MY19 California Ocean - Accelerating

[RetroRed5]

Evening all,

We are the proud owners of an MY19 California Ocean 199 4MOTION DSG; we've only had it a few weeks and it is awesome!! There is just one thing at the moment that is nagging me about how it accelerates off the line and reversing.

First, when accelerating off the line, the acceleration is always a little choppy; I put the pedal down gently/smoothly and at first, nothing seems to happen (although the revs do start to build) and then it kind of jolts into action and gets moving. Try as I might, I really struggle to avoid this happening. It's no big deal but one thing it does do (aside from irritating the Mrs) is to make me a little nervous setting off quickly at junctions or joining roundabouts because of the delay from the point I move the accelerator pedal to the point it starts moving. Also, with the accelerator pedal pressed almost fully down, there is a point where it seems to stop (the pedal stops I mean) but if you press the pedal harder the pedal jerks down a bit further, so my point is the pedal movement is far from smooth if you cover the entire motion from not pressed, to pressed to the floor.

A second, and possibly related issue I've noticed is when reversing; I often reverse the Cali up our driveway and I've noticed 3 things sometimes happen; first there is the same issue as when I'm setting off, there is a delay where revs build but no movement and then it jolts into motion (it causes me to almost reverse into my garage door the other day), second, sometimes when I put it in reverse and let off the handbrake it rolls forward by quite a few feet (it did it today and rolled forward about 3 feet, this time I had to stop it using the brakes) before the gearbox catches it and third, because of the choppy/jolting movement I can hear this rather strange whirring sound as I try to regulate the revs/movement which I can only assume is coming from the gearbox.

My question is, has anyone else noticed similar issues with their Cali?

Is this normal?

Cheers.

 

[Legin]

Mine is the same. Really slow to spool up the turbos which is surprising given is meant to be prevented by twin sequential turbos. I really wonder if this delayed step off is something to do with 199 re mapping for emissions. What i can say is my passat 188 dsg did similar just not as bad.

Only way to avoid is use part throttle and wait longer for the boost to build.

The horse doesnt like it when we are towing.

The pedal switch is the kick down to initiate the dSG to change down for full acceleration.

So all normal if not very good execution.

 

[gvick]

My Mercedes auto does it in normal auto transmission mode as well - you can put your foot to the floor and nothing then whoosh lots of wheels spin. Can catch me out at roundabouts - so may be it’s a German automatic thing (I know Cali is a dsg and therefore different to a full auto - but hey )

 

[Volkywagen]

Your van is still very new. These new DSG gearboxes ‘learn’ how you drive and it may still be doing this getting used to how you accelerate etc.

 

[Erbster]

At least your van won’t spin it’s wheels off the line like my 2WD keeps doing!


https://caliventures364847572.wordpress.com/

 

[Moakesy]

Mine does the same, but it’s nowhere near as bad as my Discovery, where the delay is huge. Have you tried it in sport mode to see if that helps?

That reversing thing happened to me once, scared the life of me!

 

[Eber123]

Good morning ,

I have a manual front wheel drive van, but before I had a Tiguan with DSG and also my wife had a Polo with DSG.

The DSG from the Tiguan was faultless during the almost 90 k kilometers, never a problem. The Polo was OK, but was a bit unsensitive at the beginning of acceleration. Beside this also fine.

With the van I have driven 20 k in 18 month. It took me a while to get use to the manual gearbox and the fact how easy it is to spin the front wheels even with just the 150 hp engine. This is very easy spottable looking at the front wheels. Before the summer holidays I get a new set of tyres.

I believe they will last longer because I got better use to the driving characteristics of the California.

Regards ,
Eberhard

 

[motacyclist]

Evening all,

We are the proud owners of an MY19 California Ocean 199 4MOTION DSG; we've only had it a few weeks and it is awesome!! There is just one thing at the moment that is nagging me about how it accelerates off the line and reversing.

