"Surging" "lurching" or shift hesitation

[FeelingMN]

Newbie here.
2011 A3 TDI, 7K miles.
I picked her up in Duluth, GA in late June and drove her back to Minnesota. We then went on a long road trip west, hence the 7K miles so soon. (We tried very hard to obey the break in guidelines.)

I notice when driving very slowly, cold (say leaving a parking lot or ramp) it has a tendency to lurch -- trying to find a gear?

I've found references to this behavior on the forum, and there is a TSB from VW.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=326148
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5387091-DSG-TDI-Updates

But I am new to TDI and diesel driving...is it my driving style, or should I be calling the service department to see if the TSB applies to my darling A3 as well?

 

[palewhitemale]

it isn't the TDI, it is the DSG working at slow speeds.

Keep in mind that the car is faking the behavior of an automatic with an automated clutch (pair, actually, but only one at a time).

I've found that in D it does pretty well at low speeds around town, but you can definitely fake it out and get it to surge.

In my experience, if you're particularly smooth with the pedal, its a bit better at slow speeds, and definitely don't put it in S or Manual mode because the trans then acts like a manual, keeping the clutch closed and giving you the engine braking characteristics of direct drive rather than the coasting characteristics of an automatic when you pull off the pedal.

-bill

 

[chetdi]

In addition to that, my wife's 2012 TDI JSW was also doing something similar.

At first I thought it was the DSG working/being funky at slow speeds, but the service department also told me that when the car is first turned on and running at slow speeds, it will usually kick on the air pump. If the engine is going slow enough, the power drawn from the pump will pull enough to cause the lurching.

I figure if it's something really bad, it will blow up long before the powertrain warranty ends, but I'm not too worried.

As for the A3 TDI, I actually just bought one this weekend, so I'll keep my eye out for the lurching on this one as well

 

[CRdeesl]

ya I definitely get the lurch, at least once a week while navigating out of the parking lot at work. I've only had it since mid-august; I'll mention it to my dealership as soon as I find the time to get over there.

 

[chetdi]

Lemme know what they say! I'm curious if their response will be the same as my dealers

 

[nittany1]

I get the lurch with my 2012 Jetta TDI too. I get mine on the school run at slow speeds. I'm like, car, stop making me look like a teenager with a learning permit. The only thing that seems to clear the lurch is to let up on the throttle completely. My next TDI will be a manual trans. The engineers were so busy thinking about whether they could do something they forgot to ask if they should do it.

 

[FeelingMN]

nittany1 - exactly! It's kind of embarassing.

I will bring it up at the next service and let you all know what they tell me.

 

[mikeyredk]

There is a DSG update that was released a couple months ago I just got it installed today the transmission feels better especially when I approach a red light

Hope that helps

 

[A3TDI_NJ]

Get the DSG update at your next service interval. I have not had a lurch (3 weeks) since the update and the transmission feels very smooth now at low speeds.

 

[FeelingMN]

Yep, the DSG update fixed it.

When I took her in for the fuel injector recall, I asked about the DSG update, and they applied that as well.

 

[CRdeesl]

I took mine in for service on 2/13/12, and mentioned the lurching issue. The tech said they took it out and "could not replicate the issue", so they didn't address it. They also said there was no applicable service bulletin on the DSG, so i don't know if anyone has a reference to the actual bulletin...

In other news, my auto up/down wasn't working on the rear pass side, and they did fix that...but caused my driver window to stop doing auto up/down! I lived with it for a couple weeks and was about to bring it back in when it all of a sudden started working again...electrical problems on an audi!? Never!! This does have me a little scared, though, for the future.

 

[chetdi]

I took mine in for service too, but was also told there were no updates.

I was really hoping too; my wife just had her '11 JSW TDI in for service, and SHE had an update- it made the drive smooth as butter! Maybe they're still in the process of tuning the config before they release it to the dealers.

Good luck with those electrical switches