New DSG gearbox after 6700 miles

Is the DSG simply just defending itself from abuse? It changes down to 1st if you forget when coming to a stand-still... would you complain about it not automatically stopping you from stalling as it's "obvious you want 1st when you stop"?

(not being argumentative... just very interested /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif )
 
I rarely use the 'auto change down' either.It waits until the car is practically stopped before engaging first and I found that infuriating as well (quel surprise).

There have been umpteen times when I've found myself trying to pull away from a junction/roundabout and the car hasn't changed down to first,so you're left accelerating like a milkfloat in second.

Unfortunately,changing down to first manually,before the car would itself,makes the car jerk like hell.

There's no winning with it.
 
I'm still very confused by all this wanting to hold your car bouncing off the rev limiter. I've never been in a situation when I have wanted that to happen (ok perhaps as a young man I may have had the odd hire car I wanted to see what would happen to the engine if you drove on the rev limit but I was young and stupid!) This is both on the road and on the track.

If your going round a corner with your foot planted and you hit the rev limiter it will upset the balance of the car so pressumably you would enter the corner in a higher gear?

I think we can take it that Bowfer wont buy another car he hasn't test driven in the future...
 
audi upgrades
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I think we can take it that Bowfer wont buy another car he hasn't test driven in the future...

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I didn't test my drive my A4
I didn't test drive my 156
I didn't test drive my 1.8T Golf

None of them have given me such frustration as my A3.

I'll take press reports with a pinch of salt from now on,that's for sure.
They all said DSG was the bee's knees.
Perhaps it is when you only have it for a couple of days.
Certainly for the first few days of ownership,I thought it was great.
It took me weeks to fully discover it's 'foibles' and start thinking 'oh hang on...I don't like that'.

When can I think about replacing it with a manual S-line sportback anyway ? (non-quattro,don't want it)
 
To me, not to test drive the same or a very similar model of car before buying one is just plain daft. When I purchased my Golf VR6 I drove over 200 miles each way to a delaer that had one as a demonstrator before I decided. But that was parting with my own money rather than choosing a company car.

When I test drove various models of the new A3, petrol and diesel, manual and DSG it was obvious that the DSG would change up at the red line and down to a lower gear whenever the revs were too low within the first 2-3 minutes of switching to 'manual' mode. My first experience of this type of behaviour was when I borrowed an A4 multitronic for a day some years ago. I liked it so much that I was hoping that Audi would bring out a multitronic version of the A3 but they only add a 'normal' automatic to the range. Then came the new A3 and the DSG which I think is much better than the multitronic as the engine note always matches the road speed which was not the case with the multitronic.

I ordered my A3 in March 2004 and had definitely read some information on a wesite that said it changed up at the red line and down when the revs were to low for the selected gear to prevent over-reving and stalling respectively.

I agree with the point about not believing all that you read but as I think you will now agree you MUST test drive the car BEFORE you buy rather than after.
 
Must admit I've got DSG and I like it, and I'd probably have another. However.....

I would prefer for it to be more 'manual', i.e. shift when I want to shift.
I'd also like it to accept more aggresive change downs, i.e. drop a gear earlier and come in higher on the rev range.

The most annoying thing though is when you break traction and it decides to change up, engine bogs down and you're going nowhere fast.

I've got used to most of the quirks, including the inability to leap out at roundabouts. I still manage to have fun with it though. Too much really. My first set of fronts are just about dead after 11k miles. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Cheers Eeef
You're one of the few that actually acknowledges the problems I keep mentioning exist, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gifas opposed to suggesting there's something wrong with my driving... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bang.gif
 
I'm sure there is nothing at all wrong with your driving style bowfer. It's just that it's not suited to the car that you are currently driving.
 
hell no bowfer, i had a 2.0T FSI DSG as a courtesy car while my S3 was in. The moment i went to pull away sharpish from the junction at the garage (in the wet), it decided to rev the balls of the engine and dump the clutch. I must admit i found it funny, although i also wanted a reliable way to launch the car.

after two days of driving (and i'll be the first to admit this isnt long enough) i still hadnt found the balance between laying down 2" of rubber or pulling away like a "milkfloat" as described above. Sometimes, without any method though, the clutch would bite halfway, and the "getaway" would be respectable, although rarely.

One thing i found dangerous in the wet was overtaking at low speed. When requiring a surge of power, the box would knock it down a couple of gears, rev, and dump the clutch, making the wheels spin and the front wander. I didnt do that again.

neither in the above two occaisions did esp bother kicking in, i manually corrected after giving up thinking esp would sort it out.

All i can put the above down to is being a hopeless noob at driving an automatic, or the DSG is terrible at controlling the delivery of power smoothly. (tbh, happy to accept the hopeless automatic noob /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif , but based on these experiences i didnt feel like i wanted to get to learn how to drive it)

Based on my experience and the unintentional abuse the car received from me, i wouldnt recomend an ex-demonstrator or courtesy car.....

needless to say i was happy to get my manual s3 back again. I'd rather drive the car than let it drive me.
 
I don't think the A3 TDI is a car suited to bouncing off the rev limiter, nor is it necessary. A 1.8T petrol maybe but not a diesel. A different driving approach is needed. It took a while for me to get used to the golf 150pd for this reason. The A3 might seem quicker red lining it, but I bet that if you were to drive the same route like this and then again 1 gear higher you would find that the later option would in fact be quicker overall.

You can get the needle into the red in the first couple of gears also - I have done it ( Cheechy was with me on one occasion trying it )

Other than that, I have always changed up before the DSG decided to.

The changing up, because of wheelspin ( Eeef ) is not something I have experienced other than in snow, when it works / helps brilliantly.

