so much pressure on the clutch and that's why it wears so easily.

2 minutes ago, Driverro321 said:

I think it's just software fault. Even if you put new clutches, the software is made to put first gear very rarely so it almost always moves off on 2nd gear. Even on hills with very low RPM and low speed it still goes with 2nd gear. It puts probably so much pressure on the clutch and that's why it wears so easily.

Exactly that's what it does, however I would't call it "fault". That's supposed to give you a smooth driving experience, however that comes at the cost of vlutch wear.

As I said, you can trade off some of that smooth experinece with a longer life of the clutch by getting engaged a bit.

1 hour ago, Celcius said:

Exactly that's what it does, however I would't call it "fault". That's supposed to give you a smooth driving experience, however that comes at the cost of vlutch wear.

As I said, you can trade off some of that smooth experinece with a longer life of the clutch by getting engaged a bit.

Yeah but in reverse gear there is no way to avoid this vibration right?

On 11/11/2025 at 02:14, Driverro321 said:

Yeah but in reverse gear there is no way to avoid this vibration right?

Yeah.. R is one gear, so you can't get away with it. In D you have an issue with Gear2, and by making the car stay in Gear1 longer, you avoid that, however that's not possible for R but R is not much of a big deal.. You don't really happen to go reverse so often and even when it happens, it's not in an uphill. When you have to, just no rush...