DSG gearbox fault – repair or get rid of car.

I really do not get this (and I have said it on here several times before). I hated mine (Audi A6 Avant with the V6 diesel engine) – the slow pick-up of first gear at junctions drove me to distraction and almost put me off autos for life (as it was my first ever auto). My next car was a manual but I have now just gone back to auto (in a Mercedes) and the gearbox is infinitely better and I’d finally say I am converted and prefer auto.

The thing to remember is that a DSG is NOT an auto – it works on a completely different principle. In my experience they are far better suited for high performance versions whereas an auto (with a torque converter) isn’t quite as good in that situation.
In my car it’s brilliant but in my wife’s T-roc its a bit meh.
I’ve also had a big v6 diesel with an auto box and that was slow at picking up from roundabouts but I’m pretty sure that was related to turbo lag than the gearbox.

How is anyone going to hide a vehicle with a fubarred DSG gearbox when handing the keys back?

Easy. Buy a skoda and give ot back to the dealer. Skoda don’t acknowledge DSG faults without a fault code. (Slight sarcasm but also my own experience)

Get it scanned and if no fault codes are logged, it technically has no fault to rectify before handing it back.

The thing to remember is that a DSG is NOT an auto – it works on a completely different principle.

I don’t doubt it works differently than ‘traditional’ auto boxes but it is an automatic box in that it changes gears automatically and the user does not need to make manual gear changes.

In my experience they are far better suited for high performance versions

Mine was the 3.0l V6 diesel so (whilst it isn’t quite RS6 territory, it was still high performance). The auto in my Merc is coupled to the 300d engine (within 10bhp of the Audi I had) and it is SO much nicer to drive. Of course this is all just my personal experience and preference but I have always disliked the DSG.

The thing to remember is that a DSG is NOT an auto – it works on a completely different principle.

It is an auto because it shifts gears for you. It’s a different technology to other kinds of auto, but it’s still very obviously automatic.

the slow pick-up of first gear at junctions drove me to distraction

And as we all said at the time, yours must’ve had a fault or needed a re-adaption. Mine is not at all slow off the line, if I stamp on the pedal it’ll wheelspin and set off as if I’d been operating the clutch myself.

Anyway this isn’t a general whinge about DSG thread. The OP already said he likes it.

3 year old Mondeo. 2.0 Tdi with Powershift.

I think this will be the updated 450 getrag box which doesn’t have plastic bits in it any more, so no known issues like the older cars had.

My biggest concern here is that someone bought a car on any kind of long term finance and didnt consider the risk when the car was out of warranty. Six year old car with 12 months payments PLUS a final balloon payment left has either been miss sold or the buyer is an idiot.

Thanks for your idiot comment, highly appreciated.

I did take out an extended warranty when the car was purchased but it didn’t cover the full term of the PCP and the cost of extending it even further was more expensive than most of the failures I expected of a car that age. Six years old isn’t exactly ancient. This wasn’t a failure I’d factored into my ‘risk’ calculation, but then again it’s the first car I’ve purchased having only had company cars before that. How many six year old cars fail to the tune of several thousand pounds of specialist work?

And as we all said at the time, yours must’ve had a fault or needed a re-adaption.

And I said at the time that other courtesy cars I had during my ownership were similar (a slightly newer A5 was better but still suffered). My brother has a Seat Leon FR and that also suffers from the same issue.

I gave you the option of it being miss sold too.

It wasnt the fact that its a six year old car with a major fault that i was referring to, thats border line unlucky. Its the fact it still has another year of payments to go so will be seven PLUS a balloon payment to make which is probably equivalent to another couple of years payments. In essence you have a car on finance until it is 9 years old. This is buying a car you cant afford imo.

Fire/Frying pan interface?

All I know is my 2011 DSG Passat has been trouble free for the last 8 years. 106K on it now. Some people on the thread are chatting nonsense.

The thing to remember is that a DSG is NOT an auto – it works on a completely different principle.

I don’t doubt it works differently than ‘traditional’ auto boxes but it is an automatic box in that it changes gears automatically and the user does not need to make manual gear changes.

In my experience they are far better suited for high performance versions

Mine was the 3.0l V6 diesel so (whilst it isn’t quite RS6 territory, it was still high performance). The auto in my Merc is coupled to the 300d engine (within 10bhp of the Audi I had) and it is SO much nicer to drive. Of course this is all just my personal experience and preference but I have always disliked the DSG.

I’ve noticed you’ve mentioned it a few times before, it left me wondering if you had a DSG or an ‘normal’ auto, Audi offered both at different times on the C7. Ironically perhaps, the RS6 has a traditional auto, despite Bugatti, Porsche and Lamborghini using them, Audi stuck with the 8 speed auto.

