2012 Tiguan 09G program is HORRID!!!!!!

[ryan mills]

Is there anything I can do for this auto to be like the 2009 Tiguan that I traded in? The transmission trys to get into 6th gear as fast as it can, so if I'm driving 35-40 mph, the engine is lugging around 1300rpm and that makes a low frequency vibration/noise that is awful. I really don't care that the Tiguan gets a couple more mpgs with this setup, it makes the car a complete turd. Would the dealership even be able to get me a less eco-minded tranny program? the rest of the Tiguan is nice, but this issue really sucks.

[jspirate]

Is there anything I can do for this auto to be like the 2009 Tiguan that I traded in? The transmission trys to get into 6th gear as fast as it can, so if I'm driving 35-40 mph, the engine is lugging around 1300rpm and that makes a low frequency vibration/noise that is awful. I really don't care that the Tiguan gets a couple more mpgs with this setup, it makes the car a complete turd. Would the dealership even be able to get me a less eco-minded tranny program? the rest of the Tiguan is nice, but this issue really sucks.

Take it back and get a "S" with straight drive.

*jspirate ducks down and runs as fast as he can*

[ryan mills]

Take it back and get a "S" with straight drive.

*jspirate ducks down and runs as fast as he can*

I Might take the old Tiguan out for a "test drive" and swap J217

[CoolAirVw]

Older VW's can be recoded to sport mode. Maybe yours can too?

[ryan mills]

I've tried recoding the transmission to "rest of world", but all that seemed to do was change the instrument display to show the gear that the transmission was in while driving. I'll keep digging into this to see what I can find out...

[hawaiivr6]

Please keep searching.

I just posted a similar thread except mine does it at 28-30 mph and tries to stay in 5th on flat ground. So I get the hum and lag
Dealer said might work itself out and to bring back when I'm over 600+ miles if problem still there.
I am stunned VW found this acceptable to market, I'm just hoping there will be a recall to address this problem as who cares about a couple mpg's when your disgusted about the transmission.

Everything else about the car is lovable and enjoyable to drive but WTF on that hum & lag.

Also, I put it in cruise control at 28 mph on flat ground and it stays in 4th like its supposed to.
When I turn off the cruise control at that speed......it shifts up into 5th and lags..Maybe cruise control is same as Sport?

[shawng]

Ryan,

can you record and post the transmission coding for your 2012. I can do my 2010 and we can compare.

[hawaiivr6]

Ryan,
Any progress on this?
Has the tranmission gotten better after putting more miles on it?
Or have you worked around the factory settings some how?
Thanks

[ryan mills]

please keep searching.

I just posted a similar thread except mine does it at 28-30 mph and tries to stay in 5th on flat ground. So i get the hum and lag
Dealer said might work itself out and to bring back when i'm over 600+ miles if problem still there.
I am stunned vw found this acceptable to market, i'm just hoping there will be a recall to address this problem as who cares about a couple mpg's when your disgusted about the transmission.

Everything else about the car is lovable and enjoyable to drive but wtf on that hum & lag.

Also, i put it in cruise control at 28 mph on flat ground and it stays in 4th like its supposed to.
When i turn off the cruise control at that speed......it shifts up into 5th and lags..maybe cruise control is same as sport?

exactly!

[hawaiivr6]

So.... Any other drivers experiencing the same dislikes of the new automatic transmission?

[rosannna114]

I just purchased a 2012 Tiguan 4 motion last Wednesday and I am experiencing the same problem with the vibration at 28-35mph

When I brought it into VW today the tech drove it but found no issues. He even drove it again and saw no issues. They finally had me go out with the tech and as you can guess it would not happen. After awhile it occurred, that slight vibration, humming, bass sound that lasts for a few seconds. He said that it's normal.

I really do not believe this to be "normal". And after reading so many posts, I now know this is an issue that needs to be acknowledged by VW as aproblem and corrected sooner then later.

This is my third VW purchase and I was so excited but now feel let down

I will certainly be contacting VW and putting in my complaint

FYI...I was asked if I was hearing a rattling because a bulletin was recently issued , a clip needs to be placed, I believe in the engine...

[ryan mills]

I also have the rattle on my Tiguan, but at this point I don't drive it because I hate it so much. There is a TSB to place a clip on the wastegate arm to stop the rattle, but that is an issue not related to the rediculous transmission program. I'm going to start looking into aftermarket tuning companies if VW can't see that there is a problem. Automatic cars should not lug!

[smart56]

Another FRUSTRATION Here, I have the same problem on my 2012 Tiguan.... Just purshased 2 weeks ago.

