["C"Bandit]

Was wondering exactly how it is suppose to work. The manual does not go into detail about it.

I was using it to decelerate down a hill and I went from 4th down to 3rd with my foot OFF of the go pedal. RPM's were around 2k in 4th before I dropped it down, but when it down shifted it kind of clunked

I thought it was suppose to by smooth upshifts and downshifts without any clunking.

Also I was assuming once you were in a specific gear it was to stay in that gear until you select another one...yes? Reason I ask this is because I was in 3rd and gave it some gas and it down shifted on its own to a lower gear..like it would do in drive and you hit passing gear.

Am I doing something wrong

Someone enlighten me on this please, Thanks

 

[bigfische]

supposedly it wont let you shift to a gear if it doesnt think the car can handle it and it will shift automatically if the revs get to high in a lower gear. It is not really much of manual option but better than nothing

 

["C"Bandit]

That makes sence bigfische but like I said the engine was only turning around 2K rpms in 4th so it should have down shifted SMOOTHLY into 3rd.

Should I keep some throttle to it when I up/down shift?

I only tried using auto-stick just that once but when it clunked I stopped using it untill I could post a ? on this board.

 

[Northern Rider]

CB, lots of discussion on using the autostick. It shouldn't clunk; you don't have to back off the throttle. Here's one thread to look at:

Autostick​

 

[marlinspike]

It make sense that if your foot is off the pedal and you downshift it will clunk. I mean, take an old car, the kind of automatic that lets you select gears 1-4 by going through the gates but each choice is an auto position (i.e. 2 uses 1 or 2, 3 uses 1 2 or 3, D uses any of them). Cruise at 70, take your foot off the pedal, and shift that old car into 3, it will clunk. Now cruise at 70, and right before shifting to 3 smoothly push the pedal to the point it would be at to be doing 70 in 3 and downshift to 3, now the shift will be smooth.

 

[II kings 9:20]

To protect the engine, it will not let you select a gear that will over rev, I accidentally went to 2 on the freeway and it would not select that gear. BMW, Audi (which has a beep) et.al. do the same. To your specific question, not all manumatics are the same and I only use mine for downshifting to accelerate which brings up a question.

With autostick or manual, who here downshifts for braking? I never do, brake pads are cheap. If I am going to rev the engine it's for power and torque, the extra engine wear and fuel used revving the engine to slow down seems wasteful (exception for mountains and towing). It's a whole different matter enjoying the 390 ftlbs in go mode.

 

[AWD 300C]

Using lower gears to slow down, ala manual trans, won't hurt anything. It won't let you downshift to an unsafe gear. It may use a tiny bit more fuel but nothing that significant. Where I get in trouble, fuel economy wise, is that I like to cruise in low gear. I like to keep the engine in that sweet spot. It's a bad habit that I'm working on, especially in my manual vehicles. Saved 1.8 mpg city in my SRT by an extra upshift.

Selecting a gear with the autostick only keeps the trans from upshifting past that gear. Seat time is the only way to get used to the autostick and make it really sing. Okay it won't really sing but you can teach it to at least carry a decent tune.

 

[srt8danno]

Did I read in another post that the autostick behaves differently in the SRT8 or was I just reading too many posts due to forum addiction? If it does behave differently how so?
I know the professional drivers using it during the SRT Experience definitely could make it sing a serious tune!

 

[SRT8/BMW]

Did I read in another post that the autostick behaves differently in the SRT8 or was I just reading too many posts due to forum addiction? If it does behave differently how so?
I know the professional drivers using it during the SRT Experience definitely could make it sing a serious tune!

yES..IT IS A TRUE aUTOSTICK...MY SRT8 WILL STAY IN WHATEVER GEAR IT IS PUT INTO, AND THE ONLY OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE WHICH COULD OCCUR IS REV LIMITER.

 

[jeepgrady]

Living in the hills of Pa., I always downshift when going down hills with all my vehicles. It gives mw better control without using my brakes so much.

 

[DESIREE]

I downshift everything, manual or auto, 2-speed to 5-speed, for anything, anytime, anywhere. This 'auto-stick' is a whole lot more 'auto' than 'stick' for my liking.

 

["C"Bandit]

Using lower gears to slow down, ala manual trans, won't hurt anything. It won't let you downshift to an unsafe gear. It may use a tiny bit more fuel but nothing that significant. Where I get in trouble, fuel economy wise, is that I like to cruise in low gear. I like to keep the engine in that sweet spot. It's a bad habit that I'm working on, especially in my manual vehicles. Saved 1.8 mpg city in my SRT by an extra upshift.

Selecting a gear with the autostick only keeps the trans from upshifting past that gear. Seat time is the only way to get used to the autostick and make it really sing. Okay it won't really sing but you can teach it to at least carry a decent tune.

So it won't UPshift to a higher gear (when a certain gear has been selected) but it will DOWNshift to a lower gear if the go pedal is pressed to the floor, right? Thats just what mine did.

I don't believe I was trying to get it to shift into a gear (3rd from 4th)) that would have caused it any harm being the engine was turning just 2k rpm in 4th.
Would have thought it would have been a smooth down shift

It just seems that this car wants to accelerate going down hills..anybody elses car do that? So I was just experimenting on the capability of the autostick to slow you down on hills being I live in Denver and will drive in the Rocky Mnt.

I downshift my Cummins 6spd to decelerate all the time and do it well I must say

Maybe I need more seat time to get a better feel for it.

 

[II kings 9:20]

I notice mine does like to run like Secretariat on minor down hill grades, not a bad thing.

 

[jcsganga34]

I was a lot like some of the guys on this thread thinking that the auto-stick was not very useful except in situations to pass. I've been using it everyday for the past couple of weeks and it has put a smile on my face again. Once you figure out the correct shift points you can really do some amazing things with it. I like the fact of being able to decide when to make the car shift. It pretty much takes the computer out of the question. Anyways, for those of you who don't like, give it a chance and let her rip with it. I know I've enjoyed the car more than ever using it.

 

[II kings 9:20]

I'll give it a whirl, what's your mpg, mine runs a solid 15.5-16mpg 85% city, we'll see if it drops to 12 having all this fun.

 

[DESIREE]

I was a lot like some of the guys on this thread thinking that the auto-stick was not very useful except in situations to pass. I've been using it everyday for the past couple of weeks and it has put a smile on my face again. Once you figure out the correct shift points you can really do some amazing things with it. I like the fact of being able to decide when to make the car shift. It pretty much takes the computer out of the question. Anyways, for those of you who don't like, give it a chance and let her rip with it. I know I've enjoyed the car more than ever using it.

Well, it won't do what I think it should do: just lock into ANY gear selected exactly like a manual shift, with the possible exceptions of upshifting just before hitting the rev limiter or not downshifting if it would overrev the engine. On my manual shift Mustang Cobra I have a shiftlight to warn me when to upshift and indicators on my speedometer that tell me what gear I can downshift to without overrevving when I leave the clutch out. With all of the hightech powertrain control stuff our 300C's have they seem to be trying to appease the traditional Chrysler owner more than the enthusiast.
I think once you select to leave the "D" position with the shiftlever it should be all for the enthusiast and traditionalist beware! Perhaps I need to get an SRT-8!?

 

[Northern Rider]

Just the mere act of selecting "autoshift" - any gear - tells the computer you want a more agressive shift mode. Shifts are crisper, revs held longer.

Overall - more performance.

Works for me!