Great DYI! I have often wondered about the paddleshifts and how they "feel". Everything with me is "does it feel right or good or lousy", that I can get comfortable with and using a Manumatic is a big step for me but the paddle-shift is kinda foreign feeling. What made you decide to DYI your AT?

 

Yea I didn't know if you could actually put the Ferrari in full auto mode. That takes a little away if you ask me, but I'm sure it opens it up to an even larger market of rich people.



Steve,

Like some others have said, brake torquing (brake and gas at same time) allows you to build boost at the line. New cars prohibit this, so you have to mod the car by removing a sensor or fuse as someone said. When you rev a manual at the line, it doesn't build boost while in neutral, so even if you dump it, it still takes a little time to build up boost. Plus a good automatic with a torque converter shifts fast.

Dan

 

did my paddleshift mod for no other reason than just to try it. I only use it about 50% of the time. But it's fun to use it.

I did it by wiring a wireless 4 channel transmitter in the steering wheel which is hooked up to the two buttons.

The receiver is underneath the stereo and wired to the microswitches near the shifter that activate up and down shifts.

I still have 2 extra channels which I could control something from the wheel.... can't figure what would be cool to use them for.

 

got pics?? i wanna see!

 

Pics please!!!

Too bad you didn't do step by step pictures... or did you?
I'm especially interested in how did you connected wires to gearshift stick... close up picture of wiring would be nice.

How the receiver and transmitter look like? where did you get them?

Where do you getting power from for receiver on the wheel? Did you tap into some steering wheel wires?

I had steering wheel buttons on my celica and it was way better than having reaching for the stick every time... I guess Nissan did it so it looks more like real shifting... i.e. for those who like to pretend...

Thanks

 

sorry..... I did not take pics of the install.

the wiring was a *****! took me the better part of a day to reverse engineer how the micro switches were wired.

there are 2 micro switches that are activated in the manual mode. The switches are SPDT so they have a normally open and normally closed contact. The Z uses both of these contacts and the switched are wired to each other as well as the ECU.

At first I thought it would be as simple as having a relay close two contacts and simulate the activation of a micro switch... but what happens is the circuit needs to get closed on one side of the switch and opened on the other.

Fortunatley my relays are also SPDT so I just ran the wires to them.... but then there was the issue of still being able to use the stick as well as the buttons. In order to do that I had to use the existng micro switches but they are not directly hooked up the the Z any longer... they are now used to close the relays that are activated by the remote...

so now either the remote can close the relays or the stick will...

have I completely confused anyone yet?!!


My next mod will be to try to operate the shifting from the cruise control accel/decel switch... It's easier to use that switch than the two small buttons I have on the backside of the wheel now.

I'll get to that sometime in the next few weeks

 

Good try...

Can you at least draw a schema of what you did?

 

The reason I didn't get the Auto and don't like them personally (correct me if I am doing something wrong) but you can't just downshift from 5th to 3rd using the manual Tiptronic function. You actually have to hit it once and let it get into 4th then hit it again to shift it into 3rd. There is no quick double shift.

 

wrong.... you can in fact double shift.... I go from 5 to 3rd all the time when braking hard going into a corner....

you have to do a quick double tap for it to work.....


double shifting works great with the 5AT!

 

It will take a double-tap easily from 5th to 3rd. Especially when you're hard on the brakes.

 

Strong Bad would never drive an auto

 

Steptronic? Manumatic?

These terms really confuse people. The AT in the 350Z is just that, an "automatic transmission." With the exception of a lock up torque converter, two more gears, and a much more sophisticated control system, it's essentially the same kind of transmission you'd find in your fathers (or grandfathers, depending on how old you are) 1970 Ford LTD. Which BTW, can also be manually shifted by pulling the lever down to D1, then clicking it up to D2 and finally to D. It's just not as convenient or sporting as the system used in the 350Z and other similar cars. The point is, it's an automatic transmission, torque converter and all.

What BMW sells as a "Steptronic" transmission is still an automatic, complete with torque converter. They also sell something they call a SMT or Sequential Manual transmission. It's essentially the same manual transmission you'll find in their cars that have a "for real" clutch peddle. The difference is that the clutch and shift mechanisms are computer operated via hydrolic controls. The driver can tell the system when to shift (like your steptronic automatics) or they can let the computer do it for them. Sort of a automatic manual. The difference being that it's a manual transmission, complete with 5 or 6 forward "gears", synchronizers, and clutch. It sounds like the best of both worlds. The convenience of an automatic and the efficiency of a manual although I'd bet there are trade off one way or the other.

FWIW,
Drive Safe,
Steve R.

PS: No insults intended. By my experience, most automatic equipped cars will give their manual transmission equipped breatheren a healthy run for their money unless the driver of the manual equpped car really knows what they're doing.

 

N74DV,

these steering wheels from momo have buttons for the horn. They can probably be rerouted for two contact, one for upshift and one for downshift. You think this would work to complete the circuit with the automatic shifter?

 

opps, forgot pics

 

yeah they would work, but the problem is finding a spot to mount the wireless transmitter.... it's about 1x1.25x.3"

if it could be stashed somewhere it would work... that's a sweet looking wheel!

 

well my idea was to forget about the wireless transmitter setup, and just hardwire it. That way it would eliminate the lag between signal and simplify things.

 

i thought long and hard about that..... problem is you can't just run hard wires.... as you turn the wheel they'd get twisted.... you'd need some form of copper brush system.

The lag with the wireless system is next to nothing. Probably less than .05 seconds.

 

yup, but if it work, it would be sweet, like a F1 system.

too bad they don't provide schematics of the wheel, can't tell what to do.

 

I cant believe this freaking manual vs automatic thing is back. Its like it won't die!!!! Every couple of months somebody has to bring it up again. We go through this thing over and over and over again. Maybe we need to make the search button bigger or something. Let it go people. Is it really that important? I give up.

Dmitry

 

If you would calm down and take a look, the tread is about what the Automatic can do. Also the topic has shifted to modding the auto so the steering wheel is equipped with paddle shifters.