juncho

I'm a relatively new IS350 owner and I've notcied that everytime I switch to "manual" gear shift mode, the car sets 4th gear as the default gear. I've noticed this when I'm going as slow as 20-40 mph and also at 80 mph.

I've driven a lot of cars (non-Lexuses) with the steptronic systems and all of them default to the current gear (i.e. if I'm in 5th, it'll start me at 5th in steptronic mode and I can choose to downshift, etc).

Is it normal that the IS goes to 4th by default? What happens if I was theoretically going 100+ mph and decided to shift to "manual" mode? Would it go to 4th or know to start me at a high gear so that I don't blow the engine?

I just wanted to ask to find out if this was normal.

isgrrl

I'm in a 250 and mine always starts in 4th as well. I hate it, because when I'm at a stoplight and I shift into manual, I have to downshift like crazy before the light turns green. I feel like an idiot haha

RocketGuy3

iTrader: (1)

You don't have to downshift at a stop light unless you want to manually shift up from first gear, isgrrl... From a stoplight, the tranny will start you off in first gear anyways, regardless of which shift mode you're in. The "shifter" is really only a maximum gear selector. So when you switch to shift mode, the default is for 4th gear to be the maximum. Meaning your car will work like a 4-speed automatic (with a pretty short top gear). Same thing for if you're in gear 3, or 5; it will work like a 3-speed or 5-speed, respectively.

That is probably also why the transmission is always in 4th gear by default for you, juncho. The auto transmission in the IS likes to shift very early. So if you're going even over 20 mph, you would probably already be in 4th gear even if you were in auto mode, unless you were hammering the throttle. And no matter how fast you are going, 4th gear is the highest it will be able to put you by default (yes, probably even if you were going 100). So keep that in mind whenever you switch into shift mode...

There might be a way to switch the default maximum gear in shift mode, but if there is, I don't know about it yet. I still have a lot of the manual left to read.

That's why I was thinking it might be a good idea to just always run in shift mode, but keep it all the way at the max gear when you want it to run like a regular automatic. Then whenever you want to downshift, all you have to do is hit the left paddle. No messing with the stick.

ahohnstein

Try setting the mode on your dash display to show the current gear selection. Then switch to manual mode. You'll see that when you roll to a stop the car automatically downshifts for you even though the max gear selection is static. Like the last poster said the manual gear selection is only the max gear that the car can go into.

There's been a couple times when I was really wringing my car out that when I switched from automatic to "manual" it went into 3rd and not 4th. Never did get an explanation of why this was. It's only happened twice.

juncho

I'm even more puzzled now that I hear that this is "normal" behavior. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the car automatically leave it in the current gear as the max gear when shifting to shift mode?

That'll prevent instances where an over-rev can occur (i.e. go 4th gear in shift mode when traveling way above the 4th gear mph tolerances - into redline). Although, I'd hope that in this case, the computer will know to shift to 5th instead (not sure).

I understand that an alternative is to always go into shift mode at leave it at 6th gear max as a normal driving practice from the beginning of the drive and then down/upshift as necessary. However, that seems like more of a hassle than anything else - especially when I only use the shift mode in rare occasions.

I know that the 4th gear selection is the max gear but I don't completely understand the rational to design the system that way. In the case where you're driving well below the 4th tolerances, it's fine and there are no real problems there but where you're driving at a high rate of speed, I think that's where it's most concerning.

It's not the end of the world for me but I'd like to get any thoughts on why the system is designed that way (esp when most other makes follow a different design).

kensteele

So what is the max speed in 4th gear at redline?

If I were to guess, you would see a blinking 4 and then it would switch to 5 or 6.

Dj_AmtraX

iTrader: (2)

I always use the manual mode. I keep it up to 4th in the city and maunaly up-shift on the freeway. I like the way Lexus set this because I don't want to shift every gear. I just want to set the max gear. More fuel efficent this way.

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

Here you go:



Javier

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

when you need a downshift from D mode quickly, IMO its intuitive that it should go down a couple gears so you dont have to move to S then tap down two gears from 6,

if you set the display on gear position the car i dont think the car reaches 4th gear by 20 mph more like 30-40, 6th gear doesnt seem to get shifted to unless your 45-50

ISbb

It always start to 4th gear since it is sport mode ma so you could get more power frm the lower gear ratio and you could always shift up when you got enough speend or power anyway...

IS350FL

I don't know how fast I was going but I switch to manual mode and it did go in to 5th. I don't know the speed but if you are going to fast for 4th gear it will put it in 5th.

AZ JB

iTrader: (1)

I think I am going to call Lexus about this.. the other thing is if you are in manual shift mode and you are in 5th and you give it extra gas, it doesn't just naturally speed up in 5th, but it downshifts for you. The whole point of a tiptronic system should be that I control the shifting. I have no problem with it automatically going to 1 when I'm stopped, but it does not normally shift when I tell it to. The number changes, but unless my speed increases, it won't shift upon my control. If anyone knows why or how this can be fixed please share.

Before I bought my Type SH 5sp Lude I drove the tiptronic version and I liked how if I floored it in 4th it didn't automatically downshift, it just accelerated in 4th, giving the driver entire control over the shifting of the car.

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

Save yourself a phone call... The paddle shifters are not really "shifters" in that they don't actually shift gears, nor were they designed to - they're merely a mechanism for manually selecting the gear range. Following is Lexus' description of the paddle shifters, taken from the New Car Features section of the FSM:

Javier

kensteele

yep, save yourself from that embarassing phone call...lexus who won't know what you describing. this is not a prelude they will say.

but anyway, let me understand this. you are in 4th gear going 60mph and you want to go to 80mph so you press hard on the gas. are you saying you DON'T want it to downshift to 3rd (if it can) to get you to that 80mph, you would prefer to gradually make your way there? i think you can do this with the lexus if you don't press down so hard on the accelerator.

CWS

On a recent trip to Montana (via states with nothing but highways), I was going 95, punched it, and it downshifted to 4th. I was impressed!