Do you use a Pedalbox or Sprint Booster in your DSG equipped car?

[drjekl]

Hey guys

I have a 2011 VW Passat TDI wagon, and the DSG give sme the *****s in traffic its soooo slow to respond. I'll accelerate and one two three four seconds later it'll start to take off... Even when you anticipate the lights going green a few seconds beforehand and let go of the brakes and start feathering the throttle its still way too slow..

I've had a DSG before in a 2009 TDI jetta and it was the same if not worse (At least the car doesn't roll back on hills as much) but is very doughy and unresponsive on a takeoff...

The car has done 80k kays had a tranny fluid flush and new filter at 80k kays (prev owner missed this at the scheduled service, but the fluid and filter was rather clean - I'm guessing due to the hwy kays the car had done)

My mate has a 2013 golf TSI with a DSG and he said after fitting a pedalbox the car is so much nicer to drive and its the best mod he's ever done.

So just after feedback from other forum users, are the spring boosters and pedalbox much the same thing or is one better then the other?

Pedalbox:

Volkswagen PedalBox by DTE Systems GmbH - Introduced in North America by TWM Performance

Sprintbooster:

volkswagen Sprint Booster

[Bora Sport]

I find you just anticipate when you are about to move and take your foot off the brakes. Wait until the gearbox engages and then ease onto the pedal. If you hit the pedal before it has engaged gear it just gets flustered and takes twice as long to engage. I have the DSG in my wife's 125 TDI Jetta and it has 235,000k's on it. I find if you hit the pedal too soon particularly when going from drive to reverse and back, ie if it hasn't engaged you get the feeling that nothing is happening and then it will clunk in like with a conventional auto if you leave your foot on the accelerator when changing gear. The same applies though when you are taking off. Just leave it until it lets the clutch out and the car starts to move, then accelerate. My Golf R is DSG too. I have had a DSG tune which perhaps makes it a bit better but then it has only done 59,000k's. The same method applies though.

[drjekl]

I find you just anticipate when you are about to move and take your foot off the brakes. Wait until the gearbox engages and then ease onto the pedal. If you hit the pedal before it has engaged gear it just gets flustered and takes twice as long to engage. I have the DSG in my wife's 125 TDI Jetta and it has 235,000k's on it. I find if you hit the pedal too soon particularly when going from drive to reverse and back, ie if it hasn't engaged you get the feeling that nothing is happening and then it will clunk in like with a conventional auto if you leave your foot on the accelerator when changing gear. The same applies though when you are taking off. Just leave it until it lets the clutch out and the car starts to move, then accelerate. My Golf R is DSG too. I have had a DSG tune which perhaps makes it a bit better but then it has only done 59,000k's. The same method applies though.

I always anticipate beforehand at a set of lights etc give it a few good seconds then hit the accelerator normally and 9/10 the car next to me just releases their brakes and takes off as the light goes green and they still beat me off the mark (not that I'm after a traffic light GP car - but it goes to show how crap the DSG is when its fumbling and stuffing around before the clutches engage whereas in a conventional car/gearbox its so much more responsive)

Its my wife car so i drive it once a week or so, but yeh it annoys the hell out of me...

[Hillbilly]

I have the same model and can frequently be first away at the lights by a bit of anticipation.

Even when using stop start. All about driving ability more than a supposed crap gearbox

[Jakeys]

My car (R36 as per sig) does not have the problems you are describing. If your car is truly taking three to four seconds to respond, you have a mechanical fault with the transmission. The DSG should be pretty close to instant, certainly faster than a conventional transmission.

Despite that, the Sprint Booster, and I know this is going to be contentious, is snake oil. It is a pointless waste of money. What it does is sit in between your accelerator pedal and ups the current sent slightly, up until about 80% pedal travel, at which point the car thinks you are sending 100% of pedal travel. That's all it does. There is literally zero performance benefit, the Sprint Booster "boost" can be achieved by pushing your foot about 1cm further than you normally would. After 80% travel on the pedal it stops doing anything at all. I bought one a while ago, tested and graphed this using VCDS data to prove this, and sold it on. There are some people on this forum who swear by it but factually and unarguably, all it does is make the car think you're pushing your foot a bit further. It only *feels* faster because it is emulating you putting your foot down so you go "Oh wow this is fast!" but in reality had you just pushed the pedal a touch further, you'd be getting the exact same result. It's a placebo effect, pure and simple.

tl;dr: My personal opinion is it's a waste of money, but the factual data is that it has no performance gain and it cannot possibly help your problem.

I haven't heard of the Pedalbox but if it sits between the car and the accelerator pedal and changes it, it's fundamentally identical to the Sprint Booster. The graph might be slightly different but the end result will be the same, the pedal can only tell the car how much you want it to accelerate from 0-100%, it cannot send that signal quicker (The pedal is not the bottleneck anyway the actual mechanical components and the ECU are) and it cannot send more than 100%.

[Passat R36]

I do like the driving with the Sprint Booster on

[Jakeys]

I do like the driving with the Sprint Booster on

There's nothing wrong with liking the experience as long as you know it's just a more sensitive pedal (Reaches WOT at 80% of travel with a 20% dead spot at the end, although from memory it's not a completely linear curve) and has no effect on performance. I don't have any qualms if you bought it because you like less travel for the same result, it's just if you're one of the sadly many people on here who think it gives them better performance... well I have no words, haha.

I'm pretty touchy on this cause I've had people have full arguments with me claiming it increased their 0-100 time and other pure nonsense. Hence I bought one just to unequivocally prove it does nothing for performance.

[Passat R36]

It won't improve 0-100 as WOT is the same.
I like it cause it feels more responsive.

[Umai Naa!!]

A change of driving style is in order.

As per above, you need to apply throttle and anticipate clutch take-up, like you would with a manual. After all, that's essentially what a DSG gearbox is, once you take away the electronics side of it.

[ZR36]

being a previous owner of more than a dozen different subarus' i just got myself a R36.

i must say i have never experienced a gearbox so responsive, gear changes at speed are lightning quick.

but i do have some issues in first and especially reverse.

its very jerky... its like im an L-Plater in a manual, its somewhat embarrassing - no wait its very embarrassing.

i know the DSG is notorious for its "clunkyness" but mine seems excessive, have owned nothing but subarus' and i have never felt this with any of their boxes. even the little lip in entering my garage stups the box it doesn't know what to do. I've tried everything, tried using the hold control button, tried left foot braking to build the revs. the only thing that seems to overcome this issue is jumping on it. which is not ideal trying to reverse into a single garge at night.