VW Group DSG autos.

[otherclive]

I see in the Saturday Telegraph motoring that there was some criticism on the robustness of dual mass flywheel-clutchs as fitted to VW-Audi Seat group cars (and Fords too.) Looking at the DSG 'autos' fitted to VW group cars and now Volvos my query is 'Do these types of auto box slip one of the clutches when manoeuvring or when crawling in traffic?' If so are they susceptible to clutch wear or burn out when used with a towing vehicle, whereas a conventional auto box does not?

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

If you are crawling in traffic, where the road speed is so low that direct drive is not possible (because the engine will stall) then the gearbox must allow some slippage between the engine and the road wheels.

In the case of a manual or DSG gearbox - that means either slipping the clutch - or you progress in a series of start / stop movements.

In the case of an automatic gearbox - then the slippage is handled by churning (and heating) the transfer fluid.

OK, it's much easier to replace the transfer fluid than it is to swap out a clutch, but you pay for that in slightly worse fuel consumption

Robert