The dealer don't want to understand the problem.....

[ArcticFox]

When I was looking at a 2012 Tiguan it actually happened on the Test Drive. The Stealership Salesmen told me its still trying to adapt. Clearly its something in the programming is messed up.

[smart56]

Please anyone who has the same problem call customer care at the following phone number 1-800-822-8987 to submit his complaint. Dealers doesn't escalating this issue (your complaints) to VW America or Canada.
Yet for all new prospective buyer of a 2012 Tiguan test drive it a longer time to feel the problem and wait until the resolution of that issue.


I am not comfortable to recommend this model to anyone.


Thank you.

[ryan mills]

3,500 miles and the tiguan still sucks. I really cleaned it up this weekend, but I still hate driving it.

[bjohns86]

Just an FYI for all owners of 09G/09M VW transmissions. I have rebuilt and modified several units up to maybe the 2010 model year and they all have a quirk at some capacity. These transmissions are made in Japan by Aisin-Warner with collaboration with VW. Frankly, all Aisin-Warner (AW) transmissions are cheaply built/designed. They have horrible valve body designs across the board and frequent comebacks centered around these. They are used by almost every common auto maker (Ford, GM, Nissan, VW, Audi, BMW, and Mini). Their shifting strategy (adaptive shift) is fussy, unreliable, slow to equilibrate and for those who demand crisp, sporty, positive shifts (not bangs, mind you; they deliver plenty of these!) you will be disappointed. Why VW has been using this unit for nearly 10 yrs is beyond me, considering the amount of money they are losing on the various TSB's related to them. All I can say is be persistent with the dealer, but realize they can't do a lot with a crap design. I highly dislike dealers and the ineptness of their mechanics in terms of transmission issues. How hard is it to be an expert on a vehicle when you only work on primarily one brand. There are very few reasons to ever bring your car to the dealer and warranty work is one of them, even though you basically need the transmission to be non-functional before they recognize a problem. Anyway, enough of that. I just get frustrated when I see people talk of how unhelpful and unknowledgeable the dealers are. You may have to wait until VW comes out with a software update for these like they have done for every model with this transmission in the past. Luckily, internally this transmission is acceptable with the VB/software being 99% of the problems being experienced. Good luck!

Brad

[mhackett]

Yeah, variants of this transmission seem to be used all over the place.

Though the issue in this thread isn't a matter of the transmission not behaving as intended, it is behaving exactly as intended. Lugging along in top gear pays off in fuel mileage, even if it isn't very fun for the driver. Even driving as sedately as reasonable in Tiptronic I don't approach the mpg I get in Drive on my commute. 10% less is typical. And in Sport it is even worse.

So it seems unlikely VW is interested in doing anything for this. Good mpg numbers on the window sticker are important to them, as well as most everyone else.

I saw a graph somewhere recently, it showed that 6 and greater speed automatics are one of the biggest contributors to recent improvements in mpg. Certainly the programming towards tall gearing at any speed is why this is.

[ryan mills]

While I agree that the Aisin isn't the best transmission in the world, it proved to me that it was a LOT better in the 2009 Tiguan that we had before this one. I feel that the sloppy shifting isn't the issue that bugs me the most, it's the transmission shifting into the highest gear possible and lugging the engine around at 1200RPM. On a side note, the newer Tiguan is honsetly getting 2-3mpg better overall than the 2009. I just wish I didn't hate driving it.

[bjohns86]

I understand. I guess I did put the cart before the horse there a bit. Anyway, I would predict that the change you want will not be accomplished by a re-learn of the shift pattern. It will require VW, or aftermarket vendor, to come out with a new program that they can flash the TCM with. The adaptive shift primarily deals with shift quality, shift speed, and shift points, within reason, and what you seem to be describing is most likely beyond the ability of the re-learn process. Too extreme of a change for it.

[mhackett]

I think this will get to be even more of an issue in the future. As noted above lugging is good for gas mileage. Here's an article I found on the same subject:

http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/...-lug-and-coast

For my new car this issue annoyed me quite a bit when it was new, though I think it got a little better as the car broke in and the moving parts freed up a bit. It will run along as low as 1000 rpm in 6th on flat terrain but will fairly quickly release the lockup torque converter or even downshift with not much pedal pressure, so I don't get a lot of vibration and buzzing. It is worse if the A/C is on. The manufacturers have to balance how quickly and often the transmission will do this (which can also be annoying) against the added vibration, buzzing, etc. of holding the tall gear too long. If I'm driving in Tiptronic mode I try to keep the rpm above 1500 since in that mode the TC lockup does not release with added pedal pressure (usually considered a good thing while in Tiptronic mode, certainly). It does impact the mpg though.