That’s not to say it isn’t a thing, my Superb Sportline is incredibly fast off the line but until I got used to it, and it got used to me (there’s an element of adaptability to them) I had a similar issue.

The car doesn’t ‘know’ whether you’re joining a busy roundabout, heading off the line on a track day or pulling out of your space in Tesco.

In mine if pull away slowly, it will usually default to 2nd for the sake of economy I guess. if you’re used to creeping forward at roundabout to get ready then it will creep in 2nd and then when you give it the beans it was pull away slowly and if you think “oh shit” and floor it, it will drop down to 1st and then go, causing a tiny, but worrying delay, not to mention it’s all very loud and fussy.

Alternatively, if you floor it from a standstill, it will pause for a moment to let the revs build before engaging the clutch, again this tiny pause can seem like nothing is happening – there’s no way you’d be able to pull away faster with a manual, but without anything to do the wait seems long and it causes a worry.

I’ll admit I’ve gotten into the habit of pulling the ‘stick’ back and into Sport when I need to make a quick getaway, but you don’t need to really.

It all sounds very complex, but it all became second nature to me.

I’ve noticed you’ve mentioned it a few times before, it left me wondering if you had a DSG or an ‘normal’ auto

It was the DSG in that car.

The car doesn’t ‘know’ whether you’re joining a busy roundabout, heading off the line on a track day or pulling out of your space in Tesco.

In mine if pull away slowly, it will usually default to 2nd for the sake of economy I guess. if you’re used to creeping forward at roundabout to get ready then it will creep in 2nd and then when you give it the beans it was pull away slowly and if you think “oh shit” and floor it, it will drop down to 1st and then go, causing a tiny, but worrying delay, not to mention it’s all very loud and fussy.

That describes my experience perfectly – and that is what I disliked about it.

We’ve got/had 5 DSG vehicles. Three wet clutch (superb mk2; 2 x caravelle t5.1 & t6) and two dry (Kodiaq and superb mk3). Generally they’re great, smooth, efficient and usually in the right gear. The only gripe is that in manual mode it’ll still kick down when pushed.

I have to say though, that pickup from standstill or reversing uphill is atrocious on all but the first caravelle. It’s like you’re winding up an elastic driveshaft that then sproings you into the distance. We had a t6 150dsg Kombi as a courtesy van which didn’t suffer like this, so I can only assume it’s down to individual parameters applied to each and every box as they run off the production line. If I had more time I’d fettle the velle as there’s a vast array of settings you can play with with VCDS.

I have had DSG issues recently on my Cupra (40k miles). Essentially it completely failed. VW and Seat didn’t have a clue and wanted £6k plus to replace it, general consensus seemed to be from “specialists” that it was the mechatronic unit, which it wasn’t. In the end, my village mechanic rang a DSG specialist in Preston, who told him what it was straight away. Box stripped down, three little magnetic reluctor rings replaced (the specialist in Preston had a large supply :)) and it now all works perfectly. Cost me £700 overall! My perspective, find a good DSG specialist and hopefully it will be straightforward and not too expensive. Even the complete mechatronic unit isn’t that costly… oh, and the DSG is pretty epic to say the least, very fast / smooth and it would always be my preference for future cars!

For reference only.

DQ200 is a seven speed transverse DSG with a dry clutch pack used in all five brands. The gearbox code in the diagnostic log shows 0AM and or 0CW. This gearbox does not have a service requirement as it is sealed for life. It’s fittted to 1.0 litre to 1.8 litre petrol and diesel engines and has a torque capacity of 250Nm. Very high failure rate.

DQ400 is a six speed transverse DSG with a wet clutch pack and is used in the Volkswagen Golf Hybrid and Passat GTE and also Audi A3 e-tron. The gearbox code in the diagnostic log shows 0DD. It also has a service requirement of 40,000 miles. Generally reliable.

DQ250 is a six speed transverse DSG with a wet clutch pack. The gearbox code in the diagnostic log shows 02E and or 0D9. This also has a service requirement of 40,000 miles and a torque capacity 350Nm. Fitted to 2.0 litre petrol and diesel engines. Generally reliable.

DQ381 is a seven speed transverse DSG with a wet clutch pack and torque capacity of 420-430Nm. Fitted to 2.0 TSI petrol engines. Generally reliable.

