Problem with second gear in low speeds.

[Frostensen]

I'm not even sure how to form the question. My car is 160hp 1.8 tsi Linea R model. A car that is a bit stiffer, sits a bit lower and has 18" wheels. In short, when I pass over a speed bump or enter a sharp curve (uphill) I have to slow down to a near crawl which is about 7 to 9 mph. After that the car will not pull away smoothly while in second gear. It starts shaking as if it needs more power. I can't say for sure, but I have the impression that it doesn't happen when the car is cold.

I often have the opportunity to drive a Punto with 60 hp and a Golf 5 with 116 hp, both of which roll along just fine. The thing with me is that, if I shift into first, the car still has inertia and jerks, but if it stays in second, it won't pull I struggle with it non-stop. Following the situation, I figured I have to go at lowest 11 mph in order to continue moving normally, while the Golf and Punto regularly continue in the second while rolling along at 7.

The guy "in the know" told me its a curse of a "stronger" cars for city driving. He said that weaker cars behave better. I find that hard to believe because 160hp is practically nothing. Most "regular" cars today have between 110 and 150hp stock so I fail to see his point.

I wonder if anyone had a stupid problem like this or knows what I'm taking about. It's really annoying constantly having to press the pedal or slow down to almost full stop.

 

[CosmicBlue]

It is almost certainly a lack of torque, the engine needs to be spinning a bit faster (so producing more torque) and you need to be in 1st gear. Although everyone raves about HP as an indication of performance its actually torque that makes the difference in real world 'driveability'. It is likely that the Punto and the Golf have better torque numbers and therefore undertake the task more easily. You can extrapolate this still further if you drive a manual diesel - on paper they will make less HP but produce oodles of low-down torque.

 

[andylong]

There are 2 things going on here, the first is that different cars have different ratios meaning they have different minimum speeds in gear (idle revs) and with different gearing and engine torque curves different speeds at which the engine will make any usable torque. None of that is unusual, other than travelling at 7mph in second year.
The other thing is learning how to change down a gear, you need to match engine speed to road speed which translates into certain revs in the gearbox which removes the down changing jerkyness.
I advocate this for all gears.

 

[Frostensen]

I understand that diff. cars have diff. gear ratios, hence my question. I was hoping there are 1.8/2.0 TSI seat users that could tell me their experience and if their cars behave the same way.

I don't have a problem with downshifting, I was merely illustrating my problem that the car is moving too fast for first gear. I can slow down next to a crawl and downshift, but it's very annoying having to slow down this much over every speed bump and then speed up again.

 

[andylong]

Do you have to slow more than most if you are lower than most because of the speed bumps?
I have a diesel so low down torque is plentiful but it's geared high so I tend to get into first a fair bit...
The more performance type engines tend to lack that torque low down.