Southerners may not feel the benefit of this, but maybe bowfer will post a DSG positive this winter /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

At the end of the day and not wishing to offend but a test drive is a necessity especially if it's your own hard earned your shelling out.
 
I really don't get any of these problems... but I guess a 3.2 Quattro may get round them (power all the time, and no loss of grip when it kicks in). It took me 6 months to drive in really hard in manual, with traction control off, on the twisties... but then I'm a wimp anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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I notice the DSG was on Top Gear again last night, in the TT, and the presenters that didn't like the car still had to agree that the gearbox was "incredible"... all down to taste, I know, but nice to here some others in agreement /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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The word Hammond used was 'phenomenal',but he also said something along the lines of "it's still an automatic",which I agree with.

It's an automatic that allows you to play at manual,but it still has all the ultimate control,as witnessed by the fact that it changes up for you when it thinks you've 'had quite enough revs thank you sir'.


Urm, Bowfer, have you driven a ferrari with the semi auto gearbox? I can tell you its as jerky as american beef, the audi is way way smoother!!!

also, you think it would be a better gearbox? but isn't it still an auto?!?!!?!

sorry but if you hate your DSG because its an auto then you bought the wrong car, s line or not, your constant negative comments are getting quite boring now, don't know why you ever bought an audi to be honest, let alone frequent a forum just to slate them!

One thing that struck me though.
When they were thrashing around on the beach and the rally course,the 'auto change up near red-line' should/would have been very noticeable and intrusive.

It made me wonder if that car had it switched off.

Usually,in that kind of scenario you see any of the testers shouting "I don't want to ****** change up yet!" at the thing,much as I do.

The Ferrari that they tested had a much better paddle box.
For a start,the paddles were on the column instead of the wheel.That's a much much much better idea.
Secondly,the changes were instant with none of the 'blurring' (albeit slight) you get with the DSG.

It was engine note,cut ignition,engine note,if you get my drift.
Not engine note,slight but quick 'blur',engine note,as with the DSG.

It also didn't change up for him when he got near the red line,meaning he could hold the gear he was in.

If he'd tried some of those slides with the DSG,it would have been changing up for him halfway through and making him jerk all over the place.

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pc played funny b&^^ers on me, message again

Bowfer, have you driven a ferrari with the semi auto gearbox? I can tell you its as jerky as american beef, the audi is way way smoother!!!

also, you think it would be a better gearbox? but isn't it still an auto?!?!!?!

sorry but if you hate your DSG because its an auto then you bought the wrong car, s line or not, your constant negative comments are getting quite boring now, don't know why you ever bought an audi to be honest, let alone frequent a forum just to slate them!
 
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let alone frequent a forum just to slate them!

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it would be pretty dull if we all agreed on everything. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif
 
I agree - it's a forum. I know that bowfer hates his DSG just as much as I love mine. I'm sure we will continue 'discussing' the merits or otherwise for a long time to come.

Personally, I just cannot understand how anyone can buy / choose a car without driving it. I'm sure that if he had driven a DSG before he choose it then all the things he hates about the DSG would have been quite obvious to him and he would probably have gone for a different version with a manual gearbox or a different car altogether.
 
my next door neighbour bought a civic typeR without a test drive to replace his Gti, he went to the local honda dealer to arrange a test drive but they fanny'd about so he just ordered it anyway. He's not so sure about the decision now though...
 
I'm not sure that Bowfer would have found a test drive that useful - some of the things he has seen appear to be problems with his car (I think anyway) rather than just the way the gearbox operates. Having said that, he would have found the change up thing I would think.

I too ordered my car without having driven a DSG box, as no local dealers could get me one for ages and I had to order my car (company lease) within a few days. Luckily for me I love it, (probably simply because I saw it as an auto with a manual option rather than a manual with an auto option) but as Bowfer has stated, if you want S-Line TDi then DSG it is.... so I had no choice in the matter anyway.
 
We ordered the A3 having driven both (which will arrive on the 1st Sept). At the time i ask the dealer if my wife and i could drive the car for the morning.

We had the car for 2 hour. We both drive the car and found that for what we where going to use the car for the dsg was spot on.

But we did drive the 3.2Q and that is a total different car to the 20tdi.
 
Agreed - it is a forum and all

however, Not wishing to appear even more negative Bowfer but it appears you insisted on S line even though it was an auto (Which you cant blame the car for!) and also the other merit of the S-Line (The seats) you don't like either - would you not have been better with a sport?

I also agree with you Outlore, it would appear to me that the problems you have Bowfer are problems with your car, perhaps that would be a good reason to reject it and change?! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
no more needs to be said........

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
It's taken a week and half, but finally, today, Audi have decided that they will replace my gearbox, rather than stripping it down, to find the fault. The gearbox should be here next week, and take 2 days to fit .... talk about German efficiency ...

The scratch's have been repaired, and I must admit, the bodyshop did an amazing job .... just hope the technicians doing the gearbox are as competent.
Cheers
 
Nice to hear you've got a satisfactory result.
 
i find the sport setting very frustrating - it over revs the tdi by 400 rpm - whilst it sounds faster it is quicker in normal D drive position imo

in regards to round abouts - i find clicking into sport on the approach works as it selects a lower gear earlier - ie revs kept around 2000 rpm-seems to help a lot and tends to select 1st. The D drive position is far too lazy - holding on to gears in deceleration - then as you rocket off quickly slip into drive to stop the over reving....

i'm a fan of dsg but aware of its limitations

another gripe is the sequential manual gearstick - its back to front! surely backwards is + and forwards -?! any racing motor i've played with was this way around and seemed very logical - unlike the audi box!? but then again it might just be me?
 
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