Puff Puff Pass

I tried searching the forum but could not find anything related to this. Is sport mode activated with your paddle shifters or should it automatically be activated once you switch from D to S? When I shift to sport mode at a stand still, I need to use my paddle shifters (shift up) to activate the second gear and then it works. If I simply shift to sport, it still drives like I am in D mode. Is this normal or should sport mode not require a paddle shifter to activate it?

RenoTL

According to the manual, "To enter the sequential shift mode, press the release button on the front of the shift lever, move the lever to the S position, then pull either paddle shifter." (underlining added for emphasis.) It would appear pulling on the paddles is necessary to activate S mode. I generally don't use S mode but I do use the paddles in D mode when necessary.

Puff Puff Pass

Thanks man, that helps! Didn't occur to me to check the manual.

dopeboy1

You've been doing too much puff puff and not enough pass.

Seriously though I find every time I shift from D to S while driving the car will always downshift on its own right after going into S. Even if im coasting, accelerating or maintaining the same speed and it always feels like its in full S mode before I use the paddles.

dregsfan

If the car is in 6th gear when you select S, then yes it will downshift because S locks out 6th gear.

Kingcredible

Just curious: what happens if you don't shift? does the car automatically shift for you if the revs get high enough even though you are in sport mode? I have a 6MT so no idea how the automatics' sport mode works

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, long post, but here's all the info from what I've observed over the last 2 years of driving this car:

Regular "drive" is pretty conservative and will shift up as soon as possible in order to provide the best fuel economy. The point at which any automatic transmission decides to shift is all based on how the ECU is programmed, which takes into account throttle, RPM and slope (if the car has grade logic which senses the slope of the road, which the 4G TL does). Sport mode has different ECU programming than regular "drive". If you shift into sport and don't use the paddle shifters, it will stay in a lower gear longer in order to provide more acceleration. My wife almost always uses the sport mode when she drives because she's a little speed demon but doesn't want to bother with paddle shifters (she doesn't drive the TL much though. She prefers the comfort of the big ol' Pilot ). In sport mode, the car will still shift up and down on it's own just like any other automatic transmission. But uses a different program which shifts up later, and downshifts sooner than regular "drive" would otherwise. This results in the car generally staying in a higher RPM band where you're going to get more responsiveness than if it were in drive, where it would otherwise attempt to keep the engine in the highest gear/lowest RPM possible. This is especially helpful when just cruising since you don't have that that 1-2 second delay where the transmission would otherwise have to downshift if you hit the throttle - it's already in the lower gear so responsiveness is immediate. So ultimately, think of it as using a manual transmission but simply keeping it in a lower gear longer in order to have get more response when you give it more throttle.

If you do use the paddle shifters, then it will then stay in whatever gear you put it in unless the RPM get too low at which point it will downshift. That's just simply to avoid any damage to the transmission. If it were a manual, that would be the point where you'd be lugging the engine. The AT won't allow you to do that. So that function is sort of a good thing since you obviously don't want to lug the engine. And regardless if you're using paddle shifters or not, the transmission will shift from 1st to 2nd on it's own. That's been kind of a complaint from some drivers. However, you can shift it down to 1st manually if you're going slow enough. And if you give it full throttle it will stay in 1st to redline before it shifts to 2nd. In 2nd or 3rd, it will not shift up on its own even if you hit redline. It will just bounce off the redline like you would if you had a manual transmission. Theoretically it would also bounce off the redline at 4th, but 4th gear at about 6000 RPM is somewhere around 130mph so it's not going to be often that you're going to encounter that scenario.

On the flip side, if you're using the paddle shifters and you're at a high gear, say 5th or 6th, it will stay in gear even if you give it more throttle. So you could argue that using the paddle shifters in Sport mode is more like a manual transmission since it will not shift up or down on its own unless you either tell it to, or the RPM's get too low. So keep in mind if you're using paddle shifters that it's not really "sport" mode. It's more like manual mode. If you want to pass someone or downshift in sport mode, and you've already begun to use the paddle shifters, you're going to be disappointed when you gun it in 5th or 6th gear and expect it to downshift but all it does is stay in gear and grunt along at 2500 RPM or so. You're going to have to manually downshift at that point. But If you put it back in drive, then back to sport, then it will reset back to the automatic ECU program where it will up/downshift on its own at the higher RPM band. I find that if I want to weave in and out of traffic or actually have the car stay "sporty" that the pre-programmed ECU sport mode is actually better than the manual paddle-shifter mode since it easily shifts up or down based on the situation rather than micromanaging it. I love micromanaging a manual transmission (well, you have to....) but I find that doing it with paddle shifters is kind of a pain.

I use "manual" mode with the paddle shifters 99% of the time because I prefer to micromanage the gears. That's partly because I've driven manuals my whole life so I'm just used to controlling the car that way. I actually use it to stay in a higher gear more so than using it for acceleration at lower gears. Most of the time I don't want the car to downshift when I give it more throttle. First, downshifting an automatic transmission puts a good amount of wear on the clutch packs. I plan on keeping the car until it dies so the less unnecessary wear the better. Second, it's usually not necessary to downshift this car in order to adequately accelerate or climb a hill. The engine has plenty of torque even at a lower RPM to speed up just fine in a higher gear (especially if you have all the bolt-ons and a tune - which significantly improves lower end torque). A proper manual would still be far better but getting a car with an automatic was the deal I had to make with my wife in order to upgrade from the old TSX I used to have.

dopeboy1

When mine is in 4th in D and I shift it into S it will automatically downshift into 3rd on its own.

dregsfan

Probably depends on what the rpms are when you shift into S, as explained by losiglow above.

Blaze9

???? What are you talking about, this is not the case at all. You can 100% shift into 6th, there is no such thing as it being locked out. Shifting into S drops you down one gear by default but you still have access to all 6 gears (minus 1st if you're over 20ish MPH). You can be in 5th going 25 or 6th going 35ish.

dregsfan

I guess I should have made a distinction between using the paddles or not in S. I've never used the paddles to shift into 6th in S, since if I'm going to be cruising at freeway speeds I don't need to be in S. Without using the paddles in S, my experience is the same as post #12 in this thread, in which you posted immediately after, and didn't refute:

https://acurazine.com/forums/fourth-...lly-do-918616/

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

I think by "lock out" he meant that sport mode will not shift into 6th in any circumstance on it's own. It would take manually shifting via the paddles to get 6th in S.