Hi Guys.
I have a 1997 A3, and when i sit on the motor way at 70ish my revs are near up a 4000rpm.Any ideas why it is reving so high. Its obv drinking the fuel sitting that high which is no uses.One of the reasons i bought a A3 was for it to sit at a nice rpm when sitting at that speed.Its a 1.8 20v with 140,000 on the clock

thanks

 

is the clutch slipping? find a steep hill and try going up it in 5th. if the revs rise but the speed doesn't then your clutch is fooked

 

Yeah but would that explain sitting at 60 or 70mph at 4000rpm at a steady pace,i need to know whats wrong

 

Not got a 6speed 'box, has it?


Sorry, I just know someone with a 6 speed A3 quattro and he can drive an hour down the motorways in 5th without realising he has one more gear to go.

 

no its 5 spped,but i am looking for the next gear when am on the motorway.I cant see how its the clutch cos am not using it when putting the foot down.am losing out on all gears in a way.its drinking the fuel so need to get it fixed asap, any help guys,thanks

 

I'm not too sure that anything is too wrong, the 1.8 20v always felt like it needs another cog.. we had a '98 A4 1.8SE and it was really tiresome on the motorway because of its short gearing.


Cheers,
Grant

 

might have a box in from another car , whith lower gears
mate put an astra box in a vectra, fooked it right up

 

I don't know what the gearing on an A3 is but unfortunately if the clutch is not slipping and you are sure that you are in 5th and doing 70mph (might be worth checking that your speedo is fairly accurate with some form of Sat Nav) there's really not a lot you can do about it without very expensive gearbox surgery.

I suppose bigger wheels and/or taller profile tyres might help a bit, but even this would probably make your speedo over read so you would still apparently be doing 4000 rpm at 70 - you might however be going slightly faster than 70 though.

I thought my Accord Type-R had low gearing but even that gives about 20mph per 1000 rpm in top.

 

IIRC, our A4 was about 4.5k at 80mph.


Cheers,
Grant

 

Yeah there all vaild points and thanks for all your help.Its just annoying because one of the main reasons off buying the a3 was to have it sit at a nice speed on the road without any hassel.i recently got a new timing belt kit and i thought maybe that would fix the problem of low gearing but no.

 

That's exactly what I thought with that mileage could be possible. Could check the gearbox for some kind of identification plate/stamp and check it with VAG against your chassis no.
Kevin

 

Was it like it when you bought it?

 

Really the only things it can be is clutch slip, wrong gear box (if thats even possible), the speedo (Ie your actcually doing 80mph rather than 70) or its normal.
Try heading over to the audi/vag group at piston heads and asking what other peoples cars are doing at that speed and also do the clutch test and get someone else to drive at 70 to see if your sppedo is out.

good luck

Mark

 

that's low gearing for sure. The old saab 9k is 2400 at 70mph...

Who advised you that the timing belt could help low gearing??? my goodness.

Anyway - there must be some offical data on this somewhere... but if it's a non-turbo, maybe that's your lot.

bigger wheels with oversize tyre will make a very marginal difference.

 

What a strange statment!! You do realise the clutch is always in use when the car is moving forward? When you actually press the clutch pedal is when its not in use, all other times it is being used hard by the drivetrain.

If it's slipping then the revs would rise way too much as you accelerate as the clutch plate can't match the required acceleration.

4k is very high for a modern car at 70mph so I would get the clutch checked first. As someone posted, try going up a hill in top gear and see if it starts over revving.

 

80mph/4.5 = 17.8 mph per 1000rpm

70mph/17.8 x 1000 = 3900rpm

If RS Grant's memory is good, then he's a spot on match with what you are seeing andysubaru3089

BUT - book top speed for that car is 126mph. This equates to 7k rpm.... what's the red line on the speedo??? That's awfully high.

 

I think Andy must be having a laugh at our expense.

 

Autocar road test data says 5th gear is 20.9mph/1000 rpm