2010 JSW Rough/Jerky Shift in "S" Mode

[goodthymes]

Sorry if I'm dredging up an issue already discussed, I think I might have seen it in another thread but for the life of me, I can not find it at the moment.

Has anyone else with a 09/10 TDI experienced a very sudden and violent jolt when the transmission is shifting in S mode? I've experienced three times so far, all while in S mode picking up speed after a stop? This happened with gentle application of the accelerator, as I'm still conscious of the break-in period and this car has only about 2000 miles on it so far. It's disconcerting and scared the hell out of my wife when it happened tonight, the car seem to buckled and snapped into gear and rolled along like nothing happened, no weird noise or any other sounds from the engine after the fact. I'm a little worried about damage to the transmission, especially in the long run. Any thoughts or insights? Thanks much in advance.

 

[elcaminokid]

I know in general its pretty snappy in sport mode, but I have had occasional moments where i think "*** dsg", so all we can do is wait it out and see. But in normal drive mode I have very rarely if ever noticed anything odd from the dsg.

 

[meowguy]

Has anyone else with a 09/10 TDI experienced a very sudden and violent jolt when the transmission is shifting in S mode?

I had that a few times early on. You are coming to a stop in "S" mode, the transmission is shifting down, but it seems it loses its place and takes up quickly when you press the accelerator.

Try to avoid this if it bothers you. Avoid it by:
1. Using "D" when you come into a stop and then shifting to "S".
2. Using Tiptronic mode and down and up shifting yourself.

I will say that after 10,000 miles my transmission is just smooth as can be no matter how I run it, so I think your DSG will out grow it.

 

[Pelican18TQA4]

Having owned two DSG-equipped cars and having spent a decent amount of time behind the wheel of my mom's '09 TDI DSG, I am very familiar with the DSG and its inherent quirks.

When in Drive, and coming to a stop, if you don't actually completely stop for at least a split-second, the DSG will remain in 2nd gear and will roll that gear. This is not the case in Sport, when the DSG will select 1st gear as you're coming to a stop. Problem is, if you're driving habits have you not completely stopping, you can get caught trying to accelerate just as the DSG is downshifting to 1st gear which causes a sudden lurch, sometimes preceded by a slight delay in response. The solution is to come to a complete stop when in Sport mode. For those drivers that are more in-tune with the mechanics of the car and transmission, you can actually feel and sometimes even hear the transmission select 1st gear as you're coming to a stop so you can wait to accelerate until you detect that. Of course, you could always just avoid coming to a stop, but that's illegal in instances like a stop sign and/or red light, etc.

Note, behavior is similar to Sport mode when in Tiptronic mode, if you allow the transmission to automatically downshift as you're slowing down. When in Tiptronic mode, if you're the "almost stop but don't comletely stop" driver, I would advise manually downshifting to 1st to avoid the sudden lurch upon acceleration. Stopping completely for a split-second will allow enough time for the DSG to downshift to 1st automatically. Or, like I said above, you could always keep your speed up enough that the transmission can maintain 2nd gear. Same disclaimer applies, of course.

 

[TDI-Shawn]

Having owned two DSG-equipped cars and having spent a decent amount of time behind the wheel of my mom's '09 TDI DSG, I am very familiar with the DSG and its inherent quirks.

When in Drive, and coming to a stop, if you don't actually completely stop for at least a split-second, the DSG will remain in 2nd gear and will roll that gear. This is not the case in Sport, when the DSG will select 1st gear as you're coming to a stop. Problem is, if you're driving habits have you not completely stopping, you can get caught trying to accelerate just as the DSG is downshifting to 1st gear which causes a sudden lurch, sometimes preceded by a slight delay in response. The solution is to come to a complete stop when in Sport mode. For those drivers that are more in-tune with the mechanics of the car and transmission, you can actually feel and sometimes even hear the transmission select 1st gear as you're coming to a stop so you can wait to accelerate until you detect that. Of course, you could always just avoid coming to a stop, but that's illegal in instances like a stop sign and/or red light, etc.

Note, behavior is similar to Sport mode when in Tiptronic mode, if you allow the transmission to automatically downshift as you're slowing down. When in Tiptronic mode, if you're the "almost stop but don't comletely stop" driver, I would advise manually downshifting to 1st to avoid the sudden lurch upon acceleration. Stopping completely for a split-second will allow enough time for the DSG to downshift to 1st automatically. Or, like I said above, you could always keep your speed up enough that the transmission can maintain 2nd gear. Same disclaimer applies, of course.

Great explanation, this is EXACTLY the case from my experience in the first 3000 miles. I do not believe this will "go away" with break-in, but rather this is part of the character of the system as described above.

Instead of the DSG getting broken-in, it's actually the driver that is/will be broken-in (you/me). I've already gotten to a point, where I no longer have this occur to me. I didn't break it down into the exact logic as written above, but instinctually felt the problem and how to drive to not have it occur. Now that I've read the description above, it's basically training my foot/driving to not aggravate the shift-down situation by suddenly make an opposing move and being what I felt as "stuck between gears".

In that way, this seemed very familiar to me as a manual/stick driver for 20+ years. As they say, DSG is not an automatic, it's an automated manual (or something like that) And, when you think of it that way, you learn how to use it so it's not erratic.

That said, the "S" drive is still not buttery-smooth as my previous BMW X3's steptronic transmission and "different". That thing (a '05) was almost flawless. So, for a car that is almost half the price, the DSG-equipped JSW is not bad at all, especially once you learn how to treat it.

 

[Pelican18TQA4]

TDI-Shawn, you're right, this is very similar to driving a manual transmission car. When you're slowing down you can definitely reach that speed where 2nd gear is too high and yet engaging 1st gear will be "clunky" unless you slip the clutch a lot. The DSG is really no different and Drive mode does a really good job of covering up instances like this. By the way, every engine/DSG combination I've driven behaves like this, including TDI (BEW), VR6, 2.0T, and TDI (CBEA).

 

[goodthymes]

Thanks all, for the quick and informative replies. I suppose I was a bit overly concerned as this was my first "non-automatic" car and one that was purchased brand new, in addition to the fact that I rarely drive in "S" mode. Note to self...get out of S mode when coming up to the railroad track .

 

[RV8 Mike]

Being new to the DSG transmission myself, can one change from the "D" mode to the manual/Tiptronic mode at any speed, or do you have to be at a complete stop? I've been reluctant to try it for fear of grinding some gears.

 

[k3ys3r_soz3]

Being new to the DSG transmission myself, can one change from the "D" mode to the manual/Tiptronic mode at any speed, or do you have to be at a complete stop? I've been reluctant to try it for fear of grinding some gears.

Yes you can - it will just continue in the gear that you were already in and you can change gears manually from there. The gear you are currently in will be shown on the display screen (I can never remember what its called). I believe that there is also a safety, where you can't over-rev the engine if you change too many gears down at high speed so you don't trash the transmission.

 

[RV8 Mike]

Thanks. I'm enjoying our nice sunny, warm weather, but I bet your olympic fans are disappointed.

 

[El Dobro]

The engineers know about the problem and are working on it in Germany.