Not sure if this is normal on my 2011 5-speed.

If you speed up and release the gas pedal, the gear seems to drop too fast while your car slow down. When it drop back to 1st gear and I could feel a stutter of the car, just like engine brake...

Does this happen to you? thanks!

 

yes!

It depends on how much pressure u put on the pedal. If it feels that you're putting a lot of pressure, it will assume u want to upshift. If, right before the moment it upshifts, you let off the gas pedal, then it will have a brain fart while deciding whether you really wanted an upshift or to hold the gear.

If you let it upshift, then release the pedal, you'll feel the car surge foward slightly since it's already in the next gear. If you release the pedal before it upshifts, then you'll feel it lug a bit because it will be holding on to the gear for you to let you slowly coast along.

I figured out the best way to avoid this, it's simply to control the pedal more efficiently. When the roads are more clear, you could apply more pressure to the pedal since you'll want to be accelerating. However, if you're in a high traffic setting, then put less pressure on the pedal (aka drive slower), so it will shift at lower rpms and hold the lower gears instead of shifting later and requiring you to brake hard afterwards.

I hope that made sense..

btw I enjoy the engine braking when i'm slowly coasting towards traffic (you know, while everyone else sees red lights but are still flying past you at 40-50mph) then it downshifts so I can coast even longer lol

 

Jason, thanks for the input.

It absolutely made sense from what you have said under your circumstance, but my thought is the gear should not down shift until it reaches certain lower speed, then the car should coast to even a longer range... and my point is not saving a penny or two on the gas, but the engine brake or stutter actually quite annoying when you do not expect that kind of hesitation from the car.

I just want to make sure every 4g TL does that, not that my gearbox or ECU has some kind of issue...

 

That is exactly what's happening to me.

I couldn't describe it any better. The brain fart and knee jerk reaction are really adequate descriptions here.That's sort of what I'm doing right now. But I feel like I'm using my brakes more than I should after pushing the engine harder to avoid the initial sluggishness. It's like I'm racing against my own transmission to avoid making it hesitate.I do this every day as we have long boulevards with 50 mph limits. It annoys people behind me and most will swerve out to race to the red light over half a mile away.

It's not like I'm disrupting traffic, I'm coasting at the speed limit to a red light. I'm not even on the passing lane.