Gear change speeds

[newtogolf]

Hi guys,

I've just picked up my 118 TSI manual. The book doesn't seem to have any where that suggests what the optimum speed/revs to shift. Any suggestions or am I missing something in the manual?

BTW so far this car is amazing.

[Maverick]

Optimum for what?

If you want performance you change up just before the acceleration starts to slow. If you want fuel economy you change up the gears as soon as the engine lets you.

Just drive the car and you'll soon work out the best points to change for your driving.

[coastie]

Change before your reach 8000 rpm

[mickofoz]

There are videos on the German VW site on fuel economy and how to drive your manual car to achieve best fuel economy. I assume you don't speak german. According to VW, you should be in 4th gear by the time you hit 40km/h and always drive in the highest gear. The more you coast in gear, the more fuel you'll save as the fuel supply is completely shut off if you coast while you are still in gear. Even coasting for small streches, it adds up over a tank full. I have gained about 100km out of one tank this way. It's not much fun while you're driving but alot of fun at the bowser. You'll soon get used to the low revs and it becomes "normal".

[guliver_twist]

Could you please post a link to the vids?

[cme2c]

There's a pdf in english http://www.volkswagen.com/etc/medial..._unterwegs.pdf

How come only Bluemotion gets change up indicators in the MFD?

[Corey_R]

Because it's a gimmicky feature.

You're not supposed to be driving along with your eyes on the MFD, but on the road. And it's to save fuel instead of add performance.

[mickofoz]

Here is the link to the German Video site:

http://www.volkswagen.de/vwcms/master_public/virtualmaster/de3/unternehmen/video.html

Once the page has loaded, click on "Ökonomie trift Ökologie" and then "Spritspartraining". Enjoy

[cktsi]

my personal preference

When I owned a Mk5 2.0 FSI manual, I found it instructive to see when the 2.0 auto gearbox was changing. I got a 2.0FSI auto as a loan car at various times when servicing my Mk5.

Before I drove the auto I was shifting around 2,300rpm, but realised that the auto was letting the engine change around 2,000rpm for most of the shifts.

I then had a ‘rule’ that basically is 10km/h for each gear on level road. So 1st gear max is 10km/h, 2nd is 20km/h etc… so by 60km/h I would be in 6th. For inclines my rule was 15km/h per gearchange. Btw… these speeds are the one on the speedo, not actual speed which is actually lower than the speedo’s reading.

The result is I was shifting probably around 1,900 rpm in the 2.0FSI.

The 7spd DSG on the 118TSI is nearly following this rule… but its aggressive rush to higher gears means under light to moderate acceleration it’s doing around 8km/h per gear change…. So on level road the DSG is in D7 when doing 56km/h! (and realise this is the speedo readout which is higher than actual speed)

I mention the DSG as it’s indicative what VW have programmed as an acceptable compromise between fuel efficiency and not allowing the engine to labour too much.

So I reckon the 1 gear per 10km/h rule isn’t too bad since you’d be doing 6th at 60km/h in top gear

I use the tiptronic majority of the time (ie shift my own gears) and follow this rule (except the DSG won’t let me go to 2nd until at least 15km/h when I’d rather shift at 10km/h) and always shift around 1,900rpm.

This is just my personal opinion on the topic.

Oh, in rpm terms, the DSG is progressively shifting at lower rpms in the higher gears…. Something like 1,900 rpm 1,700rpm, 1,600rpm 1,500rpm 1,400rpm 1,300rpm

[Lima]

Because it's a gimmicky feature.

You're not supposed to be driving along with your eyes on the MFD, but on the road. And it's to save fuel instead of add performance.

Yep, the S3 (6sp manuals) have this. It recommends to change gear between 1500-2000rpm.

[Corey_R]

So I reckon the 1 gear per 10km/h rule isn’t too bad since you’d be doing 6th at 60km/h in top gear

Yeah - this is what my Golf GTI with 6Spd DSG did too. It worked fine.
I basically follow that when conserving fuel in my Polo GTI with its 5 speed manual... except 5th gear on a hill at 50km/h is a bit low for the Polo

[newtogolf]

Thanks guys for the responses.

I would never of thought to be in 6th gear at 60km!

[Stealthy]

Don't know if I'd try it in the TDI though.
I struggle to cruise at 60(ish)km/h in 4th gear!
I only ever use 6th gear travelling at over 100km/h.

[cube_3]

As the others have said gearing earlier is better for fuel economy but personally I think the car feels more sluggish gearing to early and is probably best suited to Freeway driving. I go for a blend of performance / economy.
I have a 1.6 MK4 manual and travel 100Ks a day (to and from work). Its about 40% stop start and 60% freeway, and then weekends is the general suburban start / stop, shops etc. I mix up the traffic lights, sometime smooth and sometimes with a bit of oomph just to make sure the old girl is alive.
I have a long term average of 6.1Litres/100Km doing this. Its all about listening to the engine and I generally find the upshift to 2nd is between 10 and 20Km, 3rd at 40Km, 4th at 60Km and 5th at 80Km.
I reckon If I had the 118TSI I'd be doing close to 5L/100Km .... now if I could just get my hands on one

[Corey_R]

The 1.6 MK4 is a non-turbo right? (sorry, forgive me, my knowledge of the MK4 is not great). That's the speeds that I used to do with my previous NA cars. The 6 speed turbo VW's are different though. As stated above, upshift to 2nd ~20, and then 3rd 30, 4th 40, 5th 50, 6th 60 etc. That is literally what the DSG does for economy, so can't be too wrong