First, when accelerating off the line, the acceleration is always a little choppy; I put the pedal down gently/smoothly and at first, nothing seems to happen (although the revs do start to build) and then it kind of jolts into action and gets moving. Try as I might, I really struggle to avoid this happening. It's no big deal but one thing it does do (aside from irritating the Mrs) is to make me a little nervous setting off quickly at junctions or joining roundabouts because of the delay from the point I move the accelerator pedal to the point it starts moving. Also, with the accelerator pedal pressed almost fully down, there is a point where it seems to stop (the pedal stops I mean) but if you press the pedal harder the pedal jerks down a bit further, so my point is the pedal movement is far from smooth if you cover the entire motion from not pressed, to pressed to the floor.

A second, and possibly related issue I've noticed is when reversing; I often reverse the Cali up our driveway and I've noticed 3 things sometimes happen; first there is the same issue as when I'm setting off, there is a delay where revs build but no movement and then it jolts into motion (it causes me to almost reverse into my garage door the other day), second, sometimes when I put it in reverse and let off the handbrake it rolls forward by quite a few feet (it did it today and rolled forward about 3 feet, this time I had to stop it using the brakes) before the gearbox catches it and third, because of the choppy/jolting movement I can hear this rather strange whirring sound as I try to regulate the revs/movement which I can only assume is coming from the gearbox.

My question is, has anyone else noticed similar issues with their Cali?

Is this normal?

Cheers.

I don’t recognise these acceleration symptoms being present on ours.

Regarding the issue where the pedal stops, them goes down when you press a bit harder, this is normal and it initiates kickdown.

Regarding the rolling forward, this should be taken care of by the hill start assist, but I think you need to press the brake pedal down first, then release the handbrake at which point it should hold for several seconds to enable you to get going.

Suggest you have the dealer look at the acceleration problem, good luck.

 

[Jay20cali]

Evening all,

We are the proud owners of an MY19 California Ocean 199 4MOTION DSG; we've only had it a few weeks and it is awesome!! There is just one thing at the moment that is nagging me about how it accelerates off the line and reversing.

First, when accelerating off the line, the acceleration is always a little choppy; I put the pedal down gently/smoothly and at first, nothing seems to happen (although the revs do start to build) and then it kind of jolts into action and gets moving. Try as I might, I really struggle to avoid this happening. It's no big deal but one thing it does do (aside from irritating the Mrs) is to make me a little nervous setting off quickly at junctions or joining roundabouts because of the delay from the point I move the accelerator pedal to the point it starts moving. Also, with the accelerator pedal pressed almost fully down, there is a point where it seems to stop (the pedal stops I mean) but if you press the pedal harder the pedal jerks down a bit further, so my point is the pedal movement is far from smooth if you cover the entire motion from not pressed, to pressed to the floor.

A second, and possibly related issue I've noticed is when reversing; I often reverse the Cali up our driveway and I've noticed 3 things sometimes happen; first there is the same issue as when I'm setting off, there is a delay where revs build but no movement and then it jolts into motion (it causes me to almost reverse into my garage door the other day), second, sometimes when I put it in reverse and let off the handbrake it rolls forward by quite a few feet (it did it today and rolled forward about 3 feet, this time I had to stop it using the brakes) before the gearbox catches it and third, because of the choppy/jolting movement I can hear this rather strange whirring sound as I try to regulate the revs/movement which I can only assume is coming from the gearbox.

My question is, has anyone else noticed similar issues with their Cali?

Is this normal?

Cheers.

Wow I bet this isn’t much fun when using levelling chocks

 

[RetroRed5]

Thanks all for your input; seems some folks have the same issues and some don't.

I didn't realize the last inch of travel on the pedal was the kickdown so now I am aware of this, I'll use it accordingly

Although to clarify the rolling forward issue, this was while I was reversing up a driveway and it rolled forward, back down the driveway and so hillstart won't catch this type of thing; I started reversing but it was all choppy so I held it on the brake for a moment while still in reverse, when I came off the brakes and went back on the gas it literally just freewheeled back down the drive a little until I caught it on the brake again.

