DCT overheating issues on Seltos; Faced 4 times in a single road trip

This is my comprehensive report of the DCT overheat situations I faced with my Seltos and the conditions in which it occured.

BHPian GT007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I covered the spiti circuit in himachal starting from Shimla to Manali. I faced overheating warning a total of 4 times.

The first warning came when I was about to park at my hotel in manali after I crossed the treacherous spiti valley with non existing roads and covering 70 kms in 6 to 7 hours and total driving that day was about 12 hours. Since I was about to park no issues or smell came and I switched off within 2 mins of the warning after parking properly.

The second warning came 2 days after that, this time too just 1.5 kms away from my hotel in manali I got stuck in traffic, couldn't stop due to narrow road and had to drive for 5 mins or so before I could reach hotel and park. Felt No loss of power but little burning smell came and I opened the bonnet after parking to check the engine bay for any visible signs or indicator for smell but found none. This day I had crossed the mighty Rohtang pass without issues and drove for approx 6 to 7 hours.

The third warning came when I went to explore a nearby village of malana from kasol. On arriving at malana I missed the parking area and went ahead by 700 meters downwards, so had to reverse around 700 meters in upward climb slowly as the road was very narrow and broken. During this reverse climb the DCT overheat alarm came but I had to continue reversing and park in hilly spot which took me approx 5 mins but the burning smell started coming immediately. After parking opened the bonnet to check for any physical burning part but found nothing. Kept the bonnet open for 15 mins and later departed after an hour and half with no issues. The alarm came only after 1 to 1.5 hours of driving for that day.

The fourth warning was disastrous as this happened when I went to explore a local village named Tosh and there was heavy traffic almost 1 km before parking area and which took me around 20 mins due to crawling traffic. Suddenly 5 mins into the traffic and the alarm came on. Was switching off the car after every movement to avoid overheat but the alarm remain persistent and the burning smell kept increasing whenever I turned on the car and drove ahead. In the last stretch of 100 mtrs, the road was broken and it was a steep climb, when climbing this stretch found power loss and car not slotting into 1st gear but only 2nd. I tried putting gears manually by gear lever and paddle shifters but car was not slotting into 1st gear and it was very difficult to climb this steep slope in 2nd gear. Somehow managed this in 5 to 7 mins and parked anyhow. By this time the burning smell was very strong and opened the bonnet and kept it like that. The outside temperature was less than 15 degrees and the alarm came only after driving about an hour for that day. Met a guy who was leaving with his Taigun DSG and he too told that he also got DSG heating alarm in this stretch when he arrived couple of hours ago. After waiting 20 mins, I closed the bonnet as the smell had subsided little and then went to explore the Tosh village. Since I was travelling with my wife and our 2 yr old son, I was praying all the way that the car should start on the way back and I should be able to drive to nearest town safely as it was getting dark too. Luckily after about 3 hours around 6 pm when I started the car, no DCT alarm was there and the car started normally and it was getting slotted in 1st gear normally. Got relieved but drove carefully back to our hotel and later we were analysing what a near miss we had today and decided that we won't be taking our seltos to explore any hilly narrow roads or villages where suddenly traffic can climb up as on most roads there are some places for only a single vehicle to pass.

This is my comprehensive report of the DCT overheat situations I faced with my seltos and the conditions in which it occured. Hope this will help people to prepare better while travelling to far off places in hills with DCT gearboxes and take better decisions.

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