John Rutledge

My wife loves the TT almost as much as me, er..<br>she likes the TT as much as I like it. Of course<br>she gets her turn to drive it. In the interest of<br>family harmony, I try not to criticize or tell<br>her when she should be shifting the gears.<br> <br>It *does* bother me that she doesn't "wind the gears out," that is, she stays in each gear for a very short time, never revving it up beyond<br>3000 rpm. Occasionally, she will even start off in second gear from a dead stop, or, shift into third gear at 15 mph.<p>Is there any mechanical or technical reason not<br>to drive it like this? I think she would like<br>to well-informed opinion about this (which she<br>couldn't get from me, of course), although<br>when people actually shift seems to be pretty<br>much a matter of taste and an expression of one's<br>personality/interests/style.<p>Anyone else have this problem? I've also wondered<br>about who, if anyone, I'd let drive my TT. (So far, no one.)

Marius B

Shift rpm's should be in proportion to how quick you want to accelerate. If you want it all, you'll only find that performance at redline. If she's satisfied with the acceleration she gets at low revs, there's no technical reason not to shift at 2500 rpm or even lower. It 's like opening the tap. If you only want a trickle...<p>In the old days, engines didn't like much throttle at low rpm's, but with today's computer controlled injection and timing, I believe that problem have gone away.

Ed

The throtle on the TT is fully controled by computer. When you're driving about 15mph, put the car in 5th gear. The engine won't even hesitate! Try that in a SLK.<p>Ed

Ed

The throtle on the TT is fully controled by computer. When you're driving about 15mph, put the car in 5th gear. The engine won't even hesitate! Try that in a SLK.<p>Ed

John Ireland

Though modern cars get all sorts of electronic help from their fuel systems, there still can be problems when using too few rpms...or lugging the engine, as it is also known. The gears are there to help the engine make efficient power. Too few rpms puts stress on the internal parts of the engine and on the drive line. If she is driving, like you described, in a parking lot, thats fine. But if she is driving like that all the time, and uses more throttle to make up for the lower rpms, that is not good for milage or wear on the car. Just increasing the rmp another 500 will be a big improvment. Also...when she is so low in the rpm range, she has very poor throttle response so if she needed to suddenly accellerate to get out of the way of something, she'd be stuck "off cam" as the expression goes. Most US drivers are not used to high rpm engines...and while the TT is not like the Honda VTEC...it is still an engine that loves to be reved. On the other hand, your wife may be like my wife, and have very little interest in "sporty" driving. But still...tell her a little more rpm will be safer.<br>John

Jack Rich

Read your owners manual. Yes, lugging the engine greatly increases strain on the engine and premature wear. The owners manual specifies no lower than 1500 rpm and then you must downshift. In my experience, unlike the inline 5, the 1.8T is relatively gutless below 2000 rpm and is quite unhappy trying to accelerate even moderately at 1500 rpm.

Marius B

My owner's manual is on a ship right now, and it's for the 225 hp engine anyway :-) <p>If the person in question is happy shifting at 2500–3000 rpms, I'm sure she also presses the accelerator very gently. Coming down from 2500 in 1st gives app. 1400 in 2nd, after a second or two coasting out-of-gear. Accelerating very gently — or ladylike, rather — from 1400 in 2nd is no problem for this engine. From 2500 in 2nd you'd hit 1600+ in 3rd, which also is just fine.<p>Owner's manual isn't geared(!) to rocket scientists. If a rev number to stay above should be stated, 1500 is just fine. Of course you're right, there is very little power available at these low revs, but technical problems? No, sir.<p>Full throttle at low revs is silly, and in more unsophisticated cars easily spotted from the cloud of grey exhaust it produces. Using high revs without accelerating hard, is also uncool, except for the situation where you're just about to start a passing maneuvre and want to have full power instantly available.

Stuart Brown

As a mechanical engineer I can tell you that the first few months with you car are crucial. The engine (metal) will develop a memory. As a metal is stressed and then the load taken off the material actually becomes stronger. I would assume that this would be the same for the engine. If you car gets used to shifting at low rpms and only reaching a certain stress level that level will become its benchmark. Anything past that could be dangerous. I would think this could be a bigger problem with the turbo because it really gets hot during high rpms. I could be way off base but that is my 2 cents. I will look in my old vehicle dynamics book tonight to see if that is the case.

Paul Fletcher

To sumarise other comments and add my own this really depends on how old the car is (i.e. if you are still breaking in) and how much throttle is used. Generally speaking whilst breaking in you should try to maintain mid range rev's with light throttle. In other words change down in plenty of time and try to keep the load on the engine down. This doesn't mean keeping to fixed revs, try to vary them a bit. After breaking in it isn't too much of a problem but to be mechanically sypathetic change down rather than letting the revs drop right off and using lots of gas to get going.<p>As far as I can remember (info from a professional race engine builder) the main reason for this is low speed and high load can break through the oil film in the crankshaft bearings causing premature wear - not good. Likewise high revs when new can vause localised heat build up and partial siezure, resulting in high oil consumption later in the engines life. I used these rules of thumb with all of my cars and have never had a problem with oil consumption and get consistently better gas figures than other owners of similar cars.<p>Regards,<br>Paul.

Ed

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