DQ500 is a seven speed transverse DSG with a wet clutch pack and a torque capacity of 600Nm, mainly used in the Volkswagen Tiguan and Audi Q3. It can also be found in the Transporter T5. The gearbox code in the diagnostic log shows 0BH and or 0BT. This also has a service requirement of 40,000 miles. Fitted to 2.0 litre 4-cylinder petrol and diesel engines and 2.5 litre 5-cylinder petrol engines. Generally reliable.

DQ511 is a ten speed transverse DSG with a wet clutch pack and a torque capacity of 550Nm.

DL382 is a seven speed longitudinal DSG with a wet clutch pack and a torque capacity of 400Nm, used in front wheel drive Audi A4, A5 and A6. Can have problems.

DL501 is a seven speed longitudinal DSG with a wet clutch pack and a torque capacity of 600Nm, used in Quattro four wheel drive Audi A5, A6, A7 and A8 plus the Porsche Macan. Can have problems.

The Ateca gets the new 7-speed dual wet clutch DSG, whether petrol or diesel, and that’s a lot better than the disastrous 7-speed dry clutch DSG and the old 6-speed wet clutch DSG.

The Ateca 2.0TDI has VAG’s new seven-speed dual WET CLUTCH DSG that overcomes the problems of the old seven-speed dual dry clutch DSG and the hesitations of the old six-speed dual wet clutch DSG, so it should be okay. No problems yet reported with the EA288 diesel. No reports of AdBlue consumption, which might be as good as 5000 per 10 litre container that retails at around £16.

VW Tiguan 1.5TSI Evo comes with the DQ381 DSG.

Did a bit of research on the above after Mrs Inbreds 1.2 110bhp TSI Fabia (30k miles)lunched its DSG gearbox towards the end of its lease. To replace it we decided on a BMW X1 auto with the ZF 8 speed box. In my opinion the best auto box you can get in a car. Works beautifully, silky smooth shifts, plenty of ratios and an easy box to service and repair. Not quite as fast changing as a DSG but when linked to the sat nav so it knows what’s round the corner and what gradient it’s about to hit it changes gear sensing the road topography. I hated the way the DSG would always change up when I slowed down for a roundabout.

when linked to the sat nav so it knows what’s round the corner and what gradient it’s about to hit it changes gear sensing the road topography.

That’s a really clever idea.

yes, the ZF 8 speed is a lovely box and BMW has got it dialled in really well which enhances it. However their DCT box is better. Wife has a ZF in her car and I have a DCT in mine. The DCT is never outwitted. Sometimes it changes up when approaching a roundabout but that’s because the engine is in the rev range for peak Torque and not power, and also trying to save fuel, but either way never lacking in tractability to pull me out of the roundabout and if I decide to floor it, it changes down a cog or two in less than a second. But stick it in sports mode and it will change and prioritise gearing differently. Wifes car not being sporty in any way is just a lazier box and will alway default to prioritising economy over performance even in sports mode, which only seems to durn the digital dash red but have little impact on the cars performance. But BMW have ditched the DCT for ZF in the latest M3/M4 so on balance they must seem to think it is a better solution…maybe because the cars have become so fat and heavy a nice spongy torque converter is just easier to manage than a snatchy grabby clutch pack. Mine is a bit jolty at low speed manoeuvring.

Not sure I’d have a dual clutch without a warranty though. I think they’re pretty reliable overall, but if they do properly go they are extremely expensive to fix. Mind you I bet a modern ZF torque converter box isn’t cheap these days. Cars are far more complex than they were a decade ago and anything major that lets go is going to be big bucks to fix. Just where we are with modern cars. How much would a modern electric steering rack cost to fix or replace these days? Even the latest trick LED headlights are horrendously expensive if they go. Owning a modern car is a risky game…I’d never own one outright and take on the full risk of ongoing repairs and maintenance.

when linked to the sat nav so it knows what’s round the corner and what gradient it’s about to hit it changes gear sensing the road topography.

That’s a really clever idea.

My Merc GLC does that. It also has smart headlights that change their beam pattern when approaching bends/roundabouts etc. It’s crazy how clever cars are these days.

Giulia has the ZF8sp, reckon it’s just as fast at cog swapping as the DSG. It can be silky smooth like an old jag or give off the impression that the torque converter is filled with tar and bang up through the gears like a dog box depending on what mode it’s in. Will make the tyres chirp and shudder on full power upshifts right up to 5th.

when linked to the sat nav so it knows what’s round the corner and what gradient it’s about to hit it changes gear sensing the road topography.

That’s a really clever idea.

I had that idea years ago. Also those hybrids that use the nav to plan ahead when to use more electricity because it knows you’re going to get a recharge on a downhill – also me.