Difficult to start on hill without burning clutch

[Andy Beats]

It's got to be a hydraulic clutch these days, surely....

[r4b]

Hey all, thanks for all the replies. Interesting discussion.

Reading the posts, "r4b" smelling the burning clutch when starting on a hill. How steep are the hills around his area? Are the Polo clutch springs too soft for the job?

I live just outside of Leeds but do work all over and frequently in the countryside so I do come across some relatively steep hills from time to time. Majority of the time is just suburban driving though.

Reading the posts, "r4b" smelling the burning clutch when starting on a hill. How steep are the hills around his area? Are the Polo clutch springs too soft for the job?

Maybe just releasing the clutch too slow, these 1.0L engines have more torque than some bigger engines so may not stall as easily as you would think.
I've started on what i I consider to be steep hills without any issues, but maybe the OP has steeper hills than me.

I did wonder if that was what I was doing wrong so I am trying to adjust to that. On a side note to that though I feel like getting the balance of revs and the release of the clutch is so fickle in this car and there is so little leeway between burning the clutch and setting off properly, even only on a slight incline.

Is there any other member who thinks that the clutch travel is too long in movement?

I really think Andy it's a trip back to the dealers and ask their advice about your clutch, if the travel is as bad as you say, you'll never be happy with it as long as you own it .

I do agree that the travel on the clutch pedal does feel very long in this car. My brother who had a go in it also mentioned that he thought the biting point seemed a bit high. I did take mine back into the dealer a little while back and they said they can see no problems with it, they didn't make any comment as to whether the bite point seemed high or not they just asked me how it compared to the courtesy car, which was very similar..... They didn't really have much to say. Guess it's just a case of live with it?

[Andy Beats]

It's good to hear your car, and the other one you tried, had a long clutch pedal travel before it engages fully.
It backs my theory up that it's just the way they are, nothing wrong.

[RUM4MO]

I wonder if long clutch pedals are the price we need to pay for having cars that need to let the engine know when the load is about to be handed back to the engine and also have effectively an "engine start" lock out until the clutch pedal is fully depressed?

My wife is just under 5 feet tall/long and she can easily drive her manual Polo 6C, but I can almost be certain that she would not be able to drive my 2011 B8 Audi S4 as the clutch pedal travel is so long - well at least when you need to press it to start the engine!

We are quickly heading for fully automatic only cars for many reasons as well as preparing us for the "sparky" ones!

[david.stark]

Reading this, I’ve found another reason I’m glad I had DSG. Just need to resolve the wet carpet issue now

[Adam_013]

Hmm, I wonder if anyone here has the 75ps Polo and has the same issue... I had an up for a courtesy car today with this engine and had no issues when pulling away or steep inclines.

On a side note, very glad I got the Polo rather than the up (nearly did). They're a bit... Not a nice [emoji23]

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Garjen]

Just to let you know my 85kwh polo has same clutch issue and dealer states it's normal. First occurred in Wales

[Andy Beats]

We are quickly heading for fully automatic only cars for many reasons as well as preparing us for the "sparky" ones!

Having had a Nissan leaf for a year, bring it on.
Electric cars are wonderful, god I miss the acceleration!
Unfortunately, demand for them has gone mental and I simply couldn't replace it for the same deal as I got a year ago.
As soon as they come down in price, which they will, I'm back into electric ASAP.

[silverhairs]

Andy, when you had your leaf, did you have one of them high rated charging points installed to your house, and how much did your electricity bill go up by?
I just cannot imagine having an electric car, driving to my daughters (130 miles) and asking her, "can I charge my battery up" so I can drive home.

The tales I've read about journalists taking a long run out in the cars that the manufacturers have loaned them, they have to plan a route as to be able to charge their cars up. They get to one charging point and that's not working, they try another and that's full of other cars charging. By this point their battery has little power left and they start panicking and anxious about getting charged up. A two hour journey turns out a three and a half hour journey.

OK a battery may accelerate fast, but when your looking for power points and the anxiety to find power, over rides the thrill of the acceleration part of the electric motor. When the batteries can cover over 600 miles per charge, and there is a better network of charging points around the country which there is not at the moment. Another point (no pun intended) how do people in terraced houses charge their cars? you cannot have leads running across the pavements causing trip hazards. The government have a plan about using lampposts with charging points on, how much is that going to cost the tax payer.
I also read that car manufacturers only give an 8 year warranty on their hybrid batteries, and some battery manufacturers are now putting in small battery cells so if one breaks down they only have to replace a few cells?
I don't really think it's the right time to roll out all electric cars yet, and even now the government have taken off the subsidy for electric cars, but there again they are trying their best to kill off the diesel motors on the road.

