Scirocco Central

Mainly one for tdi owners i think , i drive a manual tdi 140, what gear do you use when driving around town at 30 mph ? if im in 3rd i feel the revs are too high and if im in 4 th i feel the revs are too low , starting to get paranoid with it - any comments pls ?

Well I don't drive the 140TDI, yet. However i would suggest, stating the obvious, for fuel saving leave it 4th and if you want performance leave it in 3rd. In my current car if I am on a long stretch on 30mph road with few slowing/stopping areas on it then put in 4th and 3rd if its the other way round.

Cheers mate yes i appreciate the obvious, but since driving my firms Audi A4 i found that it was sitting at a more relaxed 1400 rpm in 4th whereas my Roc sits at about 1050 rpm in 4th , which im starting to dislike , and in 3rd the needle sits at about 1750 rpm and im always wanting to change up to 4th.

I have a 2.0 TSI but I RARELY find myself out of 6th gear, even around town it will go along fine in 6th at 30, only have to downshift to 3rd or 4th for hills or for junctions etc but I live in quite a rural place so apart from accelerating I am usually in 6th.

I have a 1.4 TSI and felt the same way at first, but I have got used to the fact that it will run quite happily like this. It will also pull away from 30 mph in 4th without any difficulty.

callum2009 wrote:I have a 2.0 TSI but I RARELY find myself out of 6th gear, even around town it will go along fine in 6th at 30, only have to downshift to 3rd or 4th for hills or for junctions etc but I live in quite a rural place so apart from accelerating I am usually in 6th.

30mph in 6th gear I would suggest that you are going to be massively labouring your engine doing that mate, and probably causing damage to it. There is a blance between performance, labouring the engine and economy of fuel.

I usually try to stick to roughly (depending on the road, hills etc...) 1st for upto 10-15, 2nd for 10-25, 3rd for 20-35, 4th for 30-45, 5th and 6th anything above that really, to suit.

It's healthier to rev an engine than labour it. No more needs to be said, does it?

callum2009 wrote:I have a 2.0 TSI but I RARELY find myself out of 6th gear, even around town it will go along fine in 6th at 30, only have to downshift to 3rd or 4th for hills or for junctions etc but I live in quite a rural place so apart from accelerating I am usually in 6th.

That's crazy! Putting the engine/clutch under that sort of strain all the time will not do much for longevity.

I'm a 140 driver and it really depends for me. If I'm going uphill (even relatively minor gradient) then it will be in third but if I'm on the flat or on a gentle downhill then I'll more than likely put it into fourth as I hardly need any power to continue motion. However, I wouldn't accelerate from 30 in fourth even downhill as you are again straining the mechanics of the car.

Hi
I can tell you that the R model width DSG is going i 6th when I am running at 30 mph 5th when running 25 mph, 4th at 18,5 mph and I must say it is not always
funny. I never use the flaps, but in time you learn to shift the gear with the foot on the pedal, but i agree it can be annoying to drive in so high gear.
But then again, I dont think VW has build the DSG in that way, if it will do any damage to the car :-)

interesting comments

Reverse!

i never let the car go below 2k rpm when on the move. like others have said, its not wise to make the engine labour

i suppose its ok if ur "cruising" at 2k rpm or just below (so off boost), but don't put ur foot down from say 1.5k rpm and force the engine to build up revs. better to change down to get the turbo spinning and then pedal to the metal.

all IMO of course.

You can't compare DSG and Manual

the DSG box would immediately kick down to a lower gear if the engine revs were too low when trying to accelerate.

it is interesting that the DSG is doing that. Does anyone else have a DSG that does theis too?

My DSG gets up the gears as quick as possible and at 30-40 I can be in 5/6 gear. But as soon as you apply some pressure it will go down gears quickly. In saying that, driving into London this morning and the gear box only really got into thrid/fourth - only because I couldn't go fast enough to get higher up the gears.

ashley1407 wrote:I'm a 140 driver and it really depends for me. If I'm going uphill (even relatively minor gradient) then it will be in third but if I'm on the flat or on a gentle downhill then I'll more than likely put it into fourth as I hardly need any power to continue motion. However, I wouldn't accelerate from 30 in fourth even downhill as you are again straining the mechanics of the car.

I'm a 170 driver and I'm more likely to be in 3rd at 30mph. The car's happy enough tickling along in 4th but my speed tends to creep up a bit and like Ashley said, I'd not welly the car from 30 in fourth. I've been driving diesel cars for years now (farmer's daughter, enough said) and was always taught to drive a diesel like you hated it.

Can't believe there's more than one person driving their car in 6th from 30 mph upwards; surely 6th is for 60mph + cruising only? My best buddy does the whole 'wherever I go I'm always in sixth' thing too, but then she's a terrible driver with no spacial awareness. She says I drive too fast and take risks, I have to take my glasses off when I'm her passenger in case I see what she's doing. Only one of us has a clean driving licence; it's not her.

When I test drove the R, it was telling me on the highline to put it in 6th gear (manual g/box) at just 35mph. It had no problems. Again you would have to change down to get going but it seemed happy enough.

I must admit, it went against everything I know about engine sounds/speed/driving combinations. However, this is the first time I have driven a car which advises gear change, I wouldnt imagine VAG would put programming in place that would cause stress etc....

I flicked through the owners manual yesterday, and it recommends 1st for upto 10km/h, 2nd for upto 20km/h etc.... it is odd that the DSG doesn't follow this.

Yeah but can you really compare an auto to a manual?

Deb wrote:

ashley1407 wrote:I'm a 140 driver and it really depends for me. If I'm going uphill (even relatively minor gradient) then it will be in third but if I'm on the flat or on a gentle downhill then I'll more than likely put it into fourth as I hardly need any power to continue motion. However, I wouldn't accelerate from 30 in fourth even downhill as you are again straining the mechanics of the car.

I'm a 170 driver and I'm more likely to be in 3rd at 30mph. The car's happy enough tickling along in 4th but my speed tends to creep up a bit and like Ashley said, I'd not welly the car from 30 in fourth. I've been driving diesel cars for years now (farmer's daughter, enough said) and was always taught to drive a diesel like you hated it.

Can't believe there's more than one person driving their car in 6th from 30 mph upwards; surely 6th is for 60mph + cruising only? My best buddy does the whole 'wherever I go I'm always in sixth' thing too, but then she's a terrible driver with no spacial awareness. She says I drive too fast and take risks, I have to take my glasses off when I'm her passenger in case I see what she's doing. Only one of us has a clean driving licence; it's not her.

Are you implying I am a poor driver becuase I use 6th gear whenever I am not accelerating? I don't leave it in 6th to accelerate, its if i am travelling along a continous 30 such as a village with no lights or junctions that I just leave it in 6th and the car goes along comfortably, if I then leave the 30 zone then I will switch to 3rd or 4th gear to accelerate up to the suitable speed for that road and then go back to 6th when I stop accelerating. About 80% of my driving is national speed limits or motorway travelling so I am not at 30 often but if I am in a 30 and see no reason to accelerate or decelerate then I leave the car in 6th gear. I am averaging 33.6mpg in a 2.0 TSI with 24,000 miles on the clock, I have a completely clean license and have never had an accident (touch wood) and having absolutely no problems with the car apart from a few punctures due to poor road conditions / nails.