Cold Start, Shift from Park to Reverse or Drive, DSG "Slams" into Gear & Stalls Engin

Cold Start, Shift from Park to Reverse or Drive, DSG "Slams" into Gear & Stalls Engin

Per thread title, I have a 2015 VW Passat TDI SEL Premium w/DSG. Bought it in early November w/11k miles on it. Was a Texas vehicle, now in Wisconsin. Put about 2,000 miles on it since purchase to now. First month of ownership, no problems. Second month of ownership, a couple of times on first start in the morning, parked in garage, car starts and runs fine, put foot on brake, shift into Reverse, let foot off brake, and before I get to the accelerator pedal, car starts nudging back but then slams into gear, jerks back and stalls engine. Third month of ownership, this situation happens about 50% of the time, and does it now when leaving work at end of day, same scenario except when putting the shifter into Drive. Yesterday, did this situation with slamming and stalling the engine 3 consecutive times until the 4th time got through it. Always, after getting the car moving with engine running, cannot duplicate it immediately after car gets moving, or after car has warmed up and been driven any distance. Car still has 5 months of bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Is this a somewhat common issue with DSG's/TDI's?

The 13 and both 15s I have do some strange things when very cold, but nothing like you describe, ever, and I drove the 13 through two cold winters. I would say the DSG needs to relearn it’s engagement points except for the fact that you say it’s fine when warm which goes against a relearn.

I wonder if DSG recalibration would help?

tdiatlast said:

I wonder if DSG recalibration would help?

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First thing I thought as well but you would think it wouldn’t get better when warm if it was needed. Wouldn’t hurt to try though I guess.

I have a 2015 that does the exact same thing. only not near as often. Its very intermittent and random. maybe once every 50 cold starts. only at 20k miles also

I'm wondering if outside temperature does have an effect. The past 3-4 days in Wisconsin have been above freezing during the daytime. I think I've experienced this issue maybe 2x during this period. Before that, we had 2 weeks where the daytime highs were between 0 to 10 deg F above, and below 0 at night, and it was more frequent during that period. I was just thinking my situation was deteriorating at the same time the winter cold was settling in - just coincidence. But with the somewhat warmer period now, the incidents have reduced a lot. Will get cooler over the next week (not quite as cold as when the issues were more significant, but cooler than now) - I'll see if the frequency of incidents changes or not.

This morning, after a cold start in the garage (must have been mid to upper 40's in the garage), it did stall again after shifting from park into R and after letting my foot off the brake but before getting to the accelerator, but it didn't slam or lurch. I usually do this shift immediately after the engine starts - maybe I should let it run 10-15 seconds before backing out of the garage. Not sure I want to introduce this variable at the same time the temperatures are changing though.

Every "automatic" car I've owned/encountered has stressful shifts when very cold. With the DSG, you have no torque converter softening the roughness, and the brains of the DSG, the mechatronic, probably senses some resistance from the thickened DSG fluid and gets a bit confused.

The last part of that sentence is a WAG...

tdiatlast said:

Every "automatic" car I've owned/encountered has stressful shifts when very cold. With the DSG, you have no torque converter softening the roughness, and the brains of the DSG, the mechatronic, probably senses some resistance from the thickened DSG fluid and gets a bit confused.

The last part of that sentence is a WAG...

Click to expand...

To add to this, all three of mine would false shift to second when very cold. Meaning, I would slowly accelerate and near 2000 rpm the car would shift and then immediately go back to first. On really cold days it would do it two or three times in a row. My solution was to use manual mode for the first mile or so.

I would at least try the calibration.

Did you buy this from a VW Dealer as a buy back fix?

Locoelectrician said:

To add to this, all three of mine would false shift to second when very cold. Meaning, I would slowly accelerate and near 2000 rpm the car would shift and then immediately go back to first. On really cold days it would do it two or three times in a row. My solution was to use manual mode for the first mile or so.

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My 2009 JSW did this, often, and that unexpected downshift BACK into 1st gear would cause quite a violent slam.

Mechatronic was replaced at 17k miles, under warranty. Problem solved...but...this wasn't temperature related...

740GLE said:

I would at least try the calibration.

Did you buy this from a VW Dealer as a buy back fix?

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Yes. It also has 5 months remaining on the original 3-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, and is a CPO after that.