Felt like car lost power while trying to accelerate. Nannies???

[Hubs]

Yesterday I was driving around the DC Beltway, and I stepped on it in fifth gear (manual gearbox) to get around some traffic. For a moment, the car accelerated as I expected, but then I unexpectedly lost power. It felt like the car downshifted on me, but I have a stick shift, so that is not what happened. I tried to replicate this a few minutes, later, and I think I got similar behavior, but there was too much traffic for me to feel comfortable experimenting like this. The road was dry, and I don't see any particular reason why the stability control nannies would kick in, but maybe that is what it was??? This is a GTI S, I was in normal mode, and the stability control was in it's normal, default setting. I haven't had the car long, and I haven't been pushing it hard on the street. There is one time I dropped into third gear to pass a car on a two-lane road (doing about 50 MPH), stepped on it, and the car took off and performed as expected. Any thoughts???

 

[jimlloyd40]

Any CEL or EPC light?

 

[mopar22]

Guessing the clutch slipped a bit, if you stepped on it in 5th i'd imagine you should have dropped it down a gear if you were gonna step on it

 

[Hubs]

About ten minutes after making that first post, I thought, "It's a beautiful day outside; I should go for a drive!" So I got on the road to investigate. Traffic wasn't too bad, but there was enough to keep me from pushing too hard. Here is what I found . . .

Default mode and ESC settings. Fourth gear, maybe 50 MPH and ~3K RPM, I put the pedal to the floor and hold it. At about 4500 RPM, the power cuts out and the revs drop about 500 RPM. Foot still on the floor, the car accelerates again through 5KRPM with no hesitation. I did not see anything light up on the dash board. Just watched the tach needle climb, drop, then climb again. Almost like the car said, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Then when I kept my foot on the floor it said, "OK."

Repeat the exercise, and get almost the same result. This time the power cutoff came just over 4K RPM. Not quite the same point as the first time.

Hold the ESC button and enter ESC Sport mode. Accelerate from 3K in fourth gear and all the way up over 5K with no interruption. OK, I think I have my answer! It must be something with the ESC settings.

Repeat the exercise in ESC Sport, and this time I get the power cutoff somewhere over 4K again. WTF???

I did a few more runs with default ECS and ECS Sport, and found that regardless of that setting, there were some runs when the power cut off and the revs dropped, and some runs where it didn't. Off the highway, I did a few pedal-to-the floor runs in 2nd and 3rd gears, and I did not experience any power cutoff. Probably not a big enough sample size to reach any firm conclusions. Last Sunday I participated in an autocross. Mostly second gear, but plenty of WOT, and no issues.

Again, in response to jimlloyd40, I did not observe any lights coming on when this happened.

As far as I know, my motor is stock, but it is possible the PO did something??? I have read some other threads about somewhat similar behavior, and a slipping clutch was suggested. The one time I drove a car with a slipping clutch, the revs shot up when the clutch slipped. I am not aware of any issue of clutch slippage where with foot to the floor, the revs drop and then pop back up.

I guess I'm still thinking something is making the nannies kick in. I wonder if I was giving some steering input with WOT that the car didn't like. Maybe? I tried a couple of times jiggling the wheel while accelerating, and maybe one time got the power to cut, but definitely not the other time. I really didn't want to screw around with the steering much while accelerating through 70 MPH on a public road. Maybe I hit some irregularities in the highway? But it is a pretty nice road, and I didn't notice anything particularly upsetting in the surface.

So, there's more info, but this is still a mystery to me.

 

[Diggs24]

I stepped on it in fifth gear (manual gearbox)

stahp

 

[uberdot]

Assuming it’s ABS/XDS/ESC kicking in because it thinks the road isn’t stable. I have had this happen quite a few times if I don’t disable ESC. Get to an OBDELEVEN or VCDS and long press disable it then test.

 

[uberdot]

I’ve also had intermittent speed sensors as well. I’m now wondering if this could have something to do with it.

 

[Ridebjj]

stahp

STAAAHHHHP! YOU STAAAHHHHP DAT!

 

[uberdot]

Also what Diggs said: never, ever give it the beans in 5th or 6th gear. I don’t even like getting on it in 4th unless it’s coming from a high RPM shift from 3rd

 

[MonkeyMD]

stahp

Just liking because I know what this means now

 

[jimlloyd40]

Just liking because I know what this means now

Same here.
My first thought always was an infection.

 

[2018gti]

Omg, like others said, do not keep doing this. It sounds like your clutch is slipping. Recently I let my dad drive my GTI and he did the same thing - 6th gear and floored it. I nearly vomited when I saw the rpms jump up and down slightly as my GTI only has 30,000 miles.

