Automatic Transmission is bipolar?
 

this is really weird and hoping some other people who have driven their autos can give me some input. This has been an ongoing thing with my car and a bit of a rare oddity, sometimes when I'm driving I'll put the car into full manual mode and use my paddles. when I'm driving the shifting is so brutal and rough and like jerky, almost like the vehicle is on limp mode. But sometimes the shifting is so crisp and silky smooth and just feels beautiful. (Just like a drive I went on an hour or so ago.)

This like rough shifting / jerky sensation isn't exclusive to any specific gear or specific driving style. Yesterday when I drove the car the shifts were so brutal and jerky at times and eventually faded away, but today when I was driving from the get-go the shifts were amazing. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the computers (since I'm pretty much telling the computer to shift and not physically doing it myself.)

A few weeks back I had my car serviced and during the duration of a week or so I had my CEL I drove the car on automatic mode mainly because the shifts felt awful with limp mode and my exhaust was taken off my car temporarily to be sold and for the CEL. I'm not sure if maybe after they cleared the light and tinkered the computer has to re-learn how I drive in the manual mode so it can predict how I'm going to shift or something like that? It's really strange. hoping im not the only one. The gears don't grind or anything, it's literally just rough jerky shifts that only happen when driving with the paddles periodically.

well, I think i know what youre talking about...mine gets a little rougher on the shifts when in sport mode or manual, but i think its just part of the programming. since it shifts faster into the next gear it hits harder and you feel the jerk of the engagement. I think its normal. I had a Golf R and the DSG would get more brutal in each shift when it was in race mode vs soft in comfort.

very possible, i rarely ever drive in sport mode because its extremely useless and I might as well use the paddles. Like its an extreme oddity, shifts will be butter for weeks or days at hand but you'll have that one drive cycle where i feel like there is gravel in my transmission. Its super odd


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i wouldnt say sport mode is useless, but you just havent driven in the right conditions for it to work as intended. If i remember correctly, it holds the gear close to redline in a corner instead of upshifting where normal mode would. Anyway, If anything, try doing a fluid change and see if that helps, Its a 2013 so it might need one anyway.

That feature is useless if im manually shifting the car haha. I plan on getting my transmission serviced @ 60k miles. We're at 45k now so give or take a year from now.


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Contrary to belief, sport mode does not make your transmission shift any quicker.

I know when the transmission is cold, like shortly after the morning start up it can be clunky. Also I've noticed the shift from 4-5 to be clunky sometimes if the transmission decides to throw it into 5th before the rpms drop to the correct speed when you're on throttle.

Could very well be the case. After a few good shifts it tends to go away. Sometimes I wont have any rough shifts for literally days at a time.

Is this from a cold start?
My 2017 86 also has pretty rough shifts from a cold start but once it has warmed up it'll get back to being smooth.

These rough shifts are usually a few minutes after just driving the car from a start. I never drive the car cold, but I suppose the transmission itself needs to warm up with some shifting

It seems to take at least 5 minutes to warm up the transmission. I usually stay below 3,000rpm's (warming motor oil) for the first 5 minutes and after that it seems fine. If I push it any harder I will get rough shifting. This is when shifting "manually"

This makes sense. I usually never go above that threshold anyways. Where I live is a bit of a windy back road with lots of deer. In the mornings and at Night I usually never actually put it into manual mode until I'm actually in town and can kind of open up and put my foot down a bit. I was genuinely curious if there was some sort of like way to avoid this and i suppose maybe thats what I've done wrong. (selecting manual too soon)

The transmission is awesome. It's nothing like the PDK from Porsche or a DCT but I really enjoy using the paddles. I think for what our car is the shift times are good. Just spooks me when the car drives like that sometimes. :(

I use manual immediately. I don't use the automatic trans any other way.

^That sounds odd lol

I'm experiencing the same thing, but i think it's just how the gearbox is programmed. Shift speed is prioritized over rev-matching when in manual, sometimes its almost embarrassing how rough it shifts. In auto it predicts the shifts better to make it smooth.

Pretty much the only time i drive in auto is when using cruise control. It just feels too sedate in auto due to the low rpms. The occasional rough shift is easily worth it. Flapping around is so much more fun as well.