[Andy Beats]

Andy, when you had your leaf, did you have one of them high rated charging points installed to your house, and how much did your electricity bill go up by?
I just cannot imagine having an electric car, driving to my daughters (130 miles) and asking her, "can I charge my battery up" so I can drive home.

The tales I've read about journalists taking a long run out in the cars that the manufacturers have loaned them, they have to plan a route as to be able to charge their cars up. They get to one charging point and that's not working, they try another and that's full of other cars charging. By this point their battery has little power left and they start panicking and anxious about getting charged up. A two hour journey turns out a three and a half hour journey.

OK a battery may accelerate fast, but when your looking for power points and the anxiety to find power, over rides the thrill of the acceleration part of the electric motor. When the batteries can cover over 600 miles per charge, and there is a better network of charging points around the country which there is not at the moment. Another point (no pun intended) how do people in terraced houses charge their cars? you cannot have leads running across the pavements causing trip hazards. The government have a plan about using lampposts with charging points on, how much is that going to cost the tax payer.
I also read that car manufacturers only give an 8 year warranty on their hybrid batteries, and some battery manufacturers are now putting in small battery cells so if one breaks down they only have to replace a few cells?
I don't really think it's the right time to roll out all electric cars yet, and even now the government have taken off the subsidy for electric cars, but there again they are trying their best to kill off the diesel motors on the road.

A company called pod-point install a charger for free in your house, mine was in the garage.
Yes, if you were doing 130 miles to your daughters you would undoubtedly either have to recharge at her house using a mains cable, or at a faster charger nearby.
Only really Teslas can do 260 miles between charges at the moment.
But how often do you actually make this journey, and how often does anyone ever do 600 miles in one go?
Fact is that most people can happily live with an electric vehicle - I did and plenty of others do.
The stats are out there showing most people only do short journeys at a time, then you just plug it in and go to sleep - hey presto it's back to full again in the morning.
With regard to the subsidy, all that will happen is that the manufacturers will reduce the costs - the subsidies just allowed them to inflate the cost of the cars to an unrealistic level.
They absolutely are the future, most could have one right now, and it's only a matter of time until it's the only way you'll be able to drive anywhere near a town centre.
I'm gutted to be back in a fossil fuel car, but my budget is self-restricted and I simply couldn't get a replacement one for my £200 a month - absolute bummer.
Fossil fuel cars really do feel backward in comparison to the silence, smoothness and instant zip of an electric one.
Electricity costs vary hugely, so 'my' electric bill is moot - but they should work out at about the tenth of the cost in fuel.
Many higher mileage drivers are reporting their savings in fuel costs pay for the electric car alone.

[RUM4MO]

silverhairs, lamp post chargers are about to hit the streets I think that I read, if/when we get an electric car it will be for local use, so the odd time having fun with the performance would work well enough.

Anny Beats, I'm not so sure right now if anyone will fit a charging point for you FOC, I think that stopped some time ago, initially for selfish reasons, some power suppliers would fit you for you even if you didn't have an electric car, it must have been some government back wheeze to be able to claim that lots of charging points had been provided, ie to kick start the move to electric transport.

On the subject of the 75PS engine in the UP, I thought that that engine was normally aspirated so it would have been tuned to provide "the goods" low down the rev range and the UP is lighter I'd guess, I even had a steep hill "event" with my wife's 6C Polo 1.2TSI 110PS today, I don't know why it caught me out. On the Skoda forum, in the Ibiza section there were quite a few people reporting ending up starter issues some time back, and it was due to what you could assume to be "carp" clutch friction material, it seems when pressed to hard use to overcome these hill start events some clutches started to shred or unwind and so the "rope/twine" stuff that is part of the friction material, was ending up near the starter and getting grabbed by it, I'd guess that was due to duff supplier or just a "bad batch" - not good to hear about though! Hopefully when a Western European manufactured clutch assembly was fitted this issue would vanish.

[Andy Beats]

On the subject of the 75PS engine in the UP, I thought that that engine was normally aspirated so it would have been tuned to provide "the goods" low down the rev range and the UP is lighter I'd guess, I even had a steep hill "event" with my wife's 6C Polo 1.2TSI 110PS today, I don't know why it caught me out. On the Skoda forum, in the Ibiza section there were quite a few people reporting ending up starter issues some time back, and it was due to what you could assume to be "carp" clutch friction material, it seems when pressed to hard use to overcome these hill start events some clutches started to shred or unwind and so the "rope/twine" stuff that is part of the friction material, was ending up near the starter and getting grabbed by it, I'd guess that was due to duff supplier or just a "bad batch" - not good to hear about though! Hopefully when a Western European manufactured clutch assembly was fitted this issue would vanish.

