M-DCT Lag issue. Owners please post your car info here

[gr8000]

Originally Posted by PsyD4Me

man, so does does this mean that practically every DCT car has lag?
I am going to order a sedan with DCT in August, but this info is making me worried. Does anyone here NOT have lag?
If things look bad a few months down there road i just might go the IS-F route...

I am quite hopefull that the lag issue will be solved with the March software update. I think BMW have taken this seriously this time and probably have devoted some serious resources on this. All going well, you will not have to worry about the lag issue because by the time you get your car in August it should be fine.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Bluesummer

another arrogant M3 driver.

Another childlike BMW driver that can't face reality...

[stephenb]

Another DCT lag, am at my office and unfortunately don't know my vin.

Just got my '08 e93 10 days ago and its seems to be getting worse. Started as being mildly annoying but is now fully souring my feelings of the car.. Hope it gets sorted out..

[AZ-BMW]

Originally Posted by PsyD4Me

man, so does does this mean that practically every DCT car has lag?
I am going to order a sedan with DCT in August, but this info is making me worried.

Yes, I think that is a true statement!
However that being said, I trust BMWAG will find a solution as someone posted that a new Progman release should be out this month with a fix
It is an amazing, solid, extremely entertaining car to drive, other than the dam speed reduction, lag/hesitation, safety issue

[d_dot]

I have lag going from 3rd to 2nd. it is so damn annoying!

[M3-Mike]

Yeah I have experienced this issue myself and can reproduce it fairly easily now. My M3 is a March 08 production, and I had the software update done in December 08.

Before the update, I noticed a lot of lag between flicking a paddle and the DCT actually shifting.. I was also able to stall the engine while spinning the car out in wet parking lots.

After the update, the DCT shift lightning fast.. meaning a flick of the paddle immediately executes a shift. Also, no more stalling. BUT, as the rest of you, I now have this 2nd gear lag myself.

As detailed by many before, when slowing down for a turn, or doing a rolling stop sign, the DCT will shift down to 2nd but the clutch stays disengaged as the car thinks you might be slowing to a stop.. so essentially you are rolling at this point.. then you press the gas to go, but the clutch is not engaged so the engine management and DCT take a good 1-2 seconds to decide what to do next... if you pay close attention you will notice that the engine does not even rev up when you press the gas pedal.. the go pedal is basically doing nothing for a good 1-2 seconds which attributes to the panic feeling, especially if traffic is bearing down on you at the moment. Eventually the car realizes you want to GO, and now depending on how far you have pressed the gas pedal down while waiting, the engine will rev up and the car will either move ahead nicely or very fiercely.

I don't have my VIN handy, but it sounds like BMW is working on a fix regardless. It is March now, so lets hope we can try the next software version soon.

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by nitramsen

I do not want to be a dick but for reasons I cannot dicuss right now I cannot disclose where I have it from nor why but I can tell that I am 100% sure on the source. The release of the new engine/gearbox management software maybe delayed but they are working on it as we speak and expect to roll it out in march.

Any updates or anything else you can share with us plebes?

[SenorFunkyPants]

FFS are you guys still crying about how you can make the DCT "lag"!
If you drive it properly it doesn't occur. Free clue: use S3/4, use the paddles to ensure the DCT is in the gear you want, don't let the car make the anti-stall downshift for you thats just lazy and amateurish, when you are slowing, change down as you pass 1500revs. Its a auto-clutch manual not a torque-converter slushmatic...if you can't figure how to drive it properly maybe you should drive something a bit simpler.

[gr8000]

The lag simply shouldn't occur - fulstop. There is no excuse for it being there (after payng $$$ to get the DCT as an extra) and people shouldn't change their daily driving habits to accomodate it - let alone that if someone else gets the car then it becomes a safety issue for them.

Sure a solution is to downshift manualy to avoid the lag, but there are times that I just want the DCT to do proper gearchanges automatically without me worrying about this - that's part of the price I paid for it!

BTW, when I forsee that the lag issue will hit me where I certainly don't want it then I downshift manually ahead of time and I am fine - but again the lag shouldn't be there.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

FFS are you guys still crying about how you can make the DCT "lag"!
If you drive it properly it doesn't occur. Free clue: use S3/4, use the paddles to ensure the DCT is in the gear you want, don't let the car make the anti-stall downshift for you thats just lazy and amateurish, when you are slowing, change down as you pass 1500revs. Its a auto-clutch manual not a torque-converter slushmatic...if you can't figure how to drive it properly maybe you should drive something a bit simpler.

Whoa, no need to be a douche about it.

Also, while putting the car into first gear will mitigate the lag most of the time, I find there are still rare cases when it won't. Particularly, when coming nearly to a complete stop, perhaps just 1 or 2 mph, and then nailing the gas. There is still a lag there although not nearly as pronounced as it is in 2nd gear. This may or may not be addressed when they address the 2nd gear issue or not. Personally I think it will because it seems to me they just need to keep the clutch engaged longer in general. It really should be engaged til just before the point of stalling. I think that what happened with the update is that they backed off clutch disengagement way too far in order to cure the stalling issue that people had. They need to find the happy medium between the two and all will be good.

