Clutch Issue on A1 1.4 TFSi 140 DSG

[KevinCamaro]

I've had the above car for 6 months now as a company car, great for me to do the motorway miles to client sites, not so good for family use. Car is currently with local dealer whilst they wait for a factory back order clutch pack for 1/3/5/7. Anybody else had this problem? Symptoms were jerkiness from standstill, clutch slip if accelerating under heavy load conditions, awful stink of burning clutch when going down long steep hills (letting the car do its thing with the gears).

I also hate the stop/start and turn it off every trip. How anybody thought that having the engine switch off every time you come to a halt with your foot on the brake (such as roundabouts, T junctions etc.) is sensible needs to think again. Why not have it activated by putting the 'box into neutral?

[Adrian E]

KevinCamaro said:

I've had the above car for 6 months now as a company car, great for me to do the motorway miles to client sites, not so good for family use. Car is currently with local dealer whilst they wait for a factory back order clutch pack for 1/3/5/7. Anybody else had this problem? Symptoms were jerkiness from standstill, clutch slip if accelerating under heavy load conditions, awful stink of burning clutch when going down long steep hills (letting the car do its thing with the gears).

I also hate the stop/start and turn it off every trip. How anybody thought that having the engine switch off every time you come to a halt with your foot on the brake (such as roundabouts, T junctions etc.) is sensible needs to think again. Why not have it activated by putting the 'box into neutral?

Can't comment on the specifics of your car, but the engine start/stop allows the manufacturer to quote far lower emissions for the car (because 1/4 of the drive cycle used is engine idling, so if it's off it's not emitting anything!) and hence lower VED.

I've used it on some loaners and I don't mind it - it only kicks in under certain circumstances and instantly restarts when you remove your foot from the brake. I found with hill hold assist as well you could pre-empt moving off by removing your foot from the brake to make it restart fractionally before you were ready to pull away. If you relied on the box being in neutral on an auto then most of the time it would never be used, as the advice normally with autos isn't to use neutral when stopped for a short time as it puts more wear on some components.

[Tame Technician]

KevinCamaro said:

Anybody else had this problem? Symptoms were jerkiness from standstill, clutch slip if accelerating under heavy load conditions, awful stink of burning clutch when going down long steep hills (letting the car do its thing with the gears).

Dry clutch DSG problems are not a masive issue, but we have done one or two.

Some times the mechatronics looses all its hydraulic fluid and cant control the clutch, then you tend to get error messages and slip or jerks.

Sometimes there is a mechanical failure of the cluth its self, then you tend to get a noise on 1st to 2nd shift, there is a modified clutch assy for this, once relaced will be fix for ever.

Either way all covered by Audi Waranty.

KevinCamaro said:

Why not have it activated by putting the 'box into neutral?

Thats how it works with a manual gearbox, in Neutral foot off clutch engine stops.

It is the way it is on your DSG/S-Tronic so when they do the euro type approval drive cycle the engine is off as often as possible, this gives it a lower CO2 output and means you pay less for road tax, no other reason, certainly not common sense. Also how often do you think 90% of DSG drivers put the car in N?

[Glosphil]

"Also how often do you think 90% of DSG drivers put the car in N?"

Every time I am stopped for more than a few seconds. I did in a manual so why not in a DSG auto? Means brake lights do not cause unnecessary annoyance to the driver behind. One day all drivers will be this considerate - just kidding.

[KevinCamaro]

Hi all, thanks for the responses, I do understand why stop/start exists, it is just the daft way Audi do it on the DSG box. Hope to get mine back in a week or so.