Autohold would not release on hill !!

[Trapper]

I have had no problems with the Auto Hold until yesterday while carrying some works colleagues, came to the top of a fairly steep hill at which I needed to turn left into the main stream of traffic. I stopped, signalled and waited for a gap. When I went to move off the car didn't, a bit embarrassed I tried again, let the clutch up while increasing revs, I could feel the engine vibration trying to pull away through the clutch pedal, the engine revs were plenty high enough to pull away but still no progress.

I think I put on the parking brake, turned off the auto hold, held the car on the clutch for a second or two then off with the parking brake and got away.

It's difficult to explain but it seemed as if the weight of the car meant a heavier application of braking through the auto hold, almost as if it was 'locked on'.

I will try to find a nice steep hill to have a practice on but in the mean time any advise on this problem?

[Trapper]

Update.
The above problems showed up on Tuesday and it happened the first time I used the Autohold since parking the car many hours earlier, in other words I had not travelled very far on my return journey when the Autohold held tight!.

On Wednesday it behaved fine, releasing when it should.

Today, Thursday when leaving the works flat (no Hills) car park the Autohold again stuck on, I checked the seat belt was clicked in, the parking brake was off, the clutch was as far out as I could push the pedal but the car would not budge. I turned off the Autohold and the car did pull away but seemed reluctant too. I stopped and re applied the Autohold and again the car would not budge.

I left work with the Autohold off.

I re-applied the Autohold after setting off and during normal driving applied the brakes but did not actually stop for about a mile, at a junction I did have to stop and again the car was very reluctant to move away but did after a lot of clutch and revs, after that it seemed to improve then it was okay again.

I have a feeling its freezing after being left for sometime, has anyone else come across it? I will phone my local dealer tomorrow to see what they say, but any comments would be appreciated.

[angus]

I don`t have auto-hold, but I do have frequent problems with the handbrake refusing to release automatically, particularly on steep hills. Unfortunately there is so much turbo-lag that on verysteep hills you can`t hold it on the footbrake then just boot it - something my B5.5 does ridiculously easy.

Oh, its been back to the dealers countless times, had `upgrades`, had new switches, but as far as i am concerned the system is rubbish, even when it does work it is SO much slower at applying and releasing the handbrake than a conventional lever, it really begs the question - WHY?

I can`t say it spoils the car, but its one of several disappointments that collectively do.

[rjt64]

Oh boy I think this one is going to run and run.
When you think that a handbrake is basically a very simple piece of kit, I did feel that VW had shot themselves in the foot by making it very very complicated. Problem is its probably going to become our feet they have shot....

What will happen as cars go out of warrenty, and the autohold and electronic parking brake bits start to fail?
I bet its going to cost us-the owners- a lot more than having a new cable or two fitted !

For my money I would have preferred an ordinary handbrake-but of course it wasn't an option was it?

[Trapper]

Angus wrote:

even when it does work it is SO much slower at applying and releasing the handbrake than a conventional lever, it really begs the question - WHY?

rjt64 wrote:

For my money I would have preferred an ordinary handbrake-but of course it wasn't an option was it?

How very true on both counts, I would have preferred a normal lever but i suppose that would mean losing the centre arm rest cubby and drinks holder. I know which I would prefer!

Phoned the dealer, he seemed to say " Oh another Autohold problem, yawn yawn, bring it in for a day and we'll waste a few hours and have a look"

Which was really, " there are a few teething problems but we will need to investigate the probable cause, bring it in and we will check it out"