Auto selecting too high gear driving me mad
- Thread starter johnsoncp
- Start date
johnsoncp
New member
PDE said:You say you have had it a few months, What mileage have you done?
As soon as I get in my car I put it straight into dynamic mode. I don't experience any of the issue you are talking about. Could just be the way I drive
It's done 350 miles. Tonight on my way home I'm switching off the stop start and going straight for dynamic mode. I have about 2 miles of stop start driving but then 15 of open country roads.
Dan_Veluwe
New member
Try to do your same trip in a V6 or V8. I think if you are in slower moving traffic they all fork down to low revs.
We discovered in our 7500km tour of the Alps that we got tired of the paddles and revving, we caught each other
just cruising along not bothering to generate a 'sporty drive' . After 40 odd mountain passes in a few weeks you
have seen enough of that kind of action. Doesn't mean next time we won't revv it..
We discovered in our 7500km tour of the Alps that we got tired of the paddles and revving, we caught each other
just cruising along not bothering to generate a 'sporty drive' . After 40 odd mountain passes in a few weeks you
have seen enough of that kind of action. Doesn't mean next time we won't revv it..
johnsoncp
New member
I tried dynamic and sport modes on the way home. My revs were between 3000 and 5000 doing most of the country roads. In the queues it was more responsive but obviously dropping down below turbo spin-up speed. I walked into the house with a smile on my face and my wife said "You like the car now then?". I think I'll stick with the car for a while longer 
It certainly gets quite noisy and I arrived home feeling like I'd been in a grand prix.
My fuel consumption dropped from its usual 30 to 27.9 but worth every penny!
Thank you all for the comments and advice.
It certainly gets quite noisy and I arrived home feeling like I'd been in a grand prix.
My fuel consumption dropped from its usual 30 to 27.9 but worth every penny!
Thank you all for the comments and advice.
dbv6s
New member
scm said:Dan_Veluwe said:
Yeah, the gearbox responds to how you're pressing the throttle - give it some beans and it'll hold the gears longer but if you're pottering about it'll always shift up early. You're teaching it how to behave!
Slightly off topic but I had an E Class coupe which you could reset the auto box ‘behaviour’ by ignition on (not engine) hold accelerator down and press kick down button for 15 secs, few other steps. Then next time you turn the car on and drive it would remember / learn the next 60 gear changes and accelerator inputs.
If I was looking for evening I could reset the car, drive like a granny for 5 mins, then the car would change to highest gear possible all the time until next reset
johnsoncp
New member
dbv6s said:scm said:Dan_Veluwe said:
Yeah, the gearbox responds to how you're pressing the throttle - give it some beans and it'll hold the gears longer but if you're pottering about it'll always shift up early. You're teaching it how to behave!
Slightly off topic but I had an E Class coupe which you could reset the auto box ‘behaviour’ by ignition on (not engine) hold accelerator down and press kick down button for 15 secs, few other steps. Then next time you turn the car on and drive it would remember / learn the next 60 gear changes and accelerator inputs.
If I was looking for evening I could reset the car, drive like a granny for 5 mins, then the car would change to highest gear possible all the time until next reset
As I'm still running in the car I've been taking it easy but it seems a shame that whilst taking it easy, it then makes the car think you are Miss Daisy and permanently messes up the gear change points.
scm
New member
dbv6s said:
I think the ZF box in the F-Type doesn't need such a feature - it seems to respond pretty quickly to throttle inputs - start with a bit of quick acceleration and it'll know to hold the gears longer. Of course, as you observe, as soon as you back off it learns that you don't want to burn rubber and starts shifting early. Best to stick it in Sport and see if that improves your experience. And once run in, you can have fun!
No help to you sadly, but my V8 has plenty of go even within run-in limits!
ClosetHairdresser
New member
I've noticed the same thing as cj10jeeper pointed out: manufacturers are forced to setup the gearbox to change up as early as possible for economy and emissions reasons. This can make a car feel extremely lethargic if you don't use the additional gearbox and drive modes.
