I plan to keep my car for at least 5 years and I wonder if choosing a 1.4/1.5 DSG Ateca will be a good idea. I am wondering if I need to worry about a dry clutch with start stop raffic.
Some of my car journeys can have a lot of start stop traffic ie: stuck in queues edging forward a few feet - stop - edge forward a few feet - stop - and repeat for sometimes quite a while. Will this sort of driving be an issue for the dry clutch DSG? I noticed in the online owners manual it mentions the gearbox could overheat and cause damage? "In certain driving situations or traffic conditions, such as frequently starting, prolonged "creeping" of the vehicle or traffic jams with continuous stoppages, the gearbox could overheat causing damage! If the warning lamp lights up, stop the vehicle as soon as possible and wait for the gearbox to cool"
I have always owned manual cars and borrowed an automatic car a few times about 10 years ago but it wasn't a DSG, so I haven't any experience or knowledge about DSG gearbox.
Auto start/stop (where the engine stops and restarts) will not put any stress on the clutch.
My understanding is that starting and stopping in traffic will not put any stress on the clutch as long as the clutch is fully engaged when you are moving.
The DSG is an automated manual gearbox. Riding the clutch in a DSG will cause premature wear and make it overheat, just as it would in a manual.
How do you ride the clutch in a DSG when you don't have a clutch pedal?!
If the car is moving (forwards or backwards) on 'tickover' or faster then the clutch is fully engaged. There will be no unnecessary friction or premature wear. When the car is held (at a standstill) on the foot brake then the clutch is fully disengaged and there will again be no unnecessary friction or premature wear.
Where premature wear will occur is when you 'cover' the foot brake so that the car moves slower than it would on tickover. This is the equivalent of riding the clutch in a manual as the clutch will be partially disengaged. This is what your quote from the manual refers to as 'creeping'.
In traffic, if you take your foot completely off the brake when the traffic moves and then when it stops you also come to a complete stop with your foot firmly on the brake (as opposed to creeping along at a slower-than-tickover-speed by partially pressing the brake pedal) you will be fine. The auto-hold helps greatly in this regard, as does stop/start (as no wear can occur with the engine off).
The above is based on internet research and personal experience of owning and driving a 2007 Leon 2.0 FR TFSI DSG and now my Ateca. The Leon was a dry clutch, 6 speed DSG, my Ateca is a 7 speed wet clutch.
NOTE: Covering the brake will only cause premature wear at slower than tickover crawling speeds. Covering the brake when driving at speed does not cause premature wear as the engine speed will adjust accordingly, just as in a manual.
In Eco, the DSG will disengage the clutch when you remove your foot from the accelerator and will coast. There is no engine braking. If you cover the brake, the clutch will re-engage and you will get engine braking.
Auto start/stop (where the engine stops and restarts) will not put any stress on the clutch.
My understanding is that starting and stopping in traffic will not put any stress on the clutch as long as the clutch is fully engaged when you are moving.
The DSG is an automated manual gearbox. Riding the clutch in a DSG will cause premature wear and make it overheat, just as it would in a manual.
How do you ride the clutch in a DSG when you don't have a clutch pedal?!
If the car is moving (forwards or backwards) on 'tickover' or faster then the clutch is fully engaged. There will be no unnecessary friction or premature wear. When the car is held (at a standstill) on the foot brake then the clutch is fully disengaged and there will again be no unnecessary friction or premature wear.
Where premature wear will occur is when you 'cover' the foot brake so that the car moves slower than it would on tickover. This is the equivalent of riding the clutch in a manual as the clutch will be partially disengaged. This is what your quote from the manual refers to as 'creeping'.
In traffic, if you take your foot completely off the brake when the traffic moves and then when it stops you also come to a complete stop with your foot firmly on the brake (as opposed to creeping along at a slower-than-tickover-speed by partially pressing the brake pedal) you will be fine. The auto-hold helps greatly in this regard, as does stop/start (as no wear can occur with the engine off).
The above is based on internet research and personal experience of owning and driving a 2007 Leon 2.0 FR TFSI DSG and now my Ateca. The Leon was a dry clutch, 6 speed DSG, my Ateca is a 7 speed wet clutch.
NOTE: Covering the brake will only cause premature wear at slower than tickover crawling speeds. Covering the brake when driving at speed does not cause premature wear as the engine speed will adjust accordingly, just as in a manual.
