Hi,

Hope someone can advise. I drive mainly with command shift. Most of the time it operates correctly, i.e shifts one gear at the time. However, when slowing down, perhaps getting ready to turn into a side road, it sometimes drops from third to first with only one movement of the gear stick.

It seems that it is linked to the speed I initially change down from third. If I change with the speed higher it only goes to second whereas if the speed is lower it often drops to first.

It is a bit annoying when it drops two cogs so is this a normal behaviour?

Thanks in advance.

Having a guess at something here, can the box shift into a lower gear if the lever is held, ie if you do not release it quickly enough?
I will try this tomorrow, I have never had this happen, although command shift will change to a lower gear if the revs will be too low, dropping into first seems excessive though, that's like hitting the brakes in mine.

Yes, I wondered if holding the lever may drop it down two but I don't think it does. It only ever does it from third to first, never anywhere else or changing up for that matter.

Mine also does drop to a lower gear if the speed gets too low (I can drive up and pull away with second indicated) but it always shows the last gear you put it in and you can see it adjusting the gearing until the speed is high enough and it then 'locks' into the selected gear.

I am thinking that it may be due to me changing down at exactly the same time the box decides that the gear it is in is too high, and changes itself.

It could well be that it is seeing two commands, one from you and one from the box.

Holding it doesn't drop it further down the gears

I have tried it previously

Try a hard reset, I think that resets gear box driving style memory Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I also mainly use command shift, mine does the same thing. What I noticed is that when you change from 3rd to 2nd but your within milliseconds of the gearbox forcing the 2nd gear it then drops to 1st, this puts you in the wrong gear for speed. it is as if the box has made its mind up to go down a gear but you just beat it to it and the computer is too slow to realise you have taken the gear whilst its in the process of doing just that.

Does that make sense, it's far easier to describe whilst driving the car.

So in other words your changing from 3rd to 2nd too late. Change a bit earlier and you should never have this issue.

Holding the lever does not drop 2 cogs on my car, it only reacts to single pull push.

npinks wrote:

Holding it doesn't drop it further down the gears

I have tried it previously

Try a hard reset, I think that resets gear box driving style memory

Take off battery connections hold them together for a minute leave for a few more minutes reconnect and reset windows.

taztastic wrote:

It could well be that it is seeing two commands, one from you and one from the box.

We have a winner

You are selecting a lower gear just as the car decides it wants a lower gear, and so 2 changedowns happen

^ +1

SYFL2 wrote:

Take off battery connections hold them together for a minute leave for a few more minutes reconnect and reset windows.

A case of man verses computer with the sound of it, it wants one thing and you want the other both at the same time.

Does it improve fuel economy significantly you telling it when to change rather than just leaving it to its own devices?
Otherwise why have an auto and still change the gears yourself?

I think it is slightly more efficient when changing gears yourself but that is not the reason I bought an auto.

I tow and previously had a manual TD4. Its a long story but I swapped the manual for this one because I was experiencing (amongst other issues) a juddering clutch when changing from 1st to 2nd.

When deciding on a replacement car I also test drove another manual TD4 and this clutch also juddered. I decided that the auto was the safer option.

Having said the above, I prefer the control a manual gives and don't really feel comfortable not having control over the gears. For example, hold it in a lower gear because I am approaching an up hill or use engine breaking whilst going downhill rather than rely on riding the brakes, or when approaching a corner. The car doesn't know the road ahead or cannot anticipate the necessary gearing.

Command shift clearly doesn't give as much control as a manual but it is a compromise between necessity and a lifetime of driving manuals.