Truth or legend?

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danilotto

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Hi all,

Someone told me one day that if you do not push your throttle and you always drive at low revs the car tendes to become "lazy".

Now, I am that kind of driver that, despite having an S-Tronic S3 8v, drives like an old man with hat. Maybe because I escaped a car accident years ago. But also because the automatic transmission, in comfort mode, keeps you in 6th gear asap, changing gear something around 2000 rpm or less.

My S3 has 10.000 km now and it has been always refueled with V-Power.

My father has a manual Q3 2.0 TFSI 140hp and he always push the gears to the red line. Well, driving it it seems more quick than my S3! The awkward thing is that also the 1.2 TFSI A1 of my mother looks like quicker.

Apart of this paranoid sensations I would like to know if it is a myth or it is truth that in order to have a responsive engine you should push it to high revs.
 
Not sure if this is true with modern cars, but my old 1992 MR2 had this. it was a lazy car, drove it till the engine was the right temperature. removed something from the engine, put it back and drove it like i stole it.
After that it responded a bit quicker on the gas
 
There is some truth to it as modern ECU's are closed loop and will take measurements and adjust over time to your particular driving style.
But similarly, the way to cure this is take it out and drive it like you stole it for a while and it will re-learn and become more responsive!!
But I can't believe a 1.2TFSi A1 feels quicker than an S3 lol :D
 
do a TB reset
 
it can be my mind, but when i drive in low revs in efficiency or manual for a while, then turn on to individual, it seems to take a little more to transform into beast.
 
Theres alot to be said for a good Italian tune up.
 
Any car or motorcycle will benefit from an Italian tune from time to time.
 
You should exercise the engine over a wide rev range during the run in period, it's a myth that you should keep it at low revs
 
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danilotto said:
Hi all,

Someone told me one day that if you do not push your throttle and you always drive at low revs the car tendes to become "lazy".

Now, I am that kind of driver that, despite having an S-Tronic S3 8v, drives like an old man with hat. Maybe because I escaped a car accident years ago. But also because the automatic transmission, in comfort mode, keeps you in 6th gear asap, changing gear something around 2000 rpm or less.

My S3 has 10.000 km now and it has been always refueled with V-Power.

My father has a manual Q3 2.0 TFSI 140hp and he always push the gears to the red line. Well, driving it it seems more quick than my S3! The awkward thing is that also the 1.2 TFSI A1 of my mother looks like quicker.

Apart of this paranoid sensations I would like to know if it is a myth or it is truth that in order to have a responsive engine you should push it to high revs.
Click to expand...

I had to smile when I read this, danilotto! I think I'm in the lazy camp too, although not necessarily by choice.

I've driven automatics for many years but nothing with as many gear permutations as my S3. I've had the car for four weeks and driven almost 500 miles. During that time, I've been gentle with the revs. Whilst this is partly to follow the recommendations in the handbook, it's also due to the fact that as soon as I approach 3k revs, I'm exceeding the speed limit. Even on the motorway the car just seems to tick over at 70mph.

I've read the comments of other contributors about running in (or not) and I'd like to start building up the revs to use the car to its full potential. However, as I said above, anything approaching 4k revs seems to put me in 3 point/£60.00 territory.

I spotted a piece by one of our members about using M4 for a certain distance, max load and low load etc but I can't seem to find it. Additionally, I wasn't sure what our member meant about "low load" or whatever the piece actually said.

Can someone point me in the right direction please and let me have some thoughts on getting the best out of the gear box whilst staying legal?

Sorry to appear so dim about these things. In my defence, I would mention that I'm in that special 2% age bracket. I'm also fairly good with the PC, so many thanks for the respect Daz Auto!
BARRY
 
I been driving my civic diesel like a grandad after a nightmare blow out on the motorway. Few months back I started getting problems with the EGR getting blocked so take it on the motorway now and then for a blast but it has caused long term problems with it.
 
Certainly back in the day of leaded fuels and crap lubricants when a car needed a decoke every 10,000 miles or so then a good thrash every now and then did help to keep the cylinder deposits down.

But with modern lean burn engines with modern clean fuels and oils huge amounts of carbon deposits just don't happen.
However if you going to drive it like one of those battery powered thing I see in Tesco and on the high street then make sure you don't drive at too low revs to the point where the engine is not spinning smoothly as that can seriously damage an engine.
 
steeve said:
Certainly back in the day of leaded fuels and **** lubricants when a car needed a decoke every 10,000 miles or so then a good thrash every now and then did help to keep the cylinder deposits down.

But with modern lean burn engines with modern clean fuels and oils huge amounts of carbon deposits just don't happen.
However if you going to drive it like one of those battery powered thing I see in Tesco and on the high street then make sure you don't drive at too low revs to the point where the engine is not spinning smoothly as that can seriously damage an engine.
Click to expand...

I'm not for a minute suggesting there is an extant issue with the A3 for this but to suggest that things have got better is wrong IMHO.

The introduction of direct injection has made things worse at least for petrol engines. Indirect injection used to help keep the valves clean by spraying fuel (a solvent) over them. Direct injection means you no longer get that benefit and certain engines seem to suffer quite badly, just look at the B7 RS4's V8 for coking issues.

I think some of the newer cars have both direct and indirect injection which helps but there's still scope for problems.

And that's not even getting on to EGRs pumping partially burnt exhaust gases back through the engine...
 
Steve

Coking unfortunately affects all FSI engines, and is the bane of the S3 8P, RS4 V8, RS5 V8, RS6 V8 etc. etc.


This is the S3 engine as fitted to the 8P (It belongs to @S3Alex)

DSC044231024x768_zpsc985e4f4.jpg



One factor why I decided to change my 8P for a 8V is that the S3 8V engine has an indirect port injector to try and alleviate this issue.


Have a read:
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/preventing-carbon-build-up-2-0-tfsi.217234/
 
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barboy said:
Can someone point me in the right direction please and let me have some thoughts on getting the best out of the gear box whilst staying legal?
Click to expand...

Use the paddles!

Eg. If you're at 50mph on the motorway, flick the left paddle until it says M3, then accelerate and hang on!
 
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If you haven't bought a performance car to give it a thrashing every now and then, what's the point!
 
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veeeight said:
Any car or motorcycle will benefit from an Italian tune from time to time.
Click to expand...
Mine gets one every day in effect, is there such a thing as too often? ;)

barboy said:
I've read the comments of other contributors about running in (or not) and I'd like to start building up the revs to use the car to its full potential. However, as I said above, anything approaching 4k revs seems to put me in 3 point/£60.00 territory.
Click to expand...
£100 now alas, I know this for a fact as I recent got a nice letter inviting me to cough up. :(

Also it's pretty easy to hit the redline without speeding, just use M2 or S. If you boot it from a standstill in S you'll be in second and doing around 70 when it upshifts to third.
 
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