Having more cylinders mitigates this issue. Of course, the trend is going the other way, 4-cylinder engines producing more and more power being put into heavier and bigger cars. The Tiguan seems to have gone over the annoyance edge, for some anyway. Question is what will they figure out to do about it, other than raising the shift points a bit and thus impacting gas mileage.

I had thought it would be cool to be able to select from a few Drive shift maps via the MFI.

[Charlie_M]

I feel that the sloppy shifting isn't the issue that bugs me the most, it's the transmission shifting into the highest gear possible and lugging the engine around at 1200RPM. On a side note, the newer Tiguan is honsetly getting 2-3mpg better overall than the 2009. I just wish I didn't hate driving it.

So is the problem in the TCU (ie short-shifting)? Or is the final drive higher (ie lower RPM at highway speeds)?

Or both?

[ryan mills]

So is the problem in the TCU (ie short-shifting)? Or is the final drive higher (ie lower RPM at highway speeds)?

Or both?

It's the short shifting that's the problem. It also has a higher 5th and 6th gear than before, but that wouldn't bother me if the car didn't try to shift to sixth under 40mph.

[reneestan]

I too traded in my 2010 vw tiguan 4 motion Wolfsburg for the new 2012 vw tiguan fwd SE. I have to agree with all the posts about the transmission. I test drove and thought it was a little louder than the 2010 but since it was a fwd I assummed it was different because it was just a fwd compared to 4 motion? I did tried to post about putting in key turning to start without turning it on and holding the gas pedal down to the floor for 5 seconds and then turning the car off for reboot. This did not help at all? I am hoping they do a reflash fix for this problem because the gears are trying to shift way too soon which makes a loud bass type sound and lags???? I am hating this?

[50323973]

Yes I also own a 2012 tiguan I am very disappointed that Volkswagen would sell a car that shifts gears to soon and causes the vehicle to shudder and vibrate while driving on a flat stretch of road while at a constant speed between 35 and 40 mph. We all need to let Volkswagen of America know that this is not acceptable. (800-822-8987)

[ryan mills]

UPDATE! transmission still sucks, but if I use cruise control, the car stays one gear lower, making everything somewhat decent.

[Aguilar]

Do the Mk6 Jetta and Golf get the same 09G?

[cwb66cad]

Hi Brad,

You are on the money with the bad design, my mother's 2011 Golf is virtually impossible to drive smoothly, and although I haven't kept current with my ASE cert, used to work for GM in calibration and vehicle development on the larger TFWD transmissions (4T60E/65E/80E) and recent RWD autos for Corvette C5 & C6. Besides the bad design and shift strategies (especially garage shifting and absurdly early upshifts), I'm pushing the dealer for new ETC and software; they've pushed back with findings from VWoA, after replacing the valve body, that that's all that can be done. With only 8,000 miles on the clock, we have lots of time to argue back & forth. Really a shame since she loves this car otherwise (she's a VWoA retiree).

[mhackett]

In what way is hers impossible to drive smoothly? Just curious. I agree with the short-shifting complaints (though understand the mpg reasoning behind it) but even with that smooth driving never seemed to be much of a problem with the way mine worked, anyway.

As I approach one year of ownership, my solution amongst the various options is Tiptronic almost exclusively. It's not ideal in every situation but is more ideal more of the time than either of the auto modes. Took me some attitude adjustment to get to this point, certainly. I also know many will not consider this a solution at all, and I won't argue with that. Mainly it's just making the best of what I have.

As mentioned a few times previously I was fairly happy with Drive for awhile but some of that was due to having the windows down during the warmer months, tend not to notice the short-shifting engine-lugging as much that way. Once the weather turned colder and the windows were up it was harder to ignore.

[bmod14]

I too am having the same problem as many on this thread. I have about 1,000 miles on the Tig and it has not "Learned" my driving habits. I don't know how it could as I drive it aggressively and my wife drives it like a wus, and we drive it equally. I visited my dealer and they thought it was wheel balancing. They balanced the front wheels and of course that did no good. I knew I would be coming back to the dealer as I need a clip installed on the waste-gate actuator rod to eliminate a rattle, so I decided to call VW in the meantime. I called the VW care center (1-800-822-8987) and voiced my complaint about the trans. When the dealer obtains the clip, I am to let VW care center know when I will be at the dealer and they will send a rep to talk about the problem with the transmission. I'll let everyone know what transpires.