In Eco, the DSG will disengage the clutch when you remove your foot from the accelerator and will coast. There is no engine braking. If you cover the brake, the clutch will re-engage and you will get engine braking.
Thank you. Will check out the YouTube video when I get WiFi later. Just had a quick scan through some of the comments it seems a lot of them are not a fan of DSG lol.
When you say "Where premature wear will occur is when you 'cover' the foot brake so that the car moves slower than it would on tickover. This is the equivalent of riding the clutch in a manual as the clutch will be partially disengaged. This is what your quote from the manual refers to as 'creeping'."
Does that mean when the car moves forward or backward without me pressing the accelerator pedal? If so, then that is what could wear out the clutch/overheat the gearbox but when I test drove a 1.5 DSG I struggled to reverse using the accelerator pedal, I found it made the car move back too fast if I used the accelerator pedal even with only a gentle foot, it was just a bit too fast for my liking. When I let it "creep" backward in reverse gear (so my foot was not on the accelerator at all) I had to keep applying the brake on and off to do parallel parking, or to reverse in or out of my driveway for example.
I also noticed when I pulled off from a complete stop the car changed into 2nd gear within only a few seconds. In heavy slow moving traffic I should imagine this will not be a good thing as clutch will be slipping with changing to 2nd so quickly and then me stopping only seconds later when the traffic has stopped moving again.
I found it a pleasant drive I really enjoyed it. So much more enjoyable than manual. But I have seen a lot of comments on forums warning against dry clutch DSG's so cannot make up my mind whether to go for it or not.
There are hundreds of thousands of VAG 7 speed dry clutch boxes in use. There were significant problems some years ago but relatively few recent ones. "Honest John", possibly another Trumpian slip, has got a bee in his bonnet about it and slags it off at every possible opportunity on his Telegraph "advice" column. I understand that VAG are sympathetic to claims outside warranty if you are unfortunate enough to be one of the few that still hit a problem in the longer term. Understanding how the box works and what not to do will help avoid any potential problems.
What I mean is that the car is moving but the only pedal you are pressing is the brake pedal. So you are using the brake to make the car go slower than it would on tickover.
You have to look at this in the same way as you would with a manual. Occasionally riding the clutch in a manual isn't going to immediately wear the clutch out, but if you do it all the time, every day, then it will wear out prematurely.The same is true for a DSG.
The other thing that will cause premature wear is to hold the car on a hill with the accelerator rather than the brake. This is something you can do in a traditional automatic with a torque convertor (which will not wear out, as opposed to a clutch) and people who have come from a traditional automatic may be in the habit of doing this. If you have come from a manual, I doubt you are in the habit of holding the car on a hill by riding the clutch as this is something that would wear out a manual clutch as well.
Here is another short video which explains things really well:
As Fred states, some journos have an issue with the DSG. There was an issue when the DSG first came out, but these problems have all been ironed out.
I bought my DSG to tow a caravan. I'm not worried at all about the DSG wearing out prematurely. If I was, I would have gone for a manual or a traditional automatic with a torque converter.
The other thing that will cause premature wear is to hold the car on a hill with the accelerator rather than the brake. This is something you can do in a traditional automatic with a torque convertor (which will not wear out, as opposed to a clutch) and people who have come from a traditional automatic may be in the habit of doing this. If you have come from a manual, I doubt you are in the habit of holding the car on a hill by riding the clutch as this is something that would wear out a manual clutch as well.
Eh? Not only does the car have hill hold to stop the car rolling back but has an auto hold brake to boot. Why anyone feels the need to use the accelerator to hold the car is beyond me.
For what it's worth I tried a DSG Golf estate (GTD - no idea if it was wet, dry seven or six speed) and didn't like it. Not only did it seem to hold on to gears for longer than I would have liked, I found it a tad jumpy when creeping along. That said I believe the 3 series I test drove also had a dual-clutch auto box, and that was as smooth as silk.
Eh? Not only does the car have hill hold to stop the car rolling back but has an auto hold brake to boot. Why anyone feels the need to use the accelerator to hold the car is beyond me.
Well, if you come from the traditional automatic, you might think that's a good way to hold the car still. And by the way, there is no Hill Hold in the Ateca, only Auto Hold. If you disengage Auto Hold, there is no hold function whatsoever - the car starts to move on the same instant you release the foot brake, if you are not on the level surface. The Hill Hold was a 2 second hold function in the older VW group cars, that worked with the hydraulic brakes, but that is not present in the Ateca (unfortunately, I would say - I liked that function very much).
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