Suzuki TCSS (6-speed DCT)

Suzuki's six-speed dual-clutch — in the Vitara and the S-Cross.

It is a DRY dual-clutch, which is the first thing to establish: the clutches run in air rather than oil, so the gearbox is at its least happy exactly where a torque-converter automatic is most comfortable — creeping in traffic, and holding station on a hill.

Holding the car on an incline with the throttle is what wears these clutches, because the transmission answers by slipping against the whole weight of the car with nowhere to put the heat. A judder from rest is the late stage, not the first, and the brake and hill-hold cost nothing.

Suzuki fitted it in small numbers over a short period, so specialist knowledge is thin — which makes the general dry-DCT literature (Ford's PowerShift, Fiat's DDCT, Hyundai's 7DCT) more useful here than usual, because the failure mode is the family's rather than this unit's.

A refused gear with no judder is the actuator, not the clutch — a different repair, and the tell is whether pulling away was ever wrong.