Can anyone shed some lights on how to drive the manumatic properly, such as the upshift and downshift technique?

 

Just take note of when the shifts occur when you have it in automatic. You'll begin to feel when to grab a higher or lower gear.

 

For general around-town driving, you can't beat the "automatic" mode for fuel economy and smooth shifting. I've found that it typically shifts up at around 3500 RPM or so when going easy on the pedal.

If you want to go quick, pop it into manual mode and shift between 4k and 6k as you go up through the gears for a pretty smooth (and very quick) acceleration with lots of power. If you're wanting to pass someone quickly, I've found that if you're in 3rd or 4th and you downshift at 2k - 3k, you'll be right about 4k-5k in 2nd or 3rd (respectively), and that will give you some nice power to fly right by.

Best bet is to just play around in manual mode and get a feel for how the car responds.. just don't "forget" that you're in manual mode and rev up to the limiter.. that's kinda scary.. I did that when I first started playing with the manual mode ;-)

 

The most common mistake when using the 5AT in manual or auto mode is lifting off the throttle on the upshifts. With the 5AT, you want to try to keep a level or accelerating throttle. The downshifts are semi-managed. If you drop below the stall speed the transmission will downshift for you rather than stall. If your shift command will put you way over the rev limiter it will delay or cancel your shift to protect itself. On the downshifts, you want to try to keep a level throttle unless you are engine braking. Downshifts are little more tricky than the upshifts. It just takes practice. The MY05 5AT also has automatic downshift rev-matching which helps make the downshifts smoother. There is very little you can do to mess up the 5AT while you are learning.

Shifting around 2k-2.5K will get you the best mileage in each gear. Shifting around 4K-4.5K will give you the most torque. Shifting at redline will give you the most velocity. For regular driving, I usually like to shift around 3K-3.5K.

To perform a multiple shift just tap the shifter in the direction you want to go multiple times rapidly. The 5-3 shift would be performed by double tapping down.

You can switch between manual mode and auto mode and back at anytime. You don't need to stop or slow down to change modes.

If you are in auto mode 5th gear, you can drop down to 4th just by pushing the lever over to manual mode. This is the same function as the Overdrive Off button on a standard AT. Once in manual mode 4th you can stay in manual mode or pop it back in auto mode. This feature is good for regular highway passing. If you switch to manual mode in any other gear it will hold the gear when you transfer over.

In auto mode the transmission is environmentally adaptive and driver adaptive. It continually learns the drivers style of driving and adapts itself to the driver so that the transmission becomes part of the driver. The 5AT is always continually monitoring its driving environment and adapts shifting to match the driving conditions. While in auto mode, the transmission can be temporarily overridden from the throttle. As the car learns your style you will just sort of feel how to control it from the throttle. You can hold a gear longer or shorter or you can trigger an upshift or downshift from the throttle. It's sort of hard to explain unless you've driven the 5AT for a while. It's like the transmission just knows what you want to do in a Borg sort of way. Those that know how to use the 5AT know what I'm talking about.

Because the 5AT is driver adaptable, it doesn't like changing drivers. It continually adapts to the driver but when a new driver takes over it takes a while for it to completely relearn so it may not be as responsive right away. The driver adaptablility function doesn't work that great when there is more than one driver regularly using the car or if someone else drives the car for awhile and it learns the other driver.

 

I've done that a couple of times. What's even funnier is thinking you are in manual mode and shifting into neutral.

 

Yeah, done that too ;-)

 

I made that mistake pulling out of a parking lot at school the other day....talk about embarassing.

 

Wouldn't going from manual mode to neutral put you back into auto mode right before going into neutral? The embarassing moment is a stall correct? Well, in order to get into neutral you have to move the shifter over to drive and then up to neutral. Interesting, I guess if you do it quick enough that's when you can stall?

 

Actually, what happned what that I was in full automode, and I upshifted thinking I was still in manual...so since I was in Drive, I actually shifted to Neutral. Fortunately, I didn't stall out......I saw the tach needle rocketing up, immediately realized what I did and slid it back into Drive. No Blood no foul.

 

What he said.

 

I just wish the 5AT had a shift light like the 6MT for when we're in manual mode. I don't know about everyone else, but 1st gear runs up so fast that I either bump the rev limiter or shift too soon to avoid hitting it. Maybe it's just my old people's slow reaction time.

 

The transmissions really do "learn" the driver. My dad had a Q45. He could drive the hell out of that thing. But whenever I took it out, it was slow as ****. I believe that they too had the driver learning capability.

 

The 5AT on the 350Z and on the G35C are more advanced than most driver adaptable transmissions. It also has fuzzy logic capabilities which allow it to analyze the information it has and make basic judgement calls. Unlike most driver adaptive sysyems that only understand "true" or "false" logic parameters, the 5AT can also understand "mostly true" or "mostly false" logic parameters and perform accordingly.

Here's a press release from 2002 when Siemens VDO Automotive announced their auto transmission program.

Customizing the Drivetrain

Here's a link to a technical White Sheet on Fuzzy Logic in automotive applications.

FuzzyNet Application Notes

 

I've often thought that a shift light would be cool also. You know what else I think would be cool? When in full auto mode instead of the the display just reading "D", it would be cool if it displayed the actual gear changes such as A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5. And of course the down shifts too, A5 to A4 and so on. I know, this is a pointless post. But it's the little things that float my boat for the most part, so just humor me

 

+1. Nice to know what gear you're in if you haven't been paying much attn.

 

Thanks for all the replies. So, it is safe for me to completely take the car to a stop without downshifting when in automanual mode, eh? And say, if I'm in 3rd gear, then going back to full auto, what gear would I be in, 3rd, or the auto immediately adjust the gear based on the throttle?

 

Yes.

 

Yes, it's safe to take the car to a stop without downshifting in auto or manual mode. Of course in auto mode the computer handles the whole thing. Manual mode downshifts are semi-managed. When you stop or go very slow it will default to 1st gear. If you are in 4th or 5th and are about to stall, it will shift you into 3rd so that you won't stall. If your shift causes you to over-rev it will delay or cancel your shift command.

When going from auto mode to manual mode, it will hold whatever gear the tranny was in while in auto mode except for 5th gear. If you are in 5th gear in auto mode and move over to manual mode it will drop you down to 4th gear.

When going from manual mode to auto mode, it doesn't matter what gear the car was in when you switched because the computer will take over right away and continually adapt to the environment and the driver. Gear shifts in the 5AT are based on several factors and not just the throttle. The 5AT is a learning transmission.