 

[Hubs]

Omg, like others said, do not keep doing this. It sounds like your clutch is slipping. Recently I let my dad drive my GTI and he did the same thing - 6th gear and floored it. I nearly vomited when I saw the rpms jump up and down slightly as my GTI only has 30,000 miles.

I have not observed any instances of the revs jumping up unexpectedly. What I have observed is a very clear drop in revs. I could certainly be wrong, but this is not consistent with what I know of symptoms of a slipping clutch.

 

[Hubs]

I appreciate the advice, but I am not clear on what is the problem with getting on the gas in 5th or 6th gear. At 53 years old, I might be close to the same age as 2018gti's father, so maybe this is an old man thing? Anyway, here is a list of cars I have owned with manual transmissions: 1969 VW Beetle, 1988 Dodge Shadow, 1993 Dodge Shadow ES, 1986 Porsche 944, 1999 Porsche Boxster, 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer, 1987 Porsche 924S, 2000 Porsche 911, 2015 Jetta TDI, 1999 Saab 9-3, 2006 BMW 325i.

Each of the Porsches was driven on tracks in DE events on numerous occasions. Plenty of WOT in the upper gears, but (reference to uberdot) coming off upshifts at high RPM. However, there were occasions in every one of these cars where I would be driving on the highway in the upper gears and I would get on the gas to accelerate. Maybe moving around traffic, maybe just having some fun. While there have been countless occasions where I have downshifted to accelerate rapidly, there have also been countless occasions where I wanted to hustle a bit, but didn't feel the need to downshift. In 37 years of doing this, it has never caused any noticeable problem. Also, until this happened recently with the GTI, I have never seen this sort of drop in RPM.

I generally don't do this if the engine speed is below about 3K RPM. I generally avoid at any time driving below 2K (I would drive a bit below 2K in the Jetta TDI), and I avoid flooring the accelerator at low engine speeds. But what's wrong with getting on the gas above 3K in 4th, 5th, or 6th gear? Why is that any different than getting on the gas at 3K in 3rd gear? Does this have something to do with having a turbocharged motor? It didn't seem to be a problem in the Saab or the TDI.

I have plans to meet up with a friend who can do some coding, and I hope to make the changes that will allow me to disable ESC (or at least disable it more). I am eager to see if that makes any difference.

 

[2018gti]

I appreciate the advice, but I am not clear on what is the problem with getting on the gas in 5th or 6th gear. At 53 years old, I might be close to the same age as 2018gti's father, so maybe this is an old man thing? Anyway, here is a list of cars I have owned with manual transmissions: 1969 VW Beetle, 1988 Dodge Shadow, 1993 Dodge Shadow ES, 1986 Porsche 944, 1999 Porsche Boxster, 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer, 1987 Porsche 924S, 2000 Porsche 911, 2015 Jetta TDI, 1999 Saab 9-3, 2006 BMW 325i.

Each of the Porsches was driven on tracks in DE events on numerous occasions. Plenty of WOT in the upper gears, but (reference to uberdot) coming off upshifts at high RPM. However, there were occasions in every one of these cars where I would be driving on the highway in the upper gears and I would get on the gas to accelerate. Maybe moving around traffic, maybe just having some fun. While there have been countless occasions where I have downshifted to accelerate rapidly, there have also been countless occasions where I wanted to hustle a bit, but didn't feel the need to downshift. In 37 years of doing this, it has never caused any noticeable problem. Also, until this happened recently with the GTI, I have never seen this sort of drop in RPM.

I generally don't do this if the engine speed is below about 3K RPM. I generally avoid at any time driving below 2K (I would drive a bit below 2K in the Jetta TDI), and I avoid flooring the accelerator at low engine speeds. But what's wrong with getting on the gas above 3K in 4th, 5th, or 6th gear? Why is that any different than getting on the gas at 3K in 3rd gear? Does this have something to do with having a turbocharged motor? It didn't seem to be a problem in the Saab or the TDI.

I have plans to meet up with a friend who can do some coding, and I hope to make the changes that will allow me to disable ESC (or at least disable it more). I am eager to see if that makes any difference.

I didn’t mean to be offensive haha, without being there in your car I don’t know what’s really happening. It just sounded like what I experienced.

From what I’ve read, the clutch in the GTI and R is not particularly strong. So when you’re in 6th gear, say at 60 mph (2000 rpm-ish), and you suddenly give it a ton of throttle, the rpms might go up slightly then go back down without the car actually accelerating. I believe that’s what happened to me.