The turbo car will have more low down torque.
It'll be down to gearing.
Fact is the gearing on the 1.0Tsi (95) is really, really high.
I'm finding myself driving around one or two gears lower than I would in other cars.
For example, I find I'm sticking to third in 40mph traffic - I'm forgetting to change up as the car doesn't seem to need it and fourth is making the engine labour.
But that high gearing means first is high too, and that makes pulling away hard.
The UP will have lower gearing to make up for the lack of power and torque.
Really, IMO, VW have made the gearing too high on the Polo - I think 1-4 should be lower and then make 5th an 'overdrive'.

[silverhairs]

Hi Andy,
Our next door neighbour's father has a Toyota Prius who was visiting his daughter, he just started to pull off when a couple of kids from the road, without looking stepped out in the road, because they didn't hear him coming, I saw what was happening and shouted at the kids, luckily he had seen them and had to put on his brakes rather hard. I've been out talking on the pavement with my back to the road and he's come past, and made me jump. It might be a good idea if they had sound generators built into the front bumper, to give pedestrians warning without being heard inside the car if you like the quietness of the electric motor.
I have two daughters and the other lives just past Barnstaple, so a trip from North Lincolnshire is a good 300 miles one way, and we do that about 6/7 times a year. While coming home, we get about half way (150 miles) on the M5 just before we turn onto the M42, I say to her "are you hungry or want the toilet", if she says "no" we do the journey in one jump.
Your right about people doing shorter journeys, If you just have it for shopping and things, and as a second car.

You didn't mention about the extra cost to your electricity bill? You never see anywhere the actual electric cost incurred by the owners by the manufacturers?

[Andy Beats]

Hi Andy,
Our next door neighbour's father has a Toyota Prius who was visiting his daughter, he just started to pull off when a couple of kids from the road, without looking stepped out in the road, because they didn't hear him coming, I saw what was happening and shouted at the kids, luckily he had seen them and had to put on his brakes rather hard. I've been out talking on the pavement with my back to the road and he's come past, and made me jump. It might be a good idea if they had sound generators built into the front bumper, to give pedestrians warning without being heard inside the car if you like the quietness of the electric motor.
I have two daughters and the other lives just past Barnstaple, so a trip from North Lincolnshire is a good 300 miles one way, and we do that about 6/7 times a year. While coming home, we get about half way (150 miles) on the M5 just before we turn onto the M42, I say to her "are you hungry or want the toilet", if she says "no" we do the journey in one jump.
Your right about people doing shorter journeys, If you just have it for shopping and things, and as a second car.

You didn't mention about the extra cost to your electricity bill? You never see anywhere the actual electric cost incurred by the owners by the manufacturers?

The Prius and the Leaf are fitted with an artificial noise generator that works up to around 20mph.
So the guy is either switching it off or they're deaf.
Your 300 miles in one go is an extreme, the huge majority of drivers won't do that - they'll have a break and top up the car while they have a cuppa.
But 300 mile range will come, of course it will, the tech is improvong all the time.
Charging costs for a 30KW Leaf are around £3.60 to do 110 miles (based on 13p per kWh)
No offence, but your queries are fine and normal of the ignorance (for want of a better word) surrounding electric cars.
But the fact still is they still suit loads of people right now, they're great.

[RUM4MO]

The turbo car will have more low down torque.
It'll be down to gearing.
Fact is the gearing on the 1.0Tsi (95) is really, really high.
I'm finding myself driving around one or two gears lower than I would in other cars.
For example, I find I'm sticking to third in 40mph traffic - I'm forgetting to change up as the car doesn't seem to need it and fourth is making the engine labour.
But that high gearing means first is high too, and that makes pulling away hard.
The UP will have lower gearing to make up for the lack of power and torque.
Really, IMO, VW have made the gearing too high on the Polo - I think 1-4 should be lower and then make 5th an 'overdrive'.

Traditionally a turbo'd engine always has lower low down torque, but these breeds of turbo'd petrol engines need to have a nice flat long torque curve so it takes a little while before the proper torque appears - and then you need to compare that with smaller non turbo petrol engines that don't have much torque or power so get designed to hand over what they can very early on in the rev range.

I remember when Ford etc petrol engines were designed more like racing engines, max torque and max power appearing near max revs, well especially on GT variants, then my wife got a MK3 Fiesta with the newer painted grey 1.1 engine, it seemed to have bags more power than the previous painted black 1.1 engine - wrong, it produced the goods much lower down the rev range, which I unfortunately discovered while overtaking a bus, I made it okay but the engine had maxed out well before my wife's previous MK2 1.1 Fiesta had, just I wised up after that - I had thought that there was lots more to come!