haha i honestly don't know so don't listen to me but it seems if the car doesn't seem like it's strung out the tach could be off, i would think it's a possibility? At 22 mph in 1st, does it sound like you're at 6200 rpm or does it sound more like 4,000 rpm, not that you could gauge it very well when it's been doing that since you bought it I assume

 

Yeah, that's my issue, I really have no comparison other than my brother's 1.8T and my mom's 3.2, which both sound more than mine. When I go to the mountains, I'm at 5000 RPM for like an hour and a half, and it still sounds fairly mellow and averages around 24 mpg. Maybe I'll have to see how far past the redline it goes... Thanks for the input anyway!

 

Is there evidence of a cluster swap? It could've been swapped with a 1.8T cluster, which would give you a 50% higher RPM reading. If you have access to a vagcom you'll be able to check and correct it in 5 minutes. If that's the case then 5000 RPM would really mean 3300-ish, which is much more normal. What does it idle at when warm?

 

I hadn't even considered that. I'll try to figure that out. When cold, idle's at about 2000, and it goes down to about 1000-1200 once warm. Seems fairly normal to me. It jumps a lot at idle, another problem that's never been fixed, but that's usually just after lots of driving.

 

cold idle should be 1200, warm around 800. id look into the tach being wrong.

 

I'll definitely do that. I'd much rather have a tach issue than a tranny issue. Thanks for all of the input guys, I appreciate it. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Carfax just confirmed 2 cluster swaps by POs. Problem solved it seems! I'll fix that next time I have access to a vagcom. Now I'll hopefully no longer lose off the line to ten year old Santa Fe's and Wranglers