Just wondering if anyone else has been playing with this and your thoughts on this setting. I just turned mine of after noticing my SR having a slight jerk like the car was braking for me when coming to a downhill stop near my house and thought it was irritating. Seems to drive smoother. Not sure if it effects mpg yet.

 

wow I've noticed that same jerking feeling and had no idea that the engine break feature was in there. I'm going to turn that off too, good find!

 

"Engine break feature"....as in a feature that automatically causes mechanical damage or failure to your engine because it breaks it?

Or...could you possibly be talking about the mechanical items that slow or stop your car by using friction devices...your brakes?

 

Couldn't have put it better.

 

Would disabling this affect the Forward Emergency Braking (FEB) on the SL and above?

 

No, unrelated. Only SR has active engine brake option anyway.

This is the description of the feature from Nissan's website: "Active Engine Braking automatically downshifts the Xtronic transmission during braking, slowing your Maxima with less effort while readying the gears to power you out of an apex."

 

the active engine braking, simply is just the CVT down-shifting to a lower gear to slow the car via the engine. Same as downshifting with a manual transmission, etc. Just a sportier feeling. It's not going to break anything.

 

Engine Compression Braking has been on the Maxima beginning with the 2004 6th generation. I played with it for several months on my '04 SL and decided I enjoyed it a lot. It worked well on my '04, but seemed even smoother on my 2009 7th gen. It is the most fun on twisty mountain roads. I never had the jerky action some mentioned here, unless they are describing the sudden deceleration which is a normal function of the Engine Compression Braking action.

 

I've never ran into that problem with my SR (though I don't use Sports mode)

 

Then why did you get an SR??

 

Sport mode is available on all '16 Maxima's

 

I didn't actually try the other models
My previous car was a Toyota Camry SE (from '09, when the SE really felt like a different car). It had a really stiff ride and great handling, and none of the cars that were in my original scope had that same kind of ride. So I decided to pony up the extra for the Maxima and only test drove the SR.

I don't think the Sports Mode has much impact except for tweaking the gears and the power steering, right? I've not really had a chance to be on an open highway (after 2000 miles, I know...) so no real opportunity to use it.

 

I was wondering why it feels kind of different when I step on the brake in the SR compared to my previous cars. I didn't realize that we have this Engine Compression Brake feature on the SR. Thanks for bringing up this topic.

On a side note, personally I don't think the Sports mode actually makes any difference at all. I don't feel any difference in either the acceleration response or shifting pattern whether in Sports or Normal mode.

Another side note, when I use the pedal shifter, the gear kicks back to "D" from the numerical gears (not sure how to put it, but the gear numbers: 1st, 2nd, 3rd..7th, etc) after I stay in any of those gears for more than a few seconds. Does yours do the same thing or is mine malfunctioning? I don't seem to be able to stay in any of those "manual" gears, which IMO defeats the purpose of the pedal shifter. I know the pedal shifter is not a real manual unlike the sequential transmission in the other vehicles, but I still like to use it to gain certain level of control when I'm driving through winding roads.

 

There is a very noticeable difference in the throttle/CVT response in Sport mode. Try accelerating from a stop at medium throttle in normal and then again in sport. You will notice that it allows it to rev higher much quicker and stay there. In normal it's in a rush to get back down around 1500rpm where sport mode holds it higher a lot longer.

As far as the paddle shifters go, if you want it to stay in 'manual shift mode' you need to move the gear shifter to the left into manual mode. Then you can use the paddle shifters and it will stay in whatever gear you want all day.

 

From the Nissan site:


Maxima® SR combines a sport-tuned suspension with advanced dynamic technologies. Specialized hardware includes specially tuned ZF Sachs® dampers with a monotube design in the rear, and a reinforced chassis. The SR is also equipped with retuned struts/shocks, stiffer springs and larger front stabilizer bar, giving it a suspension tuned especially for performance.

If your gonna buy an SR, your looking to get more fun out of it than the other models, that's all I'm sayin.

 

Hey Light you have not felt it because "AEB" is a feature on the SR only for the 16 model year, the Platinum, SL,SV or S do not have it for the 16 model year this go around.

 

Your CVT does not have gears. It can and does change ratios, but they are not gears.

 

Yeah I know, poor choice of words. But thanks for correcting.

 

MONTE - THanks for that info. I have been so busy moving between homes and trying to get land surveys done, rezonings approved, property sold, etc, that I have not yet had my 2016 Platinum in many situations where the AEB would be clearly noticable.Had you not told me AEB is now only on the SR, I would eventually have noticed I had no AEB and would have been taking my car to the dealer to have it 'fixed.' The dealership would have been disappointed in my ignorance, because I have always had them believing I 'know' my Maxima. They will eventually find out about my ignorance anyway. I will miss having AEB, but, at my age, I can survive without some of the tweaks we have on cars these days.

 

Hey Light I hear ya, but now you know! I hope that you guys eventually get to enjoy the new house with out headache! I have been crazy busy and have not been on here near as much as I use to recently.