Diesel vs. Petrol: Gearboxes

[DJ_AS]

Is it me, or in general do petrol cars tend to have 'smoother' gearboxes than diesels?

 

It seems that most of the petrol cars I've driven have superior gearboxes to most of the diesels. I was wondering whether this was truly the case or coincidental.

 

I don't think I've ever driven both petrol and diesel versions of the same model which makes comparison difficult.

[Mark H.]

Are you sure its not just that the engines in petrols are smoother and thus the gearbox doesn't vibrate as much. Also alot of turbo diesel engines have to cope with more torque than there petrol equivalents so they perhaps have beefier clutches to handle it.

 

Also the Peugeot 307 for example has that part, the dmf? dual mass flywheel, i'm pretty sure someone said they use these to help reduce vibrations on badly balanced engines. These tend to fail at about 4-5 years old costing around £1K a time to replace, but then the 307 seems to have so many faults you'd be a bit mad to have one really unless its a company car and you like driving courtesy cars.

[DJ_AS]

Its not really vibrations that I'm talking about (although these can be present with diesels), more like the gear lever is stiffer and less 'fluid' when moving between gears than on petrol cars.

 

I did wonder whether the extra torque diesels produce has to be channelled through a tougher gearbox, hence the less silky gearchange.

 

A few of the diesels I've driven have been nearly new hire cars and as such probably haven't been run in very much which may account for some of the stiffness.