I'm curious to know how many here use the manual shift feature in their RLs and how often if they do. I just picked up a 2007 w/ CMBS and PAX which I'm loving by the way and I have used the manual shift on occasion just to wring out the engine a bit. I am one of those people who think an engine should be driven hard every once in a while almost as a sort of maintenance.

I tried doing a full throttle acceleration from 1st to 3rd just to see how the car performs at its peak and was pleasantly surprised but I will say the tranny can be slightly rough shifting when done aggressively which I'm sure is to be expected.

I was also curious to see the awd in action and how much power I could get shifted to the rear during acceleration. I believe the maximum is 40% straight line.

Anyway, your thoughts on using the car aggressively from time to time.

 

There's nothing wrong with driving a car aggressively from time to time. IMO it's normal for the engine to get some "exercise". Besides, I would be pretty worried if an engine can't handle the occasional abuse, especially a product of Honda/Acura lol.

 

I agree just wondered due to the type of owners who typically by this car whether it was a common thing or not to use it.

 

I used manual mode during maybe 5% of my drives. If your shifts are rough, you should do a 3x3 drain and fill on your tranny. Some of the funnest times you can have in this car are trying to replicate the 3rd gear RPM lag in VTEC. There is nothing wrong with pushing the engine if it is fully warmed up and has good (clean) oil in it.

SH-AWD can put 70% of power to the rear diff. The diff can apply 100% of that power to either wheel. However, the RL is "detuned" to an extent. A TL SH-AWD has a more aggressive torque vectoring profile.

 

True that regarding warming up the engine first and having clean oil too. What partially attracted me to this car is the fact that the J series engine has been a workhorse for Acura over many years so you know it's well built and reliable.

About the shawd torque split, I thought in straight line acceleration the split maxed out at 60/40 and only when turning do you get the full 30/70. I have to double check that.

While the TL has a great rear wheel bias, up to 80% I still feel the RL has the advantage with the acceleration device that over spins the rear wheels up to 5% as opposed to the fixed 1.9% of the TL. I think the fixed ratio is more of a cost savings and weight reduction (reduced complexity) measure than it is for anything else.

 

I live in a hilly area. I use the manual shift every day to stick it in 1st when going down my steep hill.
Other than that rarely use

 

I use the manual shift only when I pull up next to ferraris and lambos on a red light. I can handle STis n 335s in D mode.

 

Our neighborhood is on a big hill. I use it to slip it into 2nd gear to go down and around four tight curves all the way to the bottom of the hill without touching the brakes. The original brakes were replaced at 102K at the same time the timing belt was changed. Not too shabby for a 4600 pound car in a hilly area.

 

I use it daily for sure. The gear that I want the car to be in and the gear the ECU wants the car to be in are rarely the same. I miss rowing gears honestly. The RL is the first car I've ever owned that did not have 3 pedals. If my car got totaled tomorrow I would be perfectly fine with giving up a little bit of the RL's prestige in favor of a 6-speed TL SH-AWD.

 

Only when I want to hit

 

Fixed.

 

Same here. I still have my 6spd legend coupe for those days I feel that though.

 

My husband uses it more than I do. He likes that he can shift gears on the steering. I don't particularly care for it. I'm the "responsible" driver. He is the one that gives the car her workout. Just like with any vehicle, if you take care of your car, it will take care of you. Keep up the routine maintenance, and driving her a little hard should be a piece of cake.

 

I love them!

 

I use them when decelerating, or in anticipation of a bend.

I hate it when the car's in the wrong gear and instead of torque vectoring, you get a lumpy downshift out of a bend.

I often then switch back to auto & let the car sort out its upchanges. Although I have an S2000 and NSX, I know that autos generally shift more appropriately than us human apes.

It's just they cannot read the road ahead. Yet...

 

I almost never used it when I had my RL. It wasn't because I don't like shifting, though. It was because the shifts were interminally slow. It made the process just not that fun.

 

I did notice a little lag too. I have my car in for service and am driving a 2011-12 Camry SE (just spelling it now I realized isn't that a weird name for a car lol) loaner and it feels a lot smoother, of course I'm comparing a 07 to a 11 but it makes me wonder how are the newer 5 and 6spds that are in the RLs?

I like the fact that newer transmissions dont have to be shifted into manual mode in order to use the paddles. Would love to have that on mine.

 

I use it everyday. This my first automatic car...I miss driving manual. I did get some lag on my shifts as well, changed all the fluids, tranny, rear diff, front diff... and now the shifts are so much more smoother. ...

LOVE IT.

 

Yes, the newer RL's have a revamped ECU with quicker upshifts, sport mode on the fly and rev-matching downshifts.

Could be worse though, I had a loaner 2013 TL SH-AWD for 2 weeks while Acura had my RL. While it was nice to have the above mentioned upgrades, the transmission automatically shifts from 1st to 2nd no matter what you do and it short shifts the shit out of it...like a good 600-800 revs before redline. On top of that, it will not go back down into 1st until you are under 15mph no matter how many times you hit the downshift paddle. It is absolutely infuriating. I honestly couldn't live with it. I'll take my 06 RL with slower upshifts and the ability to bang the hell out of the rev limiter if I feel like it any day over the car automatically choosing whether it feels like being in 1st gear or not.

 

3x3 drain and fill your transmission. The RL should shift just as smooth or smoother than a Camry. Like BDogg mentioned, they shortened the response times on the '09+ models.

 

I use it a few times a week to pass on 2 lane highways - drop it down to 3rd, punch it, then back to 5th.

