recently i had the entire highway to myself, and decided to open up the engine a little bit. it was the 1st time i could really use the manual on the 5AT without interuption. so i shifted thru until 5th gear, and had my fun. slowing down the car from 90 mph to 65, i felt the gears shifted very very smoothly. however, coming off the turn off the highway, i felt a big jerk shifting into 1st when i came to a stoplight. i thought that maybe it was my mt inexperience. i shifted at lower rpms when braking for the next stoplight, it happend again.

is this normal in the transmittion, or is this a problem. it works fine in auto mode, and i believe i shifted from 2nd to 1st at under 2000 rpm. thanx..

 

let me get this straight..... you're in second gear and you blip the gear shirt back into first when braking. therres your problem. once you do that, it causes compression braking(correct me if i'm wrong). when you're coming to a stop, and you want to downshift, either let the computer do it for you or just downshift into second.

 

sorry for not being specific. while slowing down, i shifted to 1st when i felt i needed to. do u have to shift to 1st when your at a complete stop? thanx for the feedback

 

i believe if you're decelerating, you never want to shift to first. the lowest you can shift to is second. i have tried it once and it was painful. i thought i broke the car somehow but i read online that it was due to engine braking. the jolt is strong enough to make the seatbelt catch you.

btw.....you don't have to shift to first when at a complete stop. the computer will automatically do it for you

glad i can help

happy motoring

 

If you were driving a MT and downshifted into 1st at any appreciable speed, you'd go flying through the window when you'd drop the clutch! Rarely would you need to drop to 1st while moving, and you don't need to do it at all in the AT since it'll shift for you.

Your car sound fine to me dude!

 

1st gear is definately for accelerating only. if you're decelerating and in 2nd gear you're better off being in neutral and coasting/braking than trying to shift into first.

 

On the AT-SS you wouldn't want to select neutral during regular driving, since it means moving out of the M gate sideways into D, and then up into N.

Gocubs, the behaviour you saw was normal. I drive in SS all the time, except in a parking lot. The car will automatically downshift as you slow down. The shift points on level ground are 5>4 at 52km/h, 4>3 at 32km/h and 3>1 at 10km/h. It skips 2nd, and the 3>1 shift only occurs just before you stop, so you don't feel any engine braking. I normally downshift manually before these shift points, but let the car pop it from 3>1. There's really no reason to cycle through 1st unless you are doing an "anchors-out" stop and need max stoppage to supplement the brakes.

On hills the grade-logic AT kicks in and downshifts at slower speeds than the above.

 

I downshift to first all the time, never had a problem. That's what the SS mode is for, that being said, you don't want to downshift at too high of an RPM.

 

If you look at the gear ratios, shifting from 2nd at 2000 RPM to 1st will put you at about 3500 RPM. The tranny has to spin the engine up to that higher speed, and the energy to accomplish the change in engine speed comes from your forward momentum. Newton's second law says that the faster your momentum changes (and AT shifts are pretty fast), the more force you feel. The result is a jerky downshift. Just let the car put itself in 1st next time. Enjoy.

 

The SS AT won't allow a downshift into 1st gear until the car slows to 30mph. I think the main reason why first gear feels so "jerky" under engine braking is because the difference in ratios between first and second is higher than between second and third.

 

I'm not sure about the AT, but with a MT as a general rule, you should never downshift into 1st gear. 2nd is just fine untill you come to a complete stop.

 

Hardcore AT user here. (Is that an oxymoron?) I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

 

i like the sportshift too, but i would've preferred to get the 6sp manual and have the true manual experience with the clutch, but if my folks had to borrow the car, they both don't know how to drive manual.

 

The solution is simple: Don't let the folks borrow the car!