Hey guys. I noticed if you put your Lexus IS in "S" mode (Not ETC Power) but where you shift the gear to left and then select 6 gears, the car doesn't downshift as much. Wouldn't this put less wear on your engine/transmission?

Engine- Your car is at lower RPMs
Transmission- You aren't downshifting all the time

Would you guys recommend using this mode 100% of the time?

 

It may put less wear on the transmission, but it will be harder on the engine. The engine will strain and struggle to accelerate the car if the rpm is too low. It could even cause the engine to ping, but the computer should prevent that.

I would rather have the better performance of letting the transmission shift up and down, along with the associated higher engine rpms.

 

Since the transmission will be holding gears. I'd say it will have a higher fuel consumption.

 

i run on ETC all the time and no tranny problems. over 200,000 miles right now, and i drive it like i stole it

 

I use S but not for the reason mentioned; simply to prevent it from being stupid when we don't need to decelerate as it would like too by dropping gears...

Anyone know where the level sensor is? Not those on the axles as there must be some sort of horizon sensor that is knows the nose is down. My previous car had s sensor that was independent of the axle sensors... There is stretch of freeway on a grade gawd I hate it when drops out of 6th because I tapped the brake!

Or how about dropping into sport mode when in 5th or 6th and it dips right to 4th! Errrr.......

 

 

On the flats get up to 60mph ease off throttle and tap the brake. No change. Give it a downhill and it drops gears.

Guessing the auto leveling head lights use it also. Again, not talking about axle height sensors.

 

 

I believe the downshifting is based on engine load, not sensors for the AFS!
engine sees a change in load during a downhill coast versus a coast on a level road.

I'm going to try the leaving it in S mode and keeping it in 6 to see if the downshifting minimizes.
I live in a very hilly neighborhood with 45mph coasts as part of my commute.
I too leave my ECT PWR on 24/7, makes that 1-2 shift much more pleasant for me!

 

^^ OK but what doesn't add up there is you can be back on the throttle and it still won't upshift. Sometimes for quite a while... 1/4 to 3/8 of a mile.
Suppose I could log it and look at the calculated engine load. Still guessing there is a sensor somewhere. Just don't know where or what it's called.

 

you have to let go of the accelerator to let the car know your are done accelerating then it goes up a gear..

i have to use s mode often because my tranny wont downshift sometimes..

 

Not quite true.. if you set to 6 in the gear limiter the car will still downshift when the car's speed is reduced or brake is applied. It will behave just as the same as you are on auto (D) mode. All it does is it limits gear where you set to, but the downshift works the same way as normal mode.

I often use S mode to get more control over my gears when driving especially in town where there is more traffic. Our cars (IS350 for what I know) tend to shift into higher gears too soon automatically when it's in D mode. When you try to accelerate in this state (higher gear at low speed) it takes more load / strain on the engine. If you set to lower gear in S mode you can get more controlled power with less load on the engine.