What happens if your in first gear and forget to shift? I know make fun of me, I deserve it. This is what happened? I was in manual mode, maybe after a few drinks, music blasting, etc..... I was screwing around in manual mode, then my pone rings while waiting at a light. I start talking etc... next thing I know I'm at a light about 2 miles down the street I hang my phone up look down and I'm infirst gear? I don't remeber if I actually shifted while I was on the phone, chances are I didn't and I just forgot I was in manual and never shifted. Will the car shift itself after a certain RMP? Or did I just readline the hell out of my car? Possible any damage I could have done?
Steptronic manual what happens if
- Thread starter olcrazy1
- Start date
The 2000 323i I have experience with would do this as well. It would select M2 if stopping from a higher gear. When starting, it was clearly starting in M2 - much more sluggish off the line. Try this - start off in M2 and as you are accelerating, downshift it to M1 - you'll see that the car is actually starting in M2.
I will try that at next opportunity.
Tell me this: Does the steptronic in D or S mode also start off in second gear? And assuming the answer is yes, I assume if I floored it from a standstill it would downshift to first?
I am sure one of you animals out there has already tried this........ [headbang]
Tell me this: Does the steptronic in D or S mode also start off in second gear? And assuming the answer is yes, I assume if I floored it from a standstill it would downshift to first?
I am sure one of you animals out there has already tried this........ [headbang]
well not necessarily...
remember the days when steptronic didnt exist.."back in the day"...
and there were winter and summer settings for some automatic cars?
well basically, all that switch does is that it starts the car in 2nd gear instead of first because the old automatic systems doesnt engage 2nd gear if the level is in 2nd instead it will hold second and not shift up to third. so that switch was designed to put the car into 2nd from a standing still so that the car doesnt lose traction in snow or frozen streets..
with the new steptronic, if im not mistaken, to take advantage of this feature, you just put it into M and shift it up to 2.
so having established that it is okay and possible to have the car start from M2, when the steptronic is in M4 or M5, i would assume that it shifts down as the car sl,ows down progressively, provided you forget to shift, and the lowest it will go is M2 because the car can still move from a standing start at M2, which i assume it will shift down only if the engien speed is the low for the gear...
plsss correct me if im wrong...heh...as opposed to flaming me
remember the days when steptronic didnt exist.."back in the day"...
and there were winter and summer settings for some automatic cars?
well basically, all that switch does is that it starts the car in 2nd gear instead of first because the old automatic systems doesnt engage 2nd gear if the level is in 2nd instead it will hold second and not shift up to third. so that switch was designed to put the car into 2nd from a standing still so that the car doesnt lose traction in snow or frozen streets..
with the new steptronic, if im not mistaken, to take advantage of this feature, you just put it into M and shift it up to 2.
so having established that it is okay and possible to have the car start from M2, when the steptronic is in M4 or M5, i would assume that it shifts down as the car sl,ows down progressively, provided you forget to shift, and the lowest it will go is M2 because the car can still move from a standing start at M2, which i assume it will shift down only if the engien speed is the low for the gear...
plsss correct me if im wrong...heh...as opposed to flaming me
My RSX has SportShift, which is essentially the same thing as the Steptronic.
Although the only time I could play with the Steptronic on the E46 was when I was test driving a 325ci, I wouldn't be surprised if it works the same way as the RSX -- except from what I gathered, Steptronic shifts up for you at redline. My RSX will NOT do that... you can take the engine all the way to redline and it still won't shift up for you (rev limiter will kick in of course if you enter the danger zone). And it's for this reason that I like the SportShift on the RSX. I want total control over my shifts, without blowing up the engine.
Back to Steptronic... If it says M2, then the car is probably starting from standstill with the 2nd gear. My RSX works the same. It always shifts to 1 automatically when the car comes to a complete stop. However, before you release the brake, you can shift up and it will go to 2, and the car will start from 2. This is to reduce torque to the wheels and reduce wheel spin -- try starting on a snow-covered road and you'll appreciate this feature.
