Manual gearbox selection

[passatpout]

Thanks all..

To clarify a few points, and to avert the disagreements...

First up, I've had it in 6th doing 60km/h within 500m of leaving home from a cold start. The occasions when it's played up have been when warm (while not at temperature, certainly showing around 70-80 degrees).

Second, the change point when downchanging is around 3000rpm. 40km/h in 3rd is roughly 1400rpm, so 2800rpm at 80, which would appear to be well within limits for a 4500rpm rev range.

What's happened, only a few times, is that the gear change points seem to go all over the place - auto changes suddenly happening at 3000-3200rpm, instead of 2000-2500rpm for similar throtlle settings, the box not responding to reasonable (if unusual) gear selections, either upchanging or downchanging.

It's happened both from the paddles and the tiptronic part of the gearbox.

Probably time to go back to the dealer and ask them about it... the software may have corrupted somewhere.. but also keep a bit of an eye on it again and try to be more observant..

[vanDub]

Anyone else had trouble with manually selecting gears at times?

A few times lately, the car just hasn't shifted when I've done a manual change either through the stick or through the paddles. First couple of times it wouldn't change to 6th at 60km/h, but needed to get to about 67-68,

I realise that passsatpout is talking about manual mode, but I have trouble accepting several posters on various threads claiming to have their DSG in 6th at 60 KPH without using manual mode. Under optimum (no acceleration) conditions in 'D' mode mine will change up to 5th at 66 indicated (62 real) and will never change to 6th until 77/78 indicated (72 real). At those change points the RPM is about 1600 after the change and I consider my gearbox behaves normally.

I cannot imagine the struggle any engine would have at a guestimated 1200 odd RPM for 60 KPH in 6th, especially when still cold 500 metres from start.

[Steve]

The engine should not be used to brake the car unless you have a brake emergency.

Whilst neither DSG car I have is diesel, neither manual mentions that the engine shouldn't be used for braking, and in fact the DSG kicks down to assist the brakes or roughly hold a speed whilst travelling down hill (without using brakes) more often than not when driven in "sport" mode. I don't know about "drive" as I don't use it when engine braking is likely to occur.

Furthermore, the DSG will allow any shift that won't damage either the gearbox or engine. Try downshifting at high revs. It won't happen. Depending on the delay between your input and an acceptable shift level find, the box may lag or may not shift at all. Either way, the shift won't occur outside safe levels. Also, the gearbox will automatically change up a gear if the driver won't and the rpm are computed to be damaging: for example, stick it in manual mode and floor it in first. You'll find the car changes to second. The gearbox won't allow a damaging speed/rev/acceleration combination to be present.

Are you basing your comment on speculation, or fact for this engine and gearbox combination? Neither either dealer I have purchased DSG equipped cars from (not that they are necessarily reliable sources) nor the service staff at two dealers and my preferred independent VW specialist mechanic have said that engine breaking is bad - and I've asked.

I'm honestly curious, as what you say is contradictory to trustworthy advice. Do you have inside information?

[Pana]

but I have trouble accepting several posters on various threads claiming to have their DSG in 6th at 60 KPH without using manual mode.

maybe other DSG's are calibrated differently, but under light throttle and once the engine and gearbox are warmed up, in D my R36 will happily potter around in 6th at 60km/h.

[Steve]

maybe other DSG's are calibrated differently, but under light throttle and once the engine and gearbox are warmed up, in D my R36 will happily potter around in 6th at 60km/h.

At that speed mine won't change from 5th to 6th without some intervention from me. Once there, though, it'll stay.

[Pana]

At that speed mine won't change from 5th to 6th without some intervention from me. Once there, though, it'll stay.

do you mean using the paddles to put it into 6th, then it goes back into auto mode and stays there?

should take a video of mine and post it up. It will only go back down to 5th if you accelerate or drop the speed down to about 50-55 or so.

[Pana]

couple of videos I took today





apologies for the poor quality, but you'll be able to see it shifts up to 6th at 60km/h. These were all done on flat road (no uphill or downhill). Even when I downshifted via the paddles to 5th, when it went back to full auto mode it went to 6th at 60.

[apom]

maybe other DSG's are calibrated differently, but under light throttle and once the engine and gearbox are warmed up, in D my R36 will happily potter around in 6th at 60km/h.

Same with mine..

In addition... The cars computer management system trys to determine your current driving mode and adjust accordingly...even the downhill engine braking changes dependant on a series of variables at any given time.

[vanDub]

maybe other DSG's are calibrated differently, but under light throttle and once the engine and gearbox are warmed up, in D my R36 will happily potter around in 6th at 60km/h.

Ok, having seen your vieos, I accept that the R36 will go into 6th at 60 KPH but I notice that the engine is still around 1600RPM. I recall reading that DSGs fitted to diesels are different and that difference must be in the final drive ratio so that the diesel can reach top speed with a 4500 redline compared to R36 with much higher redline.

[passatpout]

Ok, having seen your vieos, I accept that the R36 will go into 6th at 60 KPH but I notice that the engine is still around 1600RPM. I recall reading that DSGs fitted to diesels are different and that difference must be in the final drive ratio so that the diesel can reach top speed with a 4500 redline compared to R36 with much higher redline.

Coming home tonight, it behaved perfectly, and happily chugged along at 60 in 6th, and even dropped down to about 53-55km/h without doing an overriding downchange. At that sort of speed, the engine's ticking over at about 1200rpm, and still exerting enough torque to accelerate up to 100km/h if necessary, although I wouldn't be doing that with a full car uphill.

Without seeing the specs, I'd suggest the diesel gear ratios are generally higher than equivalent petrols. A gearbox basically converts power to torque (with the conversion dependent upon the ratio), and since diesels usually have higher torque output and flatter delivery than petrols, they can pull both higher gear ratios and final drives.

Other interesting tidbit tonight - driving through the rain in Melbourne, I managed to stop at a set of lights right on tram tracks.. and then couldn't get moving.. but the ESC light didn't illuminate.. took about 3 goes before I managed to get onto the concrete and get grip.. then off like a rocket.