I empathise with how johnsoncp feels, I went through this same grieving process when I first bought my previous car, a 1.8 TFSI Audi A5, it felt awful in normal mode when I wanted to press on, but when I discovered sport mode two weeks in, it felt like a completely different engine.
In my 2.0 F-Type I have been caught out waiting for the car to drop a couple of gears when wanting to pull into a gap for overtaking on the motorway. It embarrasses me if I cause another driver to slow down after pulling in front.
The solution I use is to preselect a lower gear before I need it. In manual cars a human driver's gearshift pattern is predictive, an auto gearbox is reactive. This makes the default automatic driving experience less than ideal for all sorts of reasons: you benefit less from engine braking due to down changes occurring only at idle speed, you may experience a down change as you accelerate out of a corner, you may experience a down change when overtaking.
Ironically, I find the sport gearbox mode has the opposite problem, at times it leaves the engine droning away in a low gear for too long.
If I'm driving normally I put the car in rain/snow mode as standard, because it downshifts less, it isn't fast but it responds adequately without the downshift delay and you can drive it on the torque a bit more. If I need a swift change I use the paddles and then return the gearbox to automatic mode by holding down the right paddle for a couple of seconds. BTW I have noticed that if you change down to get engine braking on a steep hill the gearbox will not return to D until the road levels out.
When I want to drive more assertively I first shift to the gear I want with the paddles then knock it into sport mode to make sure it doesn't exit manual mode automatically. I can then drive it as I would a manual with all the benefits that brings.
I have 9000 miles on my car and I general get 36 to 42 mpg on my motorway commute, so you can definitely better that 26-30mpg. If you don't drop below 40mph you can actually do entire journeys in 8th gear (when I'm on the M25 fuel economy is the only thrill I can get).
I empathise with how johnsoncp feels, I went through this same grieving process when I first bought my previous car, a 1.8 TFSI Audi A5, it felt awful in normal mode when I wanted to press on, but when I discovered sport mode two weeks in, it felt like a completely different engine.
In my 2.0 F-Type I have been caught out waiting for the car to drop a couple of gears when wanting to pull into a gap for overtaking on the motorway. It embarrasses me if I cause another driver to slow down after pulling in front.
The solution I use is to preselect a lower gear before I need it. In manual cars a human driver's gearshift pattern is predictive, an auto gearbox is reactive. This makes the default automatic driving experience less than ideal for all sorts of reasons: you benefit less from engine braking due to down changes occurring only at idle speed, you may experience a down change as you accelerate out of a corner, you may experience a down change when overtaking.
Ironically, I find the sport gearbox mode has the opposite problem, at times it leaves the engine droning away in a low gear for too long.
If I'm driving normally I put the car in rain/snow mode as standard, because it downshifts less, it isn't fast but it responds adequately without the downshift delay and you can drive it on the torque a bit more. If I need a swift change I use the paddles and then return the gearbox to automatic mode by holding down the right paddle for a couple of seconds. BTW I have noticed that if you change down to get engine braking on a steep hill the gearbox will not return to D until the road levels out.
When I want to drive more assertively I first shift to the gear I want with the paddles then knock it into sport mode to make sure it doesn't exit manual mode automatically. I can then drive it as I would a manual with all the benefits that brings.
I have 9000 miles on my car and I general get 36 to 42 mpg on my motorway commute, so you can definitely better that 26-30mpg. If you don't drop below 40mph you can actually do entire journeys in 8th gear (when I'm on the M25 fuel economy is the only thrill I can get).
scm
New member
ClosetHairdresser said:
While it is reactive, it's also predictive in remembering how you've been driving and adjusts accordingly - if you've been pootling along, it expects you to continue that way, so if you suddenly accelerate you'll surprise it. If you've been driving "spiritedly" it'll hold the gears longer and not shift up so readily.