On dry roads, the car will feel sluggish when you start from M2 because the engine needs to work harder to get the car to start.
Although the only time I could play with the Steptronic on the E46 was when I was test driving a 325ci, I wouldn't be surprised if it works the same way as the RSX -- except from what I gathered, Steptronic shifts up for you at redline. My RSX will NOT do that... you can take the engine all the way to redline and it still won't shift up for you (rev limiter will kick in of course if you enter the danger zone). And it's for this reason that I like the SportShift on the RSX. I want total control over my shifts, without blowing up the engine.
Back to Steptronic... If it says M2, then the car is probably starting from standstill with the 2nd gear. My RSX works the same. It always shifts to 1 automatically when the car comes to a complete stop. However, before you release the brake, you can shift up and it will go to 2, and the car will start from 2. This is to reduce torque to the wheels and reduce wheel spin -- try starting on a snow-covered road and you'll appreciate this feature.
On dry roads, the car will feel sluggish when you start from M2 because the engine needs to work harder to get the car to start.
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i remember reading about some lady that was complaining about how loud her car was whild driving. it turned out she was laways in the manual mode and the car shifted only to the second gear. her normal driving speed wasn't fast enough for her to hit the redline in the second gear, altho i guess it was revving pertty high, thus the loud engine noise, and jerky ride..
back to the original question, lousy gas milage was prolly the worst thing to happen to your car that night.. well that and feeling pretty dumb![[:p]](/images/smilies/tongue.png "Stick Out Tongue [:p]")
back to the original question, lousy gas milage was prolly the worst thing to happen to your car that night.. well that and feeling pretty dumb
There must be some logic to this, because my instincts say this makes no sense. M mode is for the most aggressive driving, so why would the system default to 2nd not 1st? I would think it would default to first, then if you wanted to select 2nd it would allow this. The D and S going to first and M going to 2nd just makes no sense.
Can anyone shed some light on this? And don't think fuel conservation because D and S would go to 2nd as well if this were the case......
Can anyone shed some light on this? And don't think fuel conservation because D and S would go to 2nd as well if this were the case......
When you first enter M mode, by flicking the shifter after entering S mode, the transmission defaults to first gear, like it should. Automatic, S mode, and M mode all start in first gear. It is only when coming to a stop in M mode that the transmission is programmed to stay in second by default.
There is logic to this. The M mode allows you to completely select what gear you are in unless the selection is incompatible with the safety of the car. It won't let you bog the engine just like it won't let you overrev it. When coming to a stop from driving in M mode, I don't think it is so much the computer downshifting the gears for you so that you can start out again as it is not letting you select an incompatible gear. Say you were driving around in M4 and came to a stop without downshifting. The transmission will select M2 for you when you come to a stop. It would want to stay in M4 since that is what you had selected, but you wouldn't be able to move from a stop in fourth gear, so the transmission selects the gear that is closest to your selected gear of M4 and that is still compatible with starting from a stop - in this case, M2. Since you are driving around in M4 and come to a stop, the transmission says "I can't start from 0 mph in fourth gear, so I need to downshift to the next gear. Oh, I can't start from a stop in third gear either, so I need to downshift to the next gear. Ok, I can start from a stop in second gear, but it'll be slow. Since my driver still had M4 selected, I'm not going to downshift to first gear since he didn't tell me to go to first gear."
This proves this idea: If you are in M1 and start out from a stop (not at full throttle) and quickly upshift to M2, the car will allow you to do it. If you then quickly upshift to M3,4,or 5, the car will not let you do that, and it will revert to M2 or 3. It won't let you shift to a higher gear yet because you are still moving slowly and that would bog the engine and possibly cause damage to the transmission due to excessive torque convertor slippage. Likewise, you can't start from a stop in M3, 4, or 5.
Does that make sense to you? It made sense to me when I wrote it.
