Violent Downshifts

[hawkeye18]

Does the transmission rev match for you on downshifts? If not.. yeah if you've ever driven a standard and you were rolling at 25 down a hill and put it in first your gonna get an effect much like that..

Indeed. Putting any automatic into first (actually, any car at all, really) at 25mph without making an attempt at rev-matching will produce exactly the symptoms you describe. As soon as the clutches engage, the engine is basically doing a backwards neutral bomb. The reason it took a second to shift was likely that the ECU was preparing the transmission for such a violent maneuver, which takes a little bit of time.

Stop putting it into first at 25 (especially going down a hill already) unless you are going to blip the throttle to get the revs closer in the middle of the shift (something I used to do in the [race] trans tune on my 94 frequently).

 

[Dougfr]

Indeed. Putting any automatic into first (actually, any car at all, really) at 25mph without making an attempt at rev-matching will produce exactly the symptoms you describe. As soon as the clutches engage, the engine is basically doing a backwards neutral bomb. The reason it took a second to shift was likely that the ECU was preparing the transmission for such a violent maneuver, which takes a little bit of time.

Stop putting it into first at 25 (especially going down a hill already) unless you are going to blip the throttle to get the revs closer in the middle of the shift (something I used to do in the [race] trans tune on my 94 frequently).

I know all about matching the revs. The car does it for you. I have manually down shifted this car many times (up hill, down hill, flat and level) without any issues. The problem with the rev matching theory is that you would first have to shift into neutral bilp the gas and then shift into first. This is not possible in the new Taurus.

 

[hawkeye18]

Eh, I wouldn't know about that. I do know that the AX4S is such a sluggish POS that there is plenty of time between the 3-2 shift to blip the throttle just as it's rolling into that gear. I had it down so well that people asked me if I had a manual hidden under that PRNDL stick because it behaved just like rev-matching a manual down. It didn't hurt that I had the transmission set to downshift at 28mph, which is quite a bit higher than normal. I miss that car. :'(

 

[David Yunker]

LotusDriver, I just posted the same problem before I found your post. I have the identical issue.