As to downshifting while cornering, AIUI the yaw sensors will prevent that from happening if it will unbalance the car. When overtaking, it should only downshift it the throttle input demands more instant power, implying that you have accelerated while you're already overtaking. If you floor it at the start of the overtake it'll already have dropped a couple of gears before you get alongside (and will offer lovely sounds to the overtaken driver!).
I find the 8-speed ZF pretty intuitive as guessing how I'm driving and makes the shifts pretty much when I would if driving manually.
ClosetHairdresser
New member
>While it is reactive, it's also predictive in remembering how you've been driving and adjusts accordingly
That's not predictive, it's "leaving it in a lower gear just in case you need it", which is a rather crude workaround to the problem.
>As to downshifting while cornering, AIUI the yaw sensors will prevent that from happening if it will unbalance the car
Accelerating with sufficient vigour out of a corner will cause a downshift, whether that be after the car has straightened and the yaw sensors on your car have given it the OK or not.
>implying that you have accelerated while you're already overtaking
That is sometimes a necessity lest I hit the car in front of me before I reach the required speed.
>If you floor it at the start of the overtake it'll already have dropped a couple of gears before you get alongside
The car drops a couple of gears before responding, introducing a delay when you want prompt acceleration.
That's not predictive, it's "leaving it in a lower gear just in case you need it", which is a rather crude workaround to the problem.
>As to downshifting while cornering, AIUI the yaw sensors will prevent that from happening if it will unbalance the car
Accelerating with sufficient vigour out of a corner will cause a downshift, whether that be after the car has straightened and the yaw sensors on your car have given it the OK or not.
>implying that you have accelerated while you're already overtaking
That is sometimes a necessity lest I hit the car in front of me before I reach the required speed.
>If you floor it at the start of the overtake it'll already have dropped a couple of gears before you get alongside
The car drops a couple of gears before responding, introducing a delay when you want prompt acceleration.
A
Anonymous
Guest
My answer to the issue is dynamic mode, nudge gear selector to the left for sport and I use paddles all of the time. I never use it in auto. Although this might explain my poor fuel consumption!
Of course a manual would be the other alternative and then it would only do what you want.
Of course a manual would be the other alternative and then it would only do what you want.
johnsoncp
New member
Following all the comments and advice, I just went for a drive using Sport mode and using the paddles and stick to manually control the gears. Fantastic! I kept the revs at a minimum of 2000 and it transformed the car. All the time the display was suggesting that instead of 4th gear I should be in 8th. (I know as I tried changing up until it was happy at 1000rpm). I have concluded that crusing on fast roads I'm happy with fully auto but in all other situations I will control the gears myself. Such a shame as I really wanted an auto.
johnsoncp
New member
dbv6s said:
I did thanks. All I really want is for the gearbox to stop changing up and dropping my revs below 2000. In Sport it revs like crazy, slightly less so in Dynamic, but even in these modes when I'm not putting any load on the engine, for example just cruising at a steady 30mph, the gearbox still changes up. Yes it responds better when I press the throttle though. I was just driving around near my house, at low speeds and again it's changing up too soon. In 'manual' it works fine.
johnsoncp
New member
As a matter of interest, driving at 1000 rpm the car is getting up to about 29mpg. The drive today gave me 28mpg. I'm quite happy to drop from 29 to 28 to get the instant response that I want. I find it so much easier at roundabouts where I'm slowing to give way but suddenly see a gap and decide to go. It might only be 1/2 second delay but it makes a huge difference in my driving.
mickjaguar
New member
This is a characteristic common to all of the 2 litre petrol autos. Our XE behaves the same. Stamp on the accelerator pedal and it hesitates briefly whilst it works out the selection of the lowest gear and then takes off like a scalded cat. After a while you adjust to it and anticipate the reaction. I think we've both adopted a progressive throttle action where you gradually increase pushing the pedal down, so that when it launches and doesn't get the kick down, after which the throttle is increased to full. It's sort of become second nature now. Lots posted on this topic over on the XE forum.
