As part of my fleet reduction process I'm going to buy an A3 Quattro Petrol version. Just wondering if the Stronic box likes towing and any tips you can offer.
Towing with STronic
- Thread starter SootySport
- Start date
OldRedEyes
Registered User
I tow a heavy caravan with my Passat that has a dsg box. It works perfectly, saves a lot of going up and down the box on hills etc too.
Excellent, Do you use the full auto all the time or use the manual shift in certain circumstances? I'll be towing 1200 kilos.
OldRedEyes
Registered User
I just leave it in D, my van is 1600kgs and feel no need to change out of that tbh, the only time i have had to do it is when it dropped into a false neutral, a quick swipe into S got it back, it has only done that three times, one of them whilst towing, since they changed the firmware in the box it hasn't done it once, and that's a further 40k.
you won't regret it.
you won't regret it.
I'd be inclined to stick it in manual mode so you have better control over what gear it is in and also it will help with engine braking downhill too.
True but when I brake on a downhill my box puts it into a lower gear, sometimes revs shoot up over 3,000 when it does so.
Well, I guess I'll have to try both manual and auto and see how it drives. Just read the handbook and seems auto will give me hill descent control for tricky and wet hills, the box and Quattro will just sort it all out ---automatically
Up hills could be either way, need to try both ways to see which works.
I've towed with an old type hydraulic box in the past and holding gears up and downhill was required, otherwise the old box would keeping changing gear all the time.
Probably not going to be towing till next year now.
Up hills could be either way, need to try both ways to see which works.
I've towed with an old type hydraulic box in the past and holding gears up and downhill was required, otherwise the old box would keeping changing gear all the time.
Probably not going to be towing till next year now.
Yeah you're right but you said you put it into manual, and I said my box kinda does that for me while in D so you don't have to put it into manual, although manual will give you most control.
Ah I get you now. I tried D for a few months and found that it would nearly always be in too high a gear i.e. off boost so when I needed to overtake, so I would have to engage kick down and instead of dropping down to 4th or 3rd if I was in M it would pick 2nd and rev the nuts off it for a split second, hit the rev limiter and change up because technically that was the lowest possible gear available for maximum acceleration (fecking computers!).
Haha! I completely agree, kick down is almost always no use whatsoever. And during the lag between planting your foot and getting power you can easily knock the paddle, lose two gears and be gone.
Kick down needs to be reprogrammed to give us the gear it usually would plus one because it's always too low.
I must say, however, by being gentler with the throttle I can, at will, make the box drop one or two gears rather than going into full blown nuclear war (aka kick down) lol...
