I have a stupid question that I'm gonna ask anyway....

The only thing that scared me about going from a manual to auto was the passing gear. I knew I liked paddles and wouldn't mind anything else but that damn passing gear. Sometimes it jumps down a gear and accelerates more than I wanted it too, it's unexpected, then I have to let off the gas etc... I hate passing gear!!

Does anyone know at what RPM you have to be at to accel hard and not have the car downshift? Will it drop down a gear unless you're above 3500rpm? 4000rpm? It shouldn't matter what speed I'm at, correct? Wouldn't only RPM's matter?

 

i dont have an answer to your question but when the car shifts down, it can really be pretty violent and the rpms will shoot WAY up....kind of exhilarating, but kinda scary sometimes!

 

Exactly! Then try explaining to my wife that I was just speeding up normally and wasn't trying to not let the guy in in front of me.

 

takes sometime to get use to it.

 

I did the same thing with my girlfriends family in the car. Very unexpected.

Does anyone think that the -Standard- mode is the exact opposite of what it should be?

I mean, I think it should upshift at redline. And I think that it should not downshift or upshift unless I want it to.(except when I hit redline)

Gah, I cant stand these Manumatics.

 

...give me her number, she can talk to my wife about how i gave her whiplash (she exaggerates!) while speeding up...i just learned to be a little more careful on the accelerator...

 

haha that's the price of having a high power car man

 

Unfortunately, an automatic is an automatic, meaning it'll downshift if you feed enough throttle in. It doesn't have anything to do with what RPM the engine is at (up to a point anyway), but how much throttle input you feed in relative to your current speed/gear/rpm.

So in other words, if you're chugging along at 50mph in 6th gear and put your foot in it, it's going to drop a couple gears.

What you might want to get used to doing is downshifting yourself. So cruising along at 50mph in 6th, keep your throttle input neutral (i.e. don't touch the gas) and downshift twice. Now the engine is spinning at a higher rpm, so feed in some throttle and accelerate away, then upshift after you're around whatever you were passing.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, don't let the automatic do the thinking for you. Keep driving it like you would a manual (as much as is possible) so you won't be surprised... you'll have taken away the ability of the tranny to make a decision about downshifting on its own because you'll have done it already.

This is one of my big fears about this car, that I won't be able to live with an auto, albeit a manumatic. Too many years of driving a stick. But the commute can be a pain, so it's a tradeoff. Sometimes I imagine it will be quite nice to just throw it in drive and relax my left leg.

 

HA!! Buddy, do I know what you're talking about. Usually it's the silence and the "look" that gives me whiplash!!!!!


So does anyone have a better guess then I on what rpm you can't be below?

 

Try putting the ECT in regular mode, if you are not doing this already, otherwise tread lightly.

 

If you bury your foot in the carpet, the transmission will always downshift provided that downshift wouldn't put you beyond redline. Knowing that, all you need to figure out is the RPM spacing between the gears to know beyond what point a downshift won't happen.

 

Does ECT matter if you're in "S" mode? Since it's my thread I can ask another question, what does ECT stand for?

 

ECT just means Electronically Controlled Transmission.

And yes, the setting still applies if you're in S mode. Remember, in S mode you're really just telling the transmission how many gears it has to work with. It will still downshift on its own.

 

The only problem with downshifting the car a couple gears yourself would be that you would still feel a kick when you manually go down.

 

What a problem to have! I drive a 95 Altima..... when I step on the gas.... well lets just say not much happens but a lot of engine noise.
I can't wait until I can get a 350, they are so damn expensive here in Canada (ML and NAV)