do you use your tiptronic shifter for slowing down or speeding?

 

I didn't like it at first since it reved high and I was still in my break in period. but since then I've used it often for speeding. If I get a car wanting to pass me or i need to do a quick move, I found that when it revs around 3000-4500 the power feels way stronger and most noticeable, passing power for sure. as to down shift is ok, I really don't like that jerk if you downshift kinda high on the rpms, but if you wait too long to do it the car does it itself.

 

Being as my first name is not Mario, and my last name is not Andretti, I mostly use the tiptronic in special situations like keeping the car out of high gear in city traffic, holding the best gear in hill climbing, and (especially) using engine compression to help with braking and control when descending long or steep grades (especially curvy ones) in mountainous areas.

Sometimes I play with it in normal driving conditions, but usually ease off when I see my wife tightening her seat belt another notch.

 

I use it mostly for getting around people on the highway when they are doing right at the speedlimit in the left lane. pet peave of mine, worse if they are not even doing that. But at highway speeds I will switch to manual mode and drop to 3rd gear as an opening is about to present itself. It has a huge amount of pull in that gear at that speed, and if hit too hard will have moderate torque steer. You will get the most pull right at 4500 RPM when the 2nd throttle valve opens up.

There are actually 2 throttle bodies in the intake manifold. They do this to keep noise down when cruising. The Z and the Infiniti version of the engine only has 1 throttle body as they are labeled "tuned high flow intake" and I think ours is labeled dual stage intake or somthing like that. You can see both electronic throttle bodies after the plastic intake meets the aluminum intake near the firewall.

anyway 4th gear puts the RPM around 3800 and 3rd puts it in the middle of the sweet spot at just below 5000 RPM.

play around... have fun... but most of all be safe.

 

although I have used it before when there was a SRT-4 toying with me. I had a trunk and back seat full of lugage and computer hardware for my employers datacenter. We were moving it from one office to another. He beat me the first time when I was in Auto... but when I locked the gear with tiptronic he could at best keep up even with me fully loaded.... Fortunately there were no cops near by that were tagging us with anything.... but I was cruising just 8 minutes later doing around 90-95. The cop got me doing 91 in the 70 zone. I wasn't paying attention too much until my sunroof started leaking air around 135. ssssshhhhhh... don't tell anyone! My car chip recorded the speed of 141 (it records my speed and 4 other things that I can choose every 5 seconds.) I generally do RPM, throttle position, coolant temp and intake temp. It will also record error codes when they are generated. But I don't think it will read codes if they have passed. It will also reset the check engine light.

sssshhhhhhh.

 

I just leave mine in tip mode and let it shift on its own, its a lease car who cares

 

cool, what chip is that?

 

I use it for acceleration when passing (D to 3 if at or around 2K RPM), for cornering, for a quick burst for entering highway traffic, and for decelerating on downslopes. Pretty handy actually. It's even more fun in the wife's 350Z as all it takes there is a touch of the stick, either up or down!

 

i use it for passing. i dont live near any major hills or anything so i dont use it for breaking. its fun to race my girl in her GP because i let her get a little in front of me then shift and BAM!!! right by her i go

 

PaL379... it is CarChip E/X by davis instruments. www.carchip.com. I believe I have seen that it is available at Sears and a couple autoparts stores like autozone, advance autoparts, etc. It simply plugs into the OBDII port which is below the steering column, about 6 inches to the right of the hood release lever.

It can produce graphs like these:

This is one of my drives home from work in Atlanta Traffic. 35 miles total..


This is the fuel system status graph... just a simple open close.


Using the software (PC only I beleive) you can export the data into excel and create a graph like this which is an overlay of all data gathered for the trip.

 

thanks for that info, pretty cool!

 

no problem.

 

Seems to me the trans is so willing to downshift that I seldom have the need to use it for bursts of speed. Just toe it and go. I do occasionally use it for engine braking. Since the manual mode isn't real snappy in either up- or downshifting, I don't consider it a really useful tool.

Mike