Manual Transmission Engine Braking (None)?

[Ital]

Hi All,
I have a 2016 GTI with APR Stage II and South Bend Stage 3 Clutch.
Is it normal that these cars really do not brake much in gear?
I am used to keep my car in gear when going down a steep hill to help me slowdown a bit, or when I am in need to come to a stop in a hurry, I downshift.

However in my car, no matter what gear I go down to, the car almost feel in neutral. It seems the computer is compensating somehow for this. Is there a OBD11 setting for this or am I the only one with this issue?

Thank you

 

[0bLiViOuS]

Mine does slow down, but during nornal driving since the RPMs are low, it doesn't do it much. You might even get less considering you have a lightened flywheel compared to OEM. I've never really compared my other cars before and after lightened flywheels in this regard, but less mass to me seems like it wouldn't slow down as quickly in gear.. but I know this isn't the case in neutral so I have no clue haha. Just rambling now

 

[Ital]

Man I love my brakes, but I am so used to downshift to slow down which I am not really able to do so now. Also if I can save the brakes a bit by downshifting, why not.

 

[spelk3]

Also if I can save the brakes a bit by downshifting, why not.

Brakes are cheaper and easier to replace than the clutch is.

 

[RJ_infinite]

My car does slowdown on downshifts, not very noticeably though unless going from very high rpms. I also have a SB Stage 3 daily. If I need to slow down on the highway I downshift to 4th then 3rd if i need to with just a tap on the brakes.

 

[0bLiViOuS]

I've always thought the same thing myself. In the end, I don't think there is extra wear on the clutch. Probably minimal, but I've owned tons of cars and tried both approaches and there was no significant increased wear on the clutches that I could attribute to one style over another.

This is just my experience though and I wouldn't doubt some others have had increased wear, it's just a hard thing to prove scientifically one way or another.

 

[mk6-k]

My car slows down and I'm APR Stage II.

 

[donp]

Remember the gearing is super tall on these cars. Try a lower gear if you want more engine braking.

 

[Ital]

I can be in second gear and go up to 5k rpm and when I let go of the gas the car barely slows down... It's not what I am used to that is for sure

 

[lucyfek]

It's a feature
The engine is tuned way different than 1.8TSI (BTW, the 5MT has even taller gearing, so this is not the cause). I think is has to do with valve timing. In Golf I could feel the intake valves "slamming" when quickly taking foot of the gas (and the fuel would be cut off immediately). In GTI fuel gets cut off quickly in 6th and 5th (but gearing does not provide enough engine braking). Shift it in 3rd and it seems like the ECU is using it 1st to spool up the turbo before cutting off fuel and engine braking few seconds later. Mildly annoying for hypermiler (that learned to downshift in Golf after just costing in neutral and using brakes in Focus that would never completely cut off fuel delivery).

 

[MeltedSolid]

OP, I don't know what kind of car you're used to, but a few things I've found in my short time is that the amount of engine braking is often related to the size of the engine, and from speculation I also imagine it would have a lot to do with the efficiency of the drivetrain and the tolerances of the engine, etc... We have our little over-engineered 1.8 and 2.0 liter engines with super efficient drivetrains so it makes sense that our cars would have only a very small amount of engine braking.

On the note of clutch wear, I've been thinking about it for a while, and the conclusion I've come to is that it's a lot easier to spin up an engine than it is to get a car moving, so I can't imagine the wear over time from downshifting would be significant compared to the wear from releasing the clutch while applying power (accelerating).

 

[Ital]

I've driven a bit of everything from small Fiats to large BMW but never experienced the lack of gear braking. I think it's computer controlled and I was wondering if anyone knew how to switch it off or reduce the effects.

 

[2slowvw]

Brakes are cheaper and easier to replace than the clutch is.

Jesus not this shit again. Engine braking puts stress ont he opposite side of the tooth as driving does and wear from that is almost non existent. Also so we can rev the car up to 5k in gear to accelerate but down shift to slow down and have the car at 3k and all of a sudden this wears the clutch out more.

Been downshifting to slow down for a decade and a half with no issues or concerns. Drive how you want brother.

 

[Ital]

Hi ALL, I made a very surprising discovery...
my car has DCC and Manual Transmission. When I put the car in sport mode there is noticeably more gear braking power. This is great so I can keep it in "Normal" on the highway and in sport around town!!
so there is definitely an ECU setting for this.

 

[RedReplicant]

I know on race bikes we can control the amount of engine braking through slipper clutch adjustment, through the ECU by controlling timing retard on decel, and on FBW bikes by controlling throttle % on decel. Would be interesting to log actual throttle % off throttle.