Swapping Cars, Help
 

At the moment i have a 1997 Audi A3 1.8 sport, but i am looking towards a golf now.The reason is that the the a3, when sitting at about 60-65mph it is revving at near 4000rpm,i am told this is how the gearboxes in this model are set.it is costing me so muhc to run on fuel as it is drinking it and it does my head it sitting on the motor way revving like hell,it's like i need a 6th gear if you like. I only bought it 6 months ago and bought it for the main reason that i wanted it to sit nice and quiet on the road with no hassel, but its far from it.
If i was to but a 1.8 gti golf, would the gearbox be the same as its all the same parts in audis and vw. I want to know now before i go and buy anything, am i going to have the same problem.

Thanks
Andy

Is it a T-Sport?
I have a 2001 and I don't think it sits anywhere near that, if it's na, might explain the difference.

I get less than 30mpg in mine because I drive like a tool.

Its non-turbo,1.8 20v. I love the car but just annoying and too much to run when i have to top it up all the time.I would have anohter a3 but just cant see why its set like that

4000rpm at 60mph doesn't sound right at all.

try using top gear :D

Bloody hell, 4,000rpm sounds like hamster gears:eek:

Even my trusty Pug 205 1.9 sits at 3,000rpm @ 60. I know a 1.6 205 has a shorter gear ratio than that, but still not 4,000rpm.

Thats obscene from one of the major cruiser eurobox manufacturers. Surely a 6th gear is needed:wonder: :wonder:

Either I've got deja vu or someone has asked this question before, a couple of months back :Suspiciou

That was an A3 as well. I only have PikeySearch (TM) so can't find it.

Yeah i posted a while back but that was to see if anyone knew the problem. This time am asking is a 1.8 gti golf likely to be the same as its the same parts in a way,can anyone tell me.

Yeah i know,i had 1.0l corsa for my 1st car and that was better!!!

Why don't you ask Audi what the top gear ratio should be on this car (it WILL be in a tech doc somewhere). That will tell you what rpm you should be doing at 60mph.

4000rpm at 60 would mean that something is definitely wrong. It would mean it's redlining at 90/95.

Either that or you're not really in top gear or have a badly slipping clutch.

Is it a 5 speed?

Yeah 5 speed. Nah i have been told by a few people that i know in the business that its not far away from that.But do you think a 1.8 gti non turbo will be the same,i dont want to buy another if its going to be like that.

Official top speed is 126mph. That would mean it'd be revving at over 8000rpm!!!!!

I would expect it to be maxxed out (6500rpm) at 126.
That's a top gear ration of 19.34mph per 1000 rpm.
This sounds correct (for many cars too).
So at 65mph, it should be doing about 3360 rpm. Does that sound correct? 60 mph should be 3100 rpm.

The reason I ask, if the above is not the case then fixing your own car would be an option.

I also state the above as I very much suspect that the VW 1.8 (turbo or non turbo) possibly has the same gearbox (unless it has 6th gear).

The only way to be sure is to try one.

Same revs at 60 or not, the 1.8T I suspect would drink just as much (prob more) fuel than your 1.8 n/a.

I think that you should get the 1.8 turbo mate if your getting that MPG!

My Octavia vRS gets 40 MPG (computer read) on a run at 70-75 which sits at about 3k. I dont know what box is in them but id have a look see if you can get an O2J box in there from a 1.8t as there will be plenty of them about

yeah dracoro thats about right, i cant believe then that a car of such quailty is like this, it was one of the reasons i bought the car was to have it sit on the road nice and quiet. What would you say then to a golf tdi,what litre do you get them in and will the insurance prem change much to what i have

Cheers

actually, if he was off boost, wouldnt the turbo variant be giving better fuel efficiency?

Doubt it, off boost it's a low compression 1.8 4 cylinder motor. Low compression is bad for part-throttle economy.

To the OP, I think it's clear there's something wrong with your particular car so you're probably best just getting it sorted. My guess would be it's had a gearbox swap and has the wrong gearbox/final drive/wheel combination

Yeah but fancy a diesel now anyway,save me having to fix it,i mean its still drives perfect but cant keep up with fuel cost.Thanks