[gr8000]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

....it seems to me they just need to keep the clutch engaged longer in general. It really should be engaged til just before the point of stalling. I think that what happened with the update is that they backed off clutch disengagement way too far in order to cure the stalling issue that people had. They need to find the happy medium between the two and all will be good.

Absolutely agree with the above, and particularly with the bolded black.

[footie]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

FFS are you guys still crying about how you can make the DCT "lag"!
If you drive it properly it doesn't occur. Free clue: use S3/4, use the paddles to ensure the DCT is in the gear you want, don't let the car make the anti-stall downshift for you thats just lazy and amateurish, when you are slowing, change down as you pass 1500revs. Its a auto-clutch manual not a torque-converter slushmatic...if you can't figure how to drive it properly maybe you should drive something a bit simpler.

Find me another DCT that suffers the same problem. Sure you can find a work around but that's not exactly the point, between Getrag and BMW someone dropped the ball at the final stages of development and let through these glitches that are taking an age to fix.

Porsche have probably more experience of the technology than anyone and were working on their own version long before BMW started developing theirs but still didn't rush theirs to market until it was right, getting something to the market before anyone else isn't always the smartest decision, OK sometimes everything goes peachy but when it doesn't the annoyed customers and bad press that follows is hard to shake off.

May I suggest those who think their DCT is perfectly acceptable the way it is then go and drive a PKG equipped Porsche and see if you still feel the same way. Not all DCTs are equal.

[nitramsen]

Originally Posted by swamp2

Any updates or anything else you can share with us plebes?

I am sorry but no. They still say March (Which is now)

[leemik]

I am experiencing this lag as well..

Sometimes starting out in 1st gear there is a huge lag.. and coasting between 3rd-2nd there is also sometimes a big lag.. It's not consistent though that's the bad part.. It can get you into a lot of trouble if you are in the middle of an intersection and are actually expecting to go fast and you end up going no where for 1-2 seconds.. I can see someone getting hurt and I can see lawsuits.. I certainly hope they take care of this problem quickly..

--mike

[DamirM3]

With the new software update is the upshifting lag fixed ? And I agree with the DCT - you pay the price for all of its functions, and in this case the lag is causing a problem for quiet a few people. So once again, are any of you experiencing lag while shifting up ? Also is there any problems with the shifting while driving in automatic mode ?

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Whoa, no need to be a douche about it.

+3

[AZ-BMW]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

FFS are you guys still crying about how you can make the DCT "lag"!
If you drive it properly it doesn't occur. Free clue: use S3/4, use the paddles to ensure the DCT is in the gear you want, don't let the car make the anti-stall downshift for you thats just lazy and amateurish, when you are slowing, change down as you pass 1500revs. Its a auto-clutch manual not a torque-converter slushmatic...if you can't figure how to drive it properly maybe you should drive something a bit simpler.

Even though some (most) of us know how to temporarily (hopefully) work around this serious, lag/hesitation, safety issue for our personal driving, unfortunately many of our spouses don't think about it when they drive the car and almost get rear-ended or clobbered in an intersection
C'mon BMWAG it's March, please release that rumored Progman fix!

[BK]

Damn, as someone who has been thinking off and on about an M3 with DCT, this is disheartening. Here's the SIB: http://www.bmwtis.com/tsb/bulletins/...p/B280708g.htm

It says the lag doesn't happen in manual mode, but there's a post above (#44) that suggests this happens in manual mode (or is "M manual mode" something different?). What is it?

[Dascamel]

Been waiting for a second update before taking my car in, how long is this lag exactly? One second?

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by Dascamel

Been waiting for a second update before taking my car in, how long is this lag exactly? One second?

It can vary in length. Sometimes it is as short as a couple tenths of a seconds or so. Sometimes is can be quite a few tenths, maybe even close to 1 s. Seems like often the harder you get on it after the braking to a very slow speed the longer the lag is. It is also much more apparent because the system "gets behind" and they revs, clutches and really jerks.

[BMW3R]

Originally Posted by BK

Damn, as someone who has been thinking off and on about an M3 with DCT, this is disheartening. Here's the SIB: http://www.bmwtis.com/tsb/bulletins/...p/B280708g.htm

It says the lag doesn't happen in manual mode, but there's a post above (#44) that suggests this happens in manual mode (or is "M manual mode" something different?). What is it?

Yes it is reproducable in manual mode just coast up to a light and shift down from 3rd to second and coast then re-apply the gas. Nice lag every time. The secret is to coast briefly. Probably to SenorFunkyPants disbelief, there are times when you are coasting in a car.

I hope the fix is coming soon for all of us except SenorFunkyPants who seems to be quite satisfied driving aggressively every day.

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by BMW3R

I hope the fix is coming soon for all of us except SenorFunkyPants who seems to be quite satisfied driving aggressively every day.

I wouldn't say I drive aggressively, simply the way it was designed to be driven which is as an auto-clutch manual, and if driven this way it doesn't lag. Or maybe the USA cars are different because it seems that their owners are the only ones that are complaining about it.