johntao

I recently bought a 2013 gx and noticed a few things.

1. at high speeds 50+ mph the car downshifts quite often during rapid decelleration.
2. when coming to a near stop but not completely, and accelerate moderately to fast, lot of times there is a jerkiness when stepping on pedal initially. Is this normal or could it be something with the differential gearbox?

Thanks,
John

Eppieguy

Welcome neighbor.

I thought the same thing as the vehicle I had before this was a Tahoe which is a lot different obviously. The GX likes to down shift to help you stop and it does the same when braking downhill as well. Freaked me out at first until I did some research and found out that's what it's supposed to do. If you think something is wrong take it back to the dealer, they will check it out and explain it to you if it's normal. When it's cold outside it will hold a lower gear longer to heat up the engine so you can get heat faster, found that out too!

SaniDel

Ditto to what Eppieguy said!

If you are driving on secondary roads or in hilly terrain you may do better pulling the shift lever left into 'S' mode and using it as a "shift limiter" especially if you can anticipate that you will need to accelerate as you described. You can always "stand on it" and the transmission will do a non-sequential downshift to meet your needs, but having it in the correct gear before you need it works better.

In 'D' the transmission will relentlessly upshift to improve mileage ... so much so that the engine is barely above idle. That's great for mileage, bad for performance. The 'ECO' light is your clue that the GX is happy ... press too hard on the gas or shift into 'S' and the light goes out, which means your GX is not happy ... but you are!
Regards,

SaniDel

Quadro

I have jerkiness as described in #2. From what I understand it seems to be tranny specific behavior and some vehicles have it while others do not. Mine is 2013 as well.

OrangeKid

We have not experienced any jerkiness so far on our new 2013 GX-460. Our transmission shifts smoothly up and down. We have only had our GX for a couple of weeks so we will be on the lookout for any jerkiness.

Koz

The only time I find the GX to be jerky is on hilly terrain with the trans in too high a gear (especially when towing). Whenever I need to accelerate more then normal (or climb a steep grade) I slide the selector into sport mode and have the engine in the power band before mashing the gas. Under normal driving conditions I find the GX to be buttery smooth!

Also the throttle is very responsive from a dead stop and when new it takes a little time to get used to easing into it. There is also a second gear start option/feature that smoothes the take off when in stop and go traffic (as well as slippery conditions).

Koz

T4Fun

in stop and go traffic, this transmission is very clumsy imho.
the rpm goes up before the transmission responds many times when hitting the gas. its like the transmission doesnt engage or something to that effect, so you have to be gentle on the gas. cant describe it any other way


downshifting function is ok.

Koz

Try the second gear start in traffic, it works nice.

Koz

johntao

thanks guys for the helpful insights.