The other day I was getting on the freeway in front of a semi truck and I floored the throttle. I expected the car to kick down in to a lower gear and accelerate. It didn't. What it did do was hold the gear it was in to about 65 and then up shift to 5th. My 97 RL would hold passing gear to 85 or 90 before shifting. What gives? Should I have put it in manual mode and bump shifted?

 

If the ecu isnt normally asked to kick it in to a passing gear or the lowest gear possible, it wont do it when you want it to. When I first bought my RL it wouldn't go to the lowest gear due to the habits of the previous owner. So I reset the ecu and drove the car the way I prefer to drive. Half throttle gets me one gear down, and full throttle takes me to the lowest gear now. The ecu wil operate the car the way its normally driven. If you drive aggressively then the ecu will perform aggressively and it works for driving easy as well.

Best way to ensure it hits the gear you want is to use the paddles or the shift knob though.

 

There are numerous threads on resetting the ECU, that I have found, and they explain 3 different ways.

1) Pull the fuse for the ECU ~15 min or so. (Don't know which one)
2) Turn the ignition to (II) without starting and floor the gas pedal for 30 seconds. Release and turn the car off.
3) Manually shift to a high gear and floor the pedal for as long as safely possible while gaining speed.

I have tried 2) and it seems to make a difference. I just tried 3) this morning getting on the highway, but didn't have enough chances after getting off to tell a difference. I have not tried 1), but this is the most common procedure for most cars (you may lose some settings this way).

What L is saying is true, that the car "learns" how you use the gas pedal and creates shift points accordingly. If you drive in a manner that will conserve gas (*ah-like a grandma-hem*) then the car will
put the shift points further into the stroke of gas pedal, and eventually you will end up with the ECU equating 70% gas with 50% throttle. Once it is reset, it will erase what has been learned and go back to 50% gas = 50% throttle. Once your shift points are earlier in the stroke, the gas will feel more responsive, you will reach higher rpms, and the car will feel more powerful.

One of my favorite characteristics of this car is how fast it can go from 60 to 90, but you need all of your throttle to get the full extent of it. And you will probably lose some MPGs along the way. Has anyone timed 60-90? Or 60 to 80 or 100 for that matter?

 

I've had problems with the car ignoring me on WOT so here's what I do:

1. If you want WOT without manual mode, let go of the gas pedal, and then smack it hard all the way
2. Switch to manual for any passing action and dump it into lower gear to avoid surprises (this is easier to do on 09+ and is exactly what I do).

 

When I had my RL, I really had no trouble with the transmission kicking down. It helped that I was the only driver of the car, so the ECU memorized my heavy foot's pleadings as opposed to the wife's grandma-like, sub-speed limit driving style . Best way to fix this short of resetting the ECU is to a fast acceleration on an on-ramp occasionally, say once a week. Of course, I did this every chance I got so I could hear that nice J35 soundtrack.

Using manual mode works as well, but I don't like the idea of switching to manual mode just to pass.

 

yea it has something to do with the way you push your foot. If you are driving and want to pass hit it quick all the way to the floor and it should kick in. If you do it slow it does nothing but speed up slowly

 

Thank you for all your advice. I will try the off throttle-pedal to the metal approach next time I get on the freeway.

 

pedal to the metal, don't be shy..

 

you can't gently nudge the pedal to the floor, the car is too stupid to recognize that as a reason to hurry up. You literally need to make 0 to flat so fast that the car has no doubt it needs to drop down to the lowest gear not lowest +1.