BTW, I'm really thankful for this forum. Now I have some ammo to take with me to the dealer. Also, on another forum, I learned about the waste-gate actuator rattle problem and hopefully that will be solved!

[cwb66cad]

The "impossible" part is the garage shifting (R - D, D - R) and tip-in aspects. Everything else I can control fairly easily with my foot, and if I owned it I'd use Tiptronic as well. From one "stopped in D with foot on service brake to tip-in" event to the next, the transmission reacts differently, even if the events are similar (grade, weather, accessories on or off, etc.). And I have hundreds of thousands of miles of test driving at two OEs as experience. The only way to make it work smoothly (in D) and transition the quasi "start-stop" function to "start" is to release the service brake about a second or so prior to accelerating (the car will barely creep, but don't be on someone's rear bumper if you're doing it!). If this is not done, the rapid successive inputs of brake off and ETC picking up movement in the pedal can result in a very short lunge forward, followed by a fair amount of pedal travel until things start to work normally. This has been demonstrated to the dealer repeatedly and their answer is a new valve body. I know better. This "bad behavior" is even worse in the new Ford Focus, according to a Ford pal of mine.

[mhackett]

Oh, yes, agree about the abrupt tip-in. That is nasty at times, I mentioned it on my test drive to the salesman and of course got no reaction. Letting the car creep a bit first helps a lot but sometimes it can't be avoided (like if stopped on an uphill grade) and you just live with it.

I would not have called that a transmission issue, though, assumed it had to do with the DBW throttle mapping. I keep hoping they come out with an ECU update for it.

And then there's the lag in throttle after that, at least for my car there is in the two auto modes. Response is much more linear in Tiptronic, another reason I've adopted that mode most of the time. I'm not sure why they made it behave differently that way, would be interested to know.

[ryan mills]

The whole tip in thing is also due to the fact that the transmission disengages while at a standstill. It's fun to play with. While at a stop, release you foot quickly from the brake, but don't press the gas, you will feel the transmission reengage. put your foot back on the brake, disengage. I do this over and over and over. My wife hates me when I drive, but the quicker I destroy this car the quicker we can get something else.

[mhackett]

I wonder what it is you are feeling engage, really. I don't feel anything like that when releasing the brake. I do feel obvious engagement when going from N to D, with the brake depressed. Nothing additional when releasing the brake, the car simply starts creeping smoothly ahead. It should not be necessary for a torque-converter type of automatic to disengage while sitting still.

Is your car AWD? Maybe you are feeling something happen related to that system.

I think tip-in behavior has to do with the engine mixture being leaned-out at idle for emissions reasons more than anything else. Complaints about tip-in are certainly widespread, it is not a VW-only thing by any means.

[bmod14]

[/LEFT]

I too am having the same problem as many on this thread. I have about 1,000 miles on the Tig and it has not "Learned" my driving habits. I don't know how it could as I drive it aggressively and my wife drives it like a wus, and we drive it equally. I visited my dealer and they thought it was wheel balancing. They balanced the front wheels and of course that did no good. I knew I would be coming back to the dealer as I need a clip installed on the waste-gate actuator rod to eliminate a rattle, so I decided to call VW in the meantime. I called the VW care center (1-800-822-8987) and voiced my complaint about the trans. When the dealer obtains the clip, I am to let VW care center know when I will be at the dealer and they will send a rep to talk about the problem with the transmission. I'll let everyone know what transpires.

BTW, I'm really thankful for this forum. Now I have some ammo to take with me to the dealer. Also, on another forum, I learned about the waste-gate actuator rattle problem and hopefully that will be solved!

Update 1/22/12

Got the Tig back from the dealer yesterday. I guess I was in error, the VW Care Center did not send a rep to talk to me about the transmission, as that is not standard procedure. They just wanted to know when I brought the Tig in so they could talk to the dealer about it.

The result is "Technician road tested vehicle. These are normal characteristics of this transmission. Compared to similar Tiguan - operating normally".

On the way home, it seemed to be even worse. While driving at about 32 mph and the car was laboring (vibrating), I threw the trans over from drive to Tiptronic and saw that it was in 6th gear (you can see it on the dash) and I down shifted to 4th and it ran fine. If this were a stick shift, who would drive it at 32 mph in SIXTH GEAR!! I am too old to wait for VW to correct the problem (took them a couple of years to come up with realizing and correcting the turbo waist gate noise problem). I guess I will opt to sell this Tig (hopefully back to the dealer) and either buy an older Tig or get something else!