There is logic to this. The M mode allows you to completely select what gear you are in unless the selection is incompatible with the safety of the car. It won't let you bog the engine just like it won't let you overrev it. When coming to a stop from driving in M mode, I don't think it is so much the computer downshifting the gears for you so that you can start out again as it is not letting you select an incompatible gear. Say you were driving around in M4 and came to a stop without downshifting. The transmission will select M2 for you when you come to a stop. It would want to stay in M4 since that is what you had selected, but you wouldn't be able to move from a stop in fourth gear, so the transmission selects the gear that is closest to your selected gear of M4 and that is still compatible with starting from a stop - in this case, M2. Since you are driving around in M4 and come to a stop, the transmission says "I can't start from 0 mph in fourth gear, so I need to downshift to the next gear. Oh, I can't start from a stop in third gear either, so I need to downshift to the next gear. Ok, I can start from a stop in second gear, but it'll be slow. Since my driver still had M4 selected, I'm not going to downshift to first gear since he didn't tell me to go to first gear."
This proves this idea: If you are in M1 and start out from a stop (not at full throttle) and quickly upshift to M2, the car will allow you to do it. If you then quickly upshift to M3,4,or 5, the car will not let you do that, and it will revert to M2 or 3. It won't let you shift to a higher gear yet because you are still moving slowly and that would bog the engine and possibly cause damage to the transmission due to excessive torque convertor slippage. Likewise, you can't start from a stop in M3, 4, or 5.
Does that make sense to you? It made sense to me when I wrote it.
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I think Justin is exactly right. I'll suggest a design reason that it intentionally doesn't shift from M2 to M1 on a full stop. As Justin said "Ok, I can start from a stop in second gear, but it'll be slow." That can be a GOOD thing - if you are stuck in snow, mud, etc. you WANT to launch in M2 to limit torque and prevent spinning. If it always shifted from M2 to M1 on a full stop it would get in the way of trying to get unstuck.
The reason is that 1st is not a driving gear. 1st gear is for pulling away ONLY. If you drive a proper manual car then you will only shift into 1st just before you pull away. (if you use it for normal driving and use engine braking in 1st gear you will have a fairly jumpey ride!) The car (as has been said) is setup for safety. It can't tell if the road is icey BEFORE it pulls away so needs to select 2nd gear rather than 1st. (just because its in manual mode)
First part says 1st is a pull-away gear. Well guess what, if that was the reason then it WOULD select 1st from a dead stop. It certainly knows when the vehicle velocity is zero.
Second part says it is to prevent slipping on a potentially slippery start. I can't buy that either because we have traction control, etc. for that.
So far, jrt67ss350 has my vote.....
Kirby you agree with Justin, so by default I have to disagree with you too.
I just don't think BMW includes shifting into M2 at a stop in their list of traction control features. They never mention it in any literature where they talk about traction control.
So.......another vote for jrt67ss350, his answer sounds correct to me.....
Second part says it is to prevent slipping on a potentially slippery start. I can't buy that either because we have traction control, etc. for that.
So far, jrt67ss350 has my vote.....
Kirby you agree with Justin, so by default I have to disagree with you too.
I just don't think BMW includes shifting into M2 at a stop in their list of traction control features. They never mention it in any literature where they talk about traction control.
So.......another vote for jrt67ss350, his answer sounds correct to me.....
jrt67ss350 is Justin.... I agree with Justin ....
My comment comes from the BMW manual. They state for the SMG:
Sequential mode
.....
The gears are shifted via the shift paddles
or the selector lever.
It is also possible to drive off in second
gear, e.g. on snow-covered roads.
So I'm proposing the same reasoning for Steptronic as to why it doesn't shift into M1 on a full stop.
My comment comes from the BMW manual. They state for the SMG:
Sequential mode
.....
The gears are shifted via the shift paddles
or the selector lever.
It is also possible to drive off in second
gear, e.g. on snow-covered roads.
So I'm proposing the same reasoning for Steptronic as to why it doesn't shift into M1 on a full stop.