DSG oddity

lots of people have very expensive problems with that box. just google it.

As for your brakes.

Most likely there IS air in the system. There is a special procedure to bleed the system.

At the dealer they have a brake pressure bleeder which hooks up to the M/Cyl and they carry out a test plan through the diagnostic tester this activates the path ways through the ABS pump in a sequence to bleed them correctly.

What gearbox?? have to know.

Guessing---is it a ZF gearbox. which do play up in the valve body.

Check the oil levels of the gearbox for a start.

get back with the info please.

I did wonder when they came out about life and repair costs. 5K is a lot more than the overhaul costs for a conventional auto.

Well, VCDS or a VAS Dealer computer is the only way to find out.

The common failing is a buggered Mechatronic unit, which is, as mrcheerful suggests, a heap of cash from VAG. They can be reconditioned- these people fix them:

You can also reset the adaption with VCDS which may be worth a try first.

Secondhand boxes sometimes pop up on ebay......

One further thought- have you considered checking the oil level?

Nope. Everything quiet on the warning light front. I've been looking at this site.

I think the mechanicals of the box are fine as manual overide works perfectly.

Tim

It doesn't look too bad- the site I linked has instructions too. Not heard of that company- thanks. (You never know, and I have a 60k mile DSG Leon!)

I'd tend to agree. Get it scanned asap.

New Mechatronic unit is around 1k from VAG. A whole box is £5k ish.

It's DSG, so Borg-Warner, and not a conventional auto.

Yeah Gods! I've understood how to use them, but never bothered to read up on how they work; what a lot of complexity for such minimal gain!

Chris

It's the only way to get a smooth change with a synchromesh box. With a single clutch you have to remove the power on a change. Or put up with a very rough one. The best DSGs are very nearly as good as a conventional auto - but without the mpg penalty. But my guess is they are rather more expensive to make. And far more difficult to repair.

Not that much more than a modern electronic TC box, surely? I'd imagine a 7-speed epicyclic TC autobox would be pretty damned complex these days.

They must be worthwhile, Ford have got in on the game now:

Mind, VAG's autoboxes in the FWD applications weren't noted for their performance, economy, or reliability- maybe that gave the push for DSG. Come to that, the last time I drove a Ford autobox (a long time ago now- MKIV Escort), that was s**te as well.

I'd say you're right. I don't know of anyone rebuilding the whole DSG box in the UK yet- a few recon the mechatronics units (which have been the only common failure internal to the box so far), and I think someone in the US does uprated clutch packs. There's talk of remaps being available to remove the torque limiting, but AFAIK no-one actually tearing the boxes apart. Having said that, the mechanical bits seem to be strong: only 'common' failures I've heard of are DMF or mechatronics.

Pretty much the same story as Alfa Sillyspeeds.

The clutch and box are robust enough, but the actuator is a weakness.

CHeck the oil level, then VCDS.

Any news Tim?

Of a sort. It went back to the main dealer who doublechecked oil level, software etc., but it's still playing up.

It shifts manually okay so I guess I'll just live with it. To give the dealer their due, they've not charged for any of this work.

Tim

Well for once, you're wrong. ;-)

As I think I mentioned before, the garage double checked the oil level and software updates but couldn't find anything wrong (other than the box's fear of high gears).

About a month ago, the ABS & ESP warning lights came on but due to an impending holiday I didn't have time to get it dealt with. Resetting the ignition seemed to clear the fault (temporarily at least).

When we got back from holiday I started getting more serious red warning lights so clearly it had to be checked out. The garage found that both rear sensors were damaged and I think the sensor ring had broken up. (Possibly the wrong words but I'm sure you know what I mean).

Unfortunately this means replacing the rear bearings at the same time (or so I was told). All in all, not cheap at £600 (£178 labour included in that figure) BUT, when I got it home, I found that the gearbox problem had gone!

It seems that DSG gearboxes get inputs from all over the place and for some reason, even though the ABS problem wasn't initially getting flagged up as a problem, it was affecting the gearbox.

So, if you have a DSG box that started getting a bit shaky about changing up automatically to the higher gears but it still works fine manually, it may not be a box problem but an ABS one.

Tim

but if it had been a box problem..........

good, glad it is fixed, and I hope that it stays fixed :)

Me too! (with brass knobs on). ;-)

Tim