Last week while reversing up a very slight gradient (maybe a 1 in 30) toward my garage door, I was giving it some gas and nothing was happening and then it suddenly sprung to life backward and I had to slam on the brakes and stopped about an inch from the garage door.

I'll give the "Sport" setting a try to see if this makes a difference; although I suspect it won't, I thought this was just a suspension setting rather than anything to do with the gearbox.

Of course, I'm sure I'll get used to in time but thus far it does spoil the driving experience a little.

I've had over 30 cars in my time (probably half of them auto's) but this is the first DSG I've had and the first time I've driven an auto vehicle of this type (driven lots of Transporter Shuttles but they were all manual) and this is the first time I've experienced this sort of thing. I'm just trying to determine if this is all "normal" or if I should be taking it into the dealer so they can take a look. I'm still a bit unsure at this point.

 

[Jay20cali]

Run it in to vw and explain your concerns ,I’m sure if there’s a problem with it it will be an update of some kind ?????
ask to drive another dsg to compare it with yours.to ease your mind

 

[motacyclist]

Last week while reversing up a very slight gradient (maybe a 1 in 30) toward my garage door, I was giving it some gas and nothing was happening and then it suddenly sprung to life backward and I had to slam on the brakes and stopped about an inch from the garage door.

Scary stuff! Might be an idea to feather the brake pedal with your left foot to give you some control, and this would also allow you to stamp on the brake quickly should it suddenly surge in the way you describe.

 

[RetroRed5]

Mine does the same, but it’s nowhere near as bad as my Discovery, where the delay is huge. Have you tried it in sport mode to see if that helps?

That reversing thing happened to me once, scared the life of me!

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were referring to the "Sport" suspension setting, now I realize you meant the Sport setting for the gearbox, doh

After doing more research on this, I think it is probably just me expecting the DSG to behave like a typical auto gearbox; I'm going to go for a number of short drives around town this week to try and get used to it a little more before I speak to VW about it.

 

[Legin]

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were referring to the "Sport" suspension setting, now I realize you meant the Sport setting for the gearbox, doh

After doing more research on this, I think it is probably just me expecting the DSG to behave like a typical auto gearbox; I'm going to go for a number of short drives around town this week to try and get used to it a little more before I speak to VW about it.

Im afraid its just how they are. I would advise learning how to get the best out of it which is basically down to throttle control rather like riding the clutch , you need to do the same in a DSG. Going from brake to gas and vice versa is bad news for control.

 

[WelshGas]

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were referring to the "Sport" suspension setting, now I realize you meant the Sport setting for the gearbox, doh

After doing more research on this, I think it is probably just me expecting the DSG to behave like a typical auto gearbox; I'm going to go for a number of short drives around town this week to try and get used to it a little more before I speak to VW about it.

I think you might find this interesting.
As you say, the DSG is not the traditional Automatic Gearbox with a torque converter.

 

[briwy]

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were referring to the "Sport" suspension setting, now I realize you meant the Sport setting for the gearbox, doh

After doing more research on this, I think it is probably just me expecting the DSG to behave like a typical auto gearbox; I'm going to go for a number of short drives around town this week to try and get used to it a little more before I speak to VW about it.

We had the same reversing problem with our first Cali, a 4motion DSG. This van replaced a Bongo which had a conventional torque converter auto box. The Cali was completely impossible to get round the back of our house having to reverse steep uphill round a hairpin and then at an angle through our gates with a couple of inches clear either side. The dealer explained that you can't hold it in the footbrake and give it some revs to hold it on the DSG at the same time as it confuses the brain. It doesn't know if it is supposed to be stopping or going so just gives up. It got better with practice but I never got it round the back easily so in the we sold it and got a manual which I find far more easy to maneuver.

 

[motacyclist]

This morning I have had to reverse and manoeuvre up out of a steep drive; and do a 3 point turn finishing forwards up a steep hill. I’ve had no problems at all and am not using any special techniques or skills, just using the accelerator normally. So maybe I’m just lucky, or may there are a few Calis out there with some sort of issue.