I also use it to hold the gears a bit longer on onramps when I feel like having a little fun.

 

I very rarely use the paddles..... it's too annoying as the car doesn't shift (right away) when you pull the paddle. If I want to play Joe racer, I drive one of the other cars that has a better paddle shift system.

 

When I had the car(RIP) I used the "tiptronic" feature often, but only for engine braking...rarely used it or the paddles because the shifts were just too slow.

Man I miss that car....the M35X I got as a temp replacement is a sad substitute.

 

Yeah, I agree. Having an automatic is bad enough for us manual lovers but when the auto doesn't let you do certain things its annoying as hell. The only nanny feature I dont mind is the one that prevents you from downshifting past the rev limiter.

I haven't tried but I did wonder if we could peg the rev limiter without an automatic shift and its good to hear Honda gave us the amount of control over the tranny.

 

Thanks. Since I got it I haven't changed any of the fluids, that'll have to be one of the first things I do as well as replacing the driver's side armrest "leather".

 

Just curious about the complaints of the shiftign beign too slow.
Is it slower than when in fully auto mode?
Not in my experience it isn't.
So if you don't like it because it can't predict the road ahead in auto mode, why are you not pre-empting the slow changes and allowing for them when you flick the paddle?
It's not hard to do.
Hell, the Astons I used to drive you needed to pre-empt the damn corners from 100 yards away and start steering.

Honda autos are generally some of the better autos you can get for changes and allowing the revs to climb before making the change.
Wish my tiptronic Audi Quattro shifted as well as the RL does.

 

It is certainly predictable enough to adapt to. Every Honda automatic I have driven has its own style of shifting that takes getting used to, but I have never had a long term annoyance from any of them. Give the car and me a month together, and we'll be moving seemlessly.

I think the RL shift lag is a combination of shifting and the throttle by wire. It always felt like I was waiting for a turbo spool when I pressed the gas. The throttle was very unresponsive when compared to other cars. Reminds me of this:

 

I use manual almost daily on my 2005 RL, and there is a good reason for it. Somewhere in my frequent daily short trips, there is a part of the road with an mild slope that the car can reach 35-40 miles per hour yet the transmission absolutely refuses to shift beyond 3rd gear to ease the car into the slope without the gas pedal pressed, and the transmission would let the engine rev up to 2800 even 3000 rpm for almost 5-10 seconds before it releases to the 4th gear. By then the speed has gone up to 45 miles per hour (10 miles above the speed limit on that slope) which I have to do just to ease the engine and go to 4th if I'm on D.

This happens regardless whether I am pressing the gas pedal for more power or taking my foot completely off the gas, although the later causes the car to slow down on the slope since the 3rd gear holds it from rolling down the hill. I find it pretty annoying that I have to press the gas pedal until I reach 45 miles just so that the transmission can take me up to 4th gear, so I quickly switch to manual and shift and drop it into 4th.

Forgot to say, the slope comes right after a slow down due to rail road tracks where speed drops to almost 15 miles per hour then comes the downhill.

I will try to post a video about this section of the road to show what I mean soon.

Any one experienced this funny behavior on different sections of the road? My other car (a Chrysler Van) seems happy to shift up to the max gear any time I release my foot of the gas...

 

I noticed hesitance to shift going up a hill (along with rougher shifts) before the transmission fluid change I did at 40k. That seemed to help. An ECU reset may help as well.

 

That's just it...you shouldn't have to "predict" anything...The "tiptronic" is at least passable, but the paddles are just too slow. The "tiptronic" shifter in the M35X I have now is worse however. What a mistake I made when I got that car....but I had to get something quick, and the deal was amazing...now I know why.

 

On my accord I use manual shift in the winter time for second gear start when its very slippery. On the RL I sometimes use it for fun, especially when I had an oil change. The car seems faster with fresh oil. I don't use the paddles though, I like the knob more

 

That's what she said.

 

I use manual shifting on German highways to avoid unwanted downshifts if i pulldown
The throttle. I also use it to hold the gears a bit longer when I feel like having a higher accelation

 

Seems like we have a lot of 2G RL owners around here that really like the knob...especially the wooden one.

 

yup, i use the knob vise the paddles, GOT No Wood though ;-)))

 

I use the paddles. My wife uses the knob.

 

lol you guys are hilarious. i prefer the paddles cause sometimes you have to row your own boat...

 

If I'm not mistaken there is a hill asisst feature that aids in starting on a hill and I think it also revises the shift points so that on hills the upshift happens later both for performance on the way up and possibly engine braking on the way down.

 

All the time on slow mountain roads.

I go to one park where on exit it's just all downhill mild to steep.

Use the paddles to control my descent so I never need to apply brake or accelerator.

Also handy on roads where the speed limit is say 35MPH and mix of twists, inclines, and straightaways. D3 doesn't cut it as you often have spots where you need 4+5 on a long straight, or need to downshift prior to entering a corner.

If I lived in middle land where it's flat I don't know if I would ever use paddles or D3

 

]
I've never driven a drive-by-wire car that I haven't wanted to fit a cable to. They are all horrible in that respect. But then I'm old school and like to actually have full control if at all possible.

Not seen that pic/reference to VTEC before. Wish I hadn't now. It's so untrue and borne from those who have no clue that it's a little insulting.




So how would you ever change gear at all?
Just by guesswork and pure chance?
Everything we do driving a car is prediction.
Even using a manual gearbox utilises our powers of prediction for it to work properly.