2011-2012 Touareg's Manual Down and Up Shifts Not Responsive?

[CtNxFLeX]

Hi you guys,

I have a 2011 Hybrid Touareg. I'm just curious if other's are having a similar issue as mine with the V6 or TDI version.

When in drive mode and I shift the shifter to the right for manual down and up shifts, at times, I notice it's not as responsive. I try downshifting, and it won't downshift, it takes maybe 3-4 tries at times. Sometimes it works fine, other times it doesn't respond which can be frustrating. This goes the same with up shifting.

Anyone dealing with this similar issue?

Felix

[arky54]

Are you going too fast for the downshift to kick in? It won't down shift to some of the lower gears if you're going above a certain speed. At least that's what appears to be happening on mine. Otherwise, my tdi shifts fine.

[grohgreg]

Yup, electronic transmission. Each gear has a set RPM range. Try to shift into that gear from outside that range, and it will refuse. The "delay" you experience is almost certainly the computer waiting until the engine revs conform to the parameters defined for that specific gear. Sorta helps prevent blowing up a $20k (?) super-charged engine.

//greg//

[CtNxFLeX]

Hey you guys!

I appreciate the responses.

My car has about 2.5k miles on it, we don't drive it much and my wife wants us to "break in" the car till 3,000 miles just to be safe.

Basically, we like to keep the revs under 3k, so when going up a hill or when we need a bit of power, I shift to manual and down shift while the revs is around at 1,800 RPMs. I'm definitely not downshifting while up in the higher rpms.

Another side note is, it's not that it's delayed, it just not responding. For example, if I down shift, it won't down shift until I try a few times. After 3-4 times of shifting the knob down, it finally works. I try lightly, i try shifting harder with a bit force thinking it didn't recognize my shift, but it kinda get's annoying shifting the knob down or up multiple times just to get it in a gear you want it to if you know what I mean.

I've driven my friends 03 Jetta 1.8T that had tiptronic and responded better than my new 2011 Touareg

[Yeti35]

If you bought that brand new last year you need to drive it more. When you drive it, DRIVE IT!! I think you are babying it way to much imo.

[CtNxFLeX]

haha. Just for the record, we purchased this 5 months ago. =)

Trust me, this has been the longest "Break in" Period and it's taking forever!. When I broke in my new 08 GLI, once I hit 1k, I went to flash with APR Stage 1 right away, lol.

But long story short, this is my wife's car, just respecting her wishes as she babies all her cars, especially this one. But... I admit, I couldn't wait either so I pushed it on the highway after 1.5k on the odometer while I was taking the car to the service (don't tell my wife), I must say, this thing Goeessss for a heavy car.

[Munrokicker]

Nowadays the tolerances are so tight that you shouldn't worry about break-in. Heck, most people load the engines heavily (to about 75% of redline) the first 3-5K because they believe it will better seal the gaskets and, in return, better power, mpg, longevity, etc.

We did this with a 11 TDI Sportwagen and we felt it made a difference once broken in and now we are doing this with a 12 TDI Exec we just bought last week.

Just know that you will not hurt it unless you go pinging the limiter....

I always wanted to drive the hybrid - heard it's a screamer