Stuck in manual drive?
 

I always drive in "drive." I do not use the manual setting. I recently had a 1400 road trip and the day after I returned and the odometer hit 10,000, the care felt funny while driving, like the engine was revving and I could really feel the car shifting as my speed increased. The speedometer also took a long time to come down when I slowed and at one point said 5 mph when I was completely stopped. I have never driven the car in "manual" (sorry guys, chick here, it's probably wasted on me) but I know for a fact that when I first bought the car 8 months ago you could hit the paddles with the car in drive and nothing happened. Now, when you hit the paddles in drive, the manual gears show up on the dash. The service guy at the dealer thinks I'm wrong about everything. I know something's not right. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

You can use the paddles in drive mode and it shifts but after a few seconds it goes back to drive. That's odd about being completely at a complete stop with speedometer at 5. Is go take it in and check it out, again.


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If you hit the paddles while in "drive" the car will automatically go to manual mode, unless you hit the up shift paddle while in 6th then it won't do anything. Same goes for down and gear 1.

However, I am not sure if the engine will shift automatically once the RPMs go slow high like in manual mode. I never tried it.

It will shift up or down, but unless you have the stick in the manual mode it will go back to "D" on it's own.

OP, when you are using the paddles, do you have it in "Manual" mode? Regardless, if you are still showing something on the speedo when stopped that would be a problem.

No, I'm in drive. I do not use manual but it feels like the car is in it anyway. Not really sure how to explain it but it just feels different.

Are you sure the car isn't in sport mode?

Are you sure the car is completely stopped at 5mph? I know sometimes you stop at a stop sign, look down and it says 4/5 and you feel like you're stopped but you really aren't.

These are my best theories for what you are experiencing.


Unless your car was defective from day one, the paddles do work in regular drive D. If you were easy on the gas and tried to shift to a higher gear too early, it won't let you. That may have made it seem like they weren't active. If lately you tried it while under a little heavier acceleration or for a downshift, you may have been surprised that in fact they do work in D.


Take this in the best spirit that it is intended. The big dial in the middle of your dash is a tachometer. It measures the speed that your engine is turning and not the wheels on your car. With an automatic the engine is still spinning slowly even when the wheels on the road are at a dead stop. The tachometer will sit between 0 and 1 or five hash marks above 0. Could that be what you are looking at? The speedometer is the dial to the left and should read 0 when you are stopped as well as the digital readout with the big orange numbers. Forgive me if you already knew any of this.

[QUOTE=dem00n;1602644]Are you sure the car isn't in sport mode?

Are you sure the car is completely stopped at 5mph? I know sometimes you stop at a stop sign, look down and it says 4/5 and you feel like you're stopped but you really aren't.[/QUO

Yeah, I'm sure. Stopped in my driveway with my foot on the brake.

Take this in the best spirit that it is intended. The big dial in the middle of your dash is a tachometer. It measures the speed that your engine is turning and not the wheels on your car. With an automatic the engine is still spinning slowly even when the wheels on the road are at a dead stop. The tachometer will sit between 0 and 1 or five hash marks above 0. Could that be what you are looking at? The speedometer is the dial to the left and should read 0 when you are stopped as well as the digital readout with the big orange numbers. Forgive me if you already knew any of this.[/QUOTE]

Seriously? I was stopped in my driveway with my foot on the brake. I do know the difference between all the little numbers and colors and what's digital and what's not on the dash. I've been driving for 30+ years. Thanks for trying to appease me anyway :)

What happens when the stick is in "M"?

You can use the paddles on the column as you should. When the car is in D it "feels" like it's still in M. You can feel the car revving up to changers the next gear, there is. Hesitancy when you start to slow like you should downshift. I've driven 5 speeds before, I know when to shift. I shouldn't feel those things in D and I didn't for the first 10,000 miles.

Bring it to the dealer, because you have most of us confused here to the point where you won't get a definite answer.

Thank you. I did. I came here because they told me there was nothing wrong.

There probably is nothing wrong then. Besides, if you explained it to them the way you did here, they probably wouldn't know what to look for. Did you ask to go for a test drive with the service tech to show him the issue?