Would a TCU tune help with any of the below? (I would go EQT):
- Yes.
- EQT site says the delay when shifting in manual mode is removed with the tune, is this really true? The delay is really annoying. I'm talking at city driving speeds, not just when getting on it.
- Yes.
- in manual mode, the gear indicator in the AID changes to the new gear before the new gear is actually engaged. This is confusing when driving hard on the twisties and changing gears a lot. Does this change once tuned?
- Can't speak from experience, but i would bet so.
- I took a lot of pride in manually rev-matching smoothly and quickly in all situations in the GTI, and have heard so much prior to getting a DSG how it's just better than you are. But... it's not. At all, at least in stock form. Especially at lower speeds, there's this lurch when downshifting as you feel the clutch disengage and you're kind of in neutral for a sec and the car feels loose, and then the new gear engages. My passengers feel downshifts, particularly at slower speeds, in a way they never (okay, rarely) did in my GTI, despite the rev-matching being very audible in that car due to mods (DP, mounts, etc.). I really miss this, and hate that momentary feeling of loose-ness followed by a sudden slowing once the lower gear engages. I have tried the DSG reset via OBD11, not sure it did anything. I'm aware of the need to go into S mode before going into manual mode to get quicker changes, and always do this, but it's not a lot better. I've also read about how to make the DSG better predict what you're about to do, and that works to some extent, but not that much with this issue. I can mitigate it a bit with the brake, but I can't always get it right because I don't know exactly what the DSG is about to do in the way I used to know exactly what my left foot was about to do.
- This honestly sounds like over/underfilling from the factory. The 2019 GTI SE DSG with auto stop-start loaner I had for a month in 2019 downshifted flawlessly in S, i loved it.
- I have noticed that the car will use 2nd gear well below 2k rpms in S and D modes when it needs to. When driving in manual mode, it won't let me shift from 1st to 2nd until I'm over 2k rpms, unless I'm pushing the throttle quite hard and hit the paddle at about 1800 rpms. This restriction feels super weird coming from a manual when you're in exactly the gear you want to be in, for whatever reason, all of the time.
- This won't change with a TCU tune for the most part. DSGs use 1st like 6MT drivers use 1st: to get going from a stop, and not much else. It can slip 2nd between like 4 and 7 mph. But a TCU tune would make it so that, if you're going 5-10mph in 2nd in D or S, and stomp on it, it'll downshift instead of revving out 2nd like the stock tune would do.
And then some other things:
- engine breaking doesn't feel as effective as it did in my GTI. I never really used the brakes on the highway unless something unexpected happened, but it feels like I have to in the DSG, as engine breaking doesn't slow the car down as much. The new car is stock, though, and the GTI was fairly heavily modded (clutch, mounts, etc.), so maybe it's just that...? Maybe it's the R's increased weight...?
- This is surprising, and not the experience i've had with either DSGs I've owned. In fact my last DSG GTI went to 95K on stock pads and rotors because I essentially never used my brakes, the DSG's engine braking was so effective.
- is it really bad, as I've read, to downshift into 1st? If so, why? People also say this about 6MTs but I did it all the time in NYC slower traffic, and yes it required some very accurate rev-matching, but under 15mph, I had no problem doing it. Am I really not supposed to downshift to 1st?
- my current Alltrack is a 6MT and I do this all the time, but i'd never do it higher than 10 mph. Definitely nothing wrong with doing it in a DSG since it rev matches perfectly, but again your car sounds like it's over/underfilled in which case I'd get it flushed ASAP by a reputable independent, or do it yourself.
If you have any further questions feel free to ask.