Just recently joined the forum. I have a 2008 TL that I purchased two months ago and it's awesome! I have a question that I am hoping I can some feedback on. Whenever I drive on a road with a lot of hills in stop and go type traffic, I find that my transmission likes to change gears more frequently then I am used to with other vehicles, especially when going up and down hills...is this normal? It seems to be overly sensitive with hills and frequently downshifting going up hills and then quickly upshifting when reaching the top. I am not thinking this is a problem...but was curious if anyone else has noticed this.

 

thats the Grade Logic trying to save gas.
When you drive in hilly areas put it in D4 instead of 5
That will keep it out of freeway overdrive gear and cut down on the shifting
Have a read of your owner manual for full description, also see the brakes-TCS ABS sections. The new car has a lot of safety features that may be couter to your normal driving methods

 

yeah its normal. as 01tl said just put it in d4. thats why acura put it there for different driving situations

 

I have an '07 that I bought almost 5 months ago now and I've noticed the hill thing as well. One difference I have noticed though is that if I'm going down a hill my car seems to not want to shift and instead I'll coast down hill running at about 2500 rpm and this is at 35 mph. It would seem to me that if it were looking to save gas it would upshift to coast at about 1500 rpm or so.

Also during general driving, I have noticed that the car will shift a little rough, more so when it is downshifting but sometimes during an upshift as well. With downshifts it is almost like the car is using the downshift as engine braking so there will be a little jolt when it shifts. I am assuming this is normal, but I was expecting very smooth shifts for both upshifts and downshifts. Overall, still very happy with the car.

 

I just got down to another thread talking about the downshifting and it definitely seems to be the design.

 

^^ it stays in high gears on downhill to save your brakes.. if it was coasting at about 1500rpm your car will be accelerating because of the slope.. It's doing that for engine braking, not for saving gas. At least for a downhill

 

Cool...thanks for the info. I guess this is the first car I've had that is this "smart"!!

 

its not trying to save gas or save the transmission...its about being in the right gear and being ready to "roll"...ie, if you need to speed up then its already in a lower gear so it doenst always have to downshift to get to the correct gear....