I was merging onto the 5 south freeway from the 110 south freeway, shifting the automatic transmission manually. After shifting into third gear and depressing the throttle, the engine began to rev freely as if in neutral for several seconds. Since the car was coasting and unresponsive, I began to lose speed while merging. I was able to regain power by shifting into neutral, then shifting back into drive and downshifting manually. This could have been an accident very easily if there was more traffic.
2011 Volkswagen GTI transmission complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 16 of 16, newest first, as owners wrote them.
False neutral with dsg transmission: I had something scary happen this morning. Next to my house, where I pull out and make a left on to a 4 land road, traffic is coming around a mostly blind curve at 50mph. I have to pull out across traffic and go left onto this road (which has a median). This morning I pressed the gas for a very light acceleration, and it pulled out just a little bit and when it went to second it didn't engage... It went to neutral. I was only 1/2 way across the first lane of traffic. My car barely rolled out of the way of cross traffic. The engine would rev, but no gears were engaged. The stick was in d. Once the car rolled down to about 2mph and I let the rpms drop down to idle, 1st gear engaged and I went about my business. It had literally *just* enough roll to get me out of the way of a car that was heading at my drivers side door at 50mph, and the driver was not expecting a car to pull out and stop in front of it (they weren't slowing down). If it didn't have that small amount of energy from 1st gear to roll out of the way, I can't imagine it would have been good. It was quite frightening.
While moving and coming to a stop and then accelerating to proceed, the transmission would rev but the car would not move. The car was in drive only way to fix the situation at the time is to come to a complete stop and try to accelerate again.
I own a 2011 vw gti 2-door dsg. I have experienced a "false neutral" about 10 times in the 2 months I have owned this car. Specifically, it happened twice on 08/27/2011, once on 9/25/2011, once on 9/26/2011. Each time I have been in manual mode...it occurs when I am coasting to either slow down or stop...then attempt to accelerate...though the car mfd tells me it is in gear (I.e. 3), the car is in neutral...the accelerator does nothing but rev the engine...the car remains coasting. I have to take the shifter out of manual mode, and place it into d...and wait about a second or two without touching the accelerator in order for a clutch to engage a gear and allow me to move. On 8/27, both times it happened when trying to complete a left hand turn on a green...a dangerous situation to find your car being in neutral. I have brought my car to the dealership, they refuse to help me because they were unable to replicate the issue on an approximate 5 mile test drive. I talked to vw of america, and they won't help unless a dealer can replicate it...they said it costs too much money. This is a terrible safety issue...and they are worried about the money. I offered to show them a video of it happening to someone else...it is posted on youtube...and they flat out refused. They said it wouldn't help in my case...and that it would prove nothing. Here is a link to the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tqodoilkyk - even if I could take a video of it happening to me in my car, they said that wouldn't help...as it would have to happen in front of a vw tech for it to be diagnosed. I have a second appointment with a different dealership next week, they will keep my car for a few days and try to replicate it. I don't know what else to do. Updated on 9/26/2011.
From second day of ownership vehicle has had transmission (dsg automatic) problems. At well over 40 occurrences (in 30,000 miles) the transmission will slip into neutral when slowing to a rate of 10mph or less and then trying to accelerate, causing an extremely unsafe condition. One instance a collision was avoided by another motorist swerving onto the sidewalk to miss my vehicle and almost struck a pedestrian when my transmission went into neutral and I coasted into the intersection. Another symptom of the transmission is that the car will go into neutral at highway speed. At 65-70mph it will without warning or notice go into neutral and sometimes will not go back into gear until the vehicle has come to a complete stop. I have had the car into the dealer many times and it is the same story again and again, unless I can replicate the problem with a mechanic in the car they cant fix anything. I brought the issue to the dealers attention after the first incident the second day of ownership and they looked at it and said it is fine, and that I'm just not use to the car yet. After two accidents avoided I no longer feel safe driving the car and do not want it. Please do something about this issue before someone is seriously hurt!
The vehicle is a 2011 volkswagen gti equipped with a dsg transmission. The gti is not offered as choice when selecting vehicle model using this on-line compliant form. Occasionally the vehicle fails to accelerate or accelerates very slowly when attempting to move forward from a complete stop. When this occurs the engine revolutions will increase but with little or no forward motion, as if the transmission was in neutral. After several seconds at high RPM (~3000 -4000) the engine revs drop, sometimes abruptly and the car begins to accelerate normally. This behavior is infrequent occurring, 6 times over ~ 3000 miles. This behavior is a safety concern because there is a risk of an accident if it were to occur while attempting to pull into traffic. The vehicle has been evaluated by the dealer but they have not been able to replicate the problem or find any defect.
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