Auto drops down a gear when going down a hill

[jrad]

Anyone elses do this?
Its really annoying.

When youre freeballing down a steep hill and then the car decides that you must be going slower because youre not excelerating and automatically drops to third.
The car jolts suddenly and the engine revs high.

Whats this all about and how do I stop it from happening?

[goz_83]

Makes sense if it is in auto mode. You're not accelerating and the revs are dropping, so it drops down a gear. Can be a index if you have it in manual mode, or slap it into neutral, which would be bad driving practice

[jrad]

Makes sense if it is in auto mode. You're not accelerating and the revs are dropping, so it drops down a gear. Can be a index if you have it in manual mode, or slap it into neutral, which would be bad driving practice

Really? This is my first auto so I havent had much experience with them.
Is it the case with all autos?

I find it very frustrating, I would have thought that autos would be smart enought to realsie that youre going down hill at high speed and thus no need to drop a gear but ce la vie i guess.

[Chris_Heilong]

If its a jolt then I would guess you have the 4 speed auto box, I have the 5 speed and dont notice this, but the FTO's autobox is meant to detect things like going up hill/down hill and select the best setting, it was one of its innovations at the time. When going down hill dont brake too much and let the car use its engine braking to slow you down.

[goz_83]

To be absolutely sure, you should reset the ECU. Just DC the battery for about 20 mins and hook it back up. Then drive away and see if the same thing happens. It sounds normal to me. Happened in my 318iSE auto. Happened in my 95GR tip and my 94GR tip (both 4 speed). Didn't notice in the brothers 99GX (5 speed), because I only drove it a couple of times, but I would guess it does happen, but to a lesser extent.

[Chris_Heilong]

I went up to the top of Howth hill and headed down hill towards Sutton Cross, its a steep enough decent, With this tread in mind I watch the dash, my car stayed in 5th even without accelerating, the only time it dropped to 4th was if I was braking which makes sense, So I would say there is an issue with your autobox, maybe as others suggested, the ECU needs a reset and the Auto box needs to learn how you drive.

[jrad]

If its a jolt then I would guess you have the 4 speed auto box, I have the 5 speed and dont notice this, but the FTO's autobox is meant to detect things like going up hill/down hill and select the best setting, it was one of its innovations at the time. When going down hill dont brake too much and let the car use its engine braking to slow you down.

Engine braking. Is that really how its done? I always thought it was bad to do this.

[goz_83]

If its a jolt then I would guess you have the 4 speed auto box, I have the 5 speed and dont notice this, but the FTO's autobox is meant to detect things like going up hill/down hill and select the best setting, it was one of its innovations at the time. When going down hill dont brake too much and let the car use its engine braking to slow you down.

Engine braking. Is that really how its done? I always thought it was bad to do this.

Indeed, it's very bad to brake your engine

[Chris_Heilong]

If its a jolt then I would guess you have the 4 speed auto box, I have the 5 speed and dont notice this, but the FTO's autobox is meant to detect things like going up hill/down hill and select the best setting, it was one of its innovations at the time. When going down hill dont brake too much and let the car use its engine braking to slow you down.

Engine braking. Is that really how its done? I always thought it was bad to do this.

Its says it in the Japanese FTO handbook, it also says dont use your brakes too much when going down hill as it could boil the brake fluid and to use the engine brake as much as possible this is where I heard it from.

[jrad]

Go-way! That makes a lot of sense tbh.
Weve got steep hills that overlook the city here and when Ive reached the bottom, the brakes are squeeking and the heat off em is mighty.

I must adopt this into my driving style.

Cheers
mate

[jrad]

Heres another forum giving out about it: http://www.createforum.com/ftoconz/view ... um=ftoconz