Tiptronic Clutch Slip ???

[oyinbo80]

Hello Folks,
Apologies in advance for posting this question as i'm sure you have been asked before. I'm in the process of buying a 99 vr4 estate tiptronic. I have never owned an auto car before and especially a tiptronic car at that.

I took the car for a test drive and was playing with the tiptronic when i noticed something that i thought was odd. The car was in 5th (In tiptronic mode) and i slowed to around 25-30mph to judge the pulling power of the engine, when i hit the throttle i expected the car to slowly build up the revs and use the torque to pull it cleanly but the car instead immediately revved to around 4000 rpm without hauling ass and felt to me like "clutch slip" on a manual. The speed eventually caught up with the revs and over 4000 the car pulled like a train

The dealer told me that all tiptronic equipped cars behave this way and it was the torque converter that made the revs rise so sharply.

Would appreciate any thoughts and feedback

[Nick Mann]

That is what it does. Perfectly normal. But it would be better to drop gears?!

It is the torque convertor. There is no clutch.

If you give us more info on the car we can try and help more. Glad you found us - hope you buy it and enjoy it as much as the rest of us!

[Physician]

Yep, Nick is 100% correct.

You will probably find that you hardly ever use the 'manual' side after you get used to the tiptronic box unless you are 'playing' with another car or on track.

I understand that you were testing the pulling power from 5th gear in manual mode but as I'm sure you appreciate - two (or three) quick taps in succession downwards on the gear lever and you are in 3rd gear (or 2nd) and you will be up to the national speed limit from 25 mph'ish in about 3/4 seconds ...... yeeeehaaaa!

I'm not sure if all VR4's are the same but on max acceleration in auto mode mine changes gear at 6000 rpm (ECU setting I presume) ...... in manual you can get an extra 1000 rpm before the safety system cuts fuel at 7000 rpm.

Enjoy ! :-D

[ritch_w]

Hi John - nice to see you made it here.
:-D

[Brind]

I don't think you can test what you're after, even with a normal automatic, it will shift down to where it has more power, if you don't let it as per the manual side, it will take the easy route out and simply not engage.

Letting it do its own thing is enough to show you what power it has regardless if it has to shift down to prove itself.

As said, you won't be using the tiptronic when you find out how unbelievably effiective the auto is. I'm sure NO-ONE here has beaten the autos choice of gear change when using the manual side??

Don't think I've ever used it for more than a handful of stop starts.

This auto learns your driving style too, so if you always rag the nuts off the car it will always be racey however you drive it like a nun and it will become lethargic.

[oyinbo80]

Hi Nick,
Thanks very much for replying so quickly, you've put my mind to rest, as i said above i've never owned a tiptronic so i was just playing

The car is 99 vr4, when i went to the garage to buy it yesterday the owner told me that he was selling his car for his friend and that it had extensive service records and that he would show them to me when his friend dropped them in, got a call to say that he "seems to have misplaced2 the service file. Don't think so......

Know anybody selling a good vr4 estate?

[oyinbo80]

Thanks everyone for replying and hello Rich, guess the car was "too good to be true" .

Won't be buying the car after all, not spending 9k on a car with no history

[ritch_w]

Thanks everyone for replying and hello Rich, guess the car was "too good to be true" .

Won't be buying the car after all, not spending 9k on a car with no history

probably a wise move if the history has been "misplaced".

search through the for sale forum - there has been various vr4s for sale over the past few months - and there is always plenty on autotrader - just not locally tho....

good luck with the hunt!!! :-D

[enigma]

Don't know whether anyone else gets this:

On mine if you are in tiptronic mode and in 5th gear and the revs are really low the gear box jumps back to 4th automatically...

In much the same way it will return to 1st if you forget when you stop! The box has features in it that will prevent you from doing anything silly, like selecting 1st at 100mph, or 5th at 10mph.

I tried the accelerating in 5th this morning and just got a gradual rise in revs? The lockup then kicked in and it dropped a little.

As for no clutch in an auto - not strictly true! You can quite easiliy overpower the clutches and get slip in much the same way as in a manual. As you have a clutch per gear though they tend to last longer!

[simpsonm]

Don't know whether anyone else gets this:

On mine if you are in tiptronic mode and in 5th gear and the revs are really low the gear box jumps back to 4th automatically...

[ritch_w]

Don't know whether anyone else gets this:

On mine if you are in tiptronic mode and in 5th gear and the revs are really low the gear box jumps back to 4th automatically...

could that be some sort of safety thing??
I know in the v6 that you cant get 4th until about 37mph

[Brind]

Don't know whether anyone else gets this:

On mine if you are in tiptronic mode and in 5th gear and the revs are really low the gear box jumps back to 4th automatically...

I've not tried much with the 'tiptronic', but it seems if I'm coming to a stop it won't change down until it's actually stopped.
If I leave it in 5th and put my foot down it just speeds up in 5th.

With it doing its own thing in fully auto, sometimes the revs will rise slightly (although you hear it more than see it) when you go up a steep hill in 5th, it won't always say it's gone down to 4th... if it's a big change it will tell you it's changed.

Going down hill it will go back into 4th unless you put your foot down a bit.

You can't go into 5th unless you're doing 37mph, which goes for auto and tip.

[ritch_w]

could be the invecs-II has learned this driving style from you / another owner
try resetting it (diconect battery for 10mins????)

[strangebat]

I'm having a lot of grief with this invecs stuff because i drive the car and so does my wife, I like to drive quickly mostly out of town at weekends- my wife tootles about town at 30ish all week, so when I get in at the weekend it doesn't seem to know what to do, so I find myself mostly using tip mode, or ressetting the ecu which I don't want to have to do all the bloody time. So tip mode is the only way I can get it to hold the gearchange a bit longer.

[Kyoshu]

Yeah, I find a similar thing happen when my wife drives the VR4 for a week or so. So I disconnect the battery and after about a week the car is back to doing auto changes at redline when I put my foot down all the way.