[Vwdiesel] hill climbing

[Mark LaPlante]

I don't find myself idling to the point of the cycling the cooling fan 
very often, though this morning I did and I am pretty sure I'm not 
getting more than "a tad above" that level when climbing the hill on 
90-95 degree days. At this point, I am not too concerned about the 
temperature. I'll still check out the air filter soon. It's been close 
to 2 years but well under 10K miles since it's been changed.

I may have been waiting too long to shift to 3rd. I'll experiment over 
the next few days and see how it goes.

I noticed yesterday on a different road to the top (twistier with a stop 
sign right at the bottom of the hill, so slower speeds) that in 2nd I 
could accelerate up to where the 2 dots are on the speedometer (43 mph), 
but when I then shifted to 3rd, I couldn't maintain that speed and 
slowly fell back to around 35 mph where I felt like it needed 2nd again. 
Do y'all think it is best to just keep it roaring along at high rpm in 
2nd and forget about trying 3rd?

I've also noticed the Rabbit doesn't have much engine braking at all 
(unlike my 1.8T GTI). I remember a discussion of this phenomenon a while 
back (something to do with manifold pressure and throttle body 
restriction in gas engines, I think).

Has anyone upgraded brakes while still keeping the 13" steel wheels?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Gives me something to think about 
on the commute.

Mark




From: LBaird119 at aol.com

>Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] [Vwdiesel (& hill climbing)
>To: vwdiesel at audifans.com
>Message-ID: <1df.41b1bbb4.302ac5a7 at aol.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>  Don't recall just what an "E" 4 speed ratios are.  I believe 
>4th is the same as a 5 speed 5th and 3rd is awfully close 
>to a 5 speed 3rd or so. With my 5 speed, on a steep hill, 
>I shift into 4th at about 60mph or just below in order to 
>maintain speed.  If I don't mind losing a little speed then 
>just below 55mph.  Otherwise I can't recover. This is with 
>a 1.5 not a 1.6.
>  Make sure your air filter is good and clean, bigger exhaust 
>would likely help.  If ambient temps aren't ridiculous then you 
>might want to check things like your radiator, injectors and 
>timing.  So long as you're moving the temps should only get 
>as high as they get idling and cycling the cooling fan.  A tad 
>above with high ambient temp and load.  If it's hotter than that 
>then you're either making more heat than you should, or can't 
>properly get rid of the proper amount of heat you're making.
>  Poor pattern injectors run hotter generally.
>     Loren
>  
>