Kickdown

[television]

I think the differences you are quoting could be covered by the statement under "Accelerator pedal position"?

Nope, We use 2 terms only Max throttle and kickdown and the figures I put up are directly from the chart for the quoted car

 

[raymont]

I'm not sure I should inject this into the conversation.....

What about adaptive gear boxes which 'learn' about your style of driving and adapt the shift pattern appropriately.

Pse discuss in relation to gearbox setting (S or W), throttle opening (a little, quite a lot, full throttle (but not kickdown), throttle acceleration (i.e. are you opening it slowly or quickly) and, of course kickdown.

Steps well back......

 

[Diesel Benz]

I'm not sure I should inject this into the conversation.....

What about adaptive gear boxes which 'learn' about your style of driving and adapt the shift pattern appropriately.

Pse discuss in relation to gearbox setting (S or W), throttle opening (a little, quite a lot, full throttle (but not kickdown), throttle acceleration (i.e. are you opening it slowly or quickly) and, of course kickdown.

Steps well back......

I guess this isn't really off topic. Anyway the adaptations are for "normal driving", would not affect kick down or full throttle.

 

[television]

I'm not sure I should inject this into the conversation.....

What about adaptive gear boxes which 'learn' about your style of driving and adapt the shift pattern appropriately.

Pse discuss in relation to gearbox setting (S or W), throttle opening (a little, quite a lot, full throttle (but not kickdown), throttle acceleration (i.e. are you opening it slowly or quickly) and, of course kickdown.

Steps well back......

Please step forward again, these boxes do adapt to your current driving style and is nothing to do with the earlier max throttle or kick down other than the fact that the engine will respond to the gearbox much quicker if you drive constanly using kick down. the top and max speeds are unaffected though the time to get to the max speed could be shorter.

 

[whitenemesis]

I'm not sure I should inject this into the conversation.....

What about adaptive gear boxes which 'learn' about your style of driving and adapt the shift pattern appropriately.

Pse discuss in relation to gearbox setting (S or W), throttle opening (a little, quite a lot, full throttle (but not kickdown), throttle acceleration (i.e. are you opening it slowly or quickly) and, of course kickdown.

Steps well back......

A very valid point.

I have noticed that, if early for a meeting, I poodle along gently the car quickly "learns" to change up early. Then on my way home and wishing to hustle the car takes a little while to "pick up her skirts" and react entusiastically!

This though has no effect on kickdown as has been said by Malcolm and Diesel..

 

[st4]

I have done some tests with my W211 220cdi.

In kickdown in C mode the upchange (4500rpm) was the same as in kickdown in S mode (4500 rpm). Kickdown does overide the C and S setting as it should.

Full throttle saw a change at 3800rpm in C mode and just over 4000 rpm in S mode. Ergo the gear change points are different between C and S mode.

I think the gear box has an adaptive quality to it. After some hard driving in C mode upshifts were higher than I normally thought they were.

 

[television]

The adaptive part should be used with care in the wet weather, on other forums we did test on engaging CC after high speed driving where the car had adapted, and engaging CC after a leisurely drive. In the former state the car will kick down to maintain the set speed and in the later state the car will go for much longer periods in top without changing down.

 

[st4]

I also tried the pushing (an holding of the selector lever for 2-3 secs). It did take a lower gear so was like a kick down minus the accereration. I can't see the point of this though in an 5speed auto. At most your only 3 taps of the selector lever away from the correct gear. Also in kickdown this is done for you as by hitting that switch, your asking the car for the lower gear required of it.

 

[television]

I also tried the pushing (an holding of the selector lever for 2-3 secs). It did take a lower gear so was like a kick down minus the accereration. I can't see the point of this though in an 5speed auto. At most your only 3 taps of the selector lever away from the correct gear. Also in kickdown this is done for you as by hitting that switch, your asking the car for the lower gear required of it.

I think that if you are stuck behind something and you are waiting to pass, leaving it locked into the lower gear will be faster to overtake than by kicking down, if only used for a short period of time the fuel consumption would be the same

 

[Dryce]

II can't see the point of this though in an 5speed auto.

It's (a) convenient and (b) quite discrete as regards your passenegers noticing you're up to something.

 

[Dryce]

I think that if you are stuck behind something and you are waiting to pass, leaving it locked into the lower gear will be faster to overtake than by kicking down, if only used for a short period of time the fuel consumption would be the same

I usually use it just as I think the road is going to clear ahead. The advantage is that you can just watch what's happening out front and behind, and let the car do its thing, before you make the final decision to accelerate.

 

[raymont]

I think that if you are stuck behind something and you are waiting to pass, leaving it locked into the lower gear will be faster to overtake than by kicking down, if only used for a short period of time the fuel consumption would be the same

That's what I use it for. Although in the GL you get it to change down by using the left paddle behind the wheel. You don't have the delay of kickdown and its much smoother as you can modulate the acceleration as required.

When you do accelerate it holds the selected gear irrespective of throttle opening until it runs out of revs whereupon it changes up.

If you want to change earlier you can select the next gear with the right paddle, or if you just want to go back to full auto move the selector to 'D'..

 

[DieselE]

The adaptive part should be used with care in the wet weather, on other forums we did test on engaging CC after high speed driving where the car had adapted, and engaging CC after a leisurely drive. In the former state the car will kick down to maintain the set speed and in the later state the car will go for much longer periods in top without changing down.

Sorry but I think you are using the term "kick down" out of context in this post. Cruise Control never uses "kick down". One reason is it never uses full throttle. You are right in saying that it is more likely to change down to resume the selected cruising speed if the box has adapted to a vigorous driving style but it is still a part throttle down change.

 

[television]

Sorry but I think you are using the term "kick down" out of context in this post. Cruise Control never uses "kick down". One reason is it never uses full throttle. You are right in saying that it is more likely to change down to resume the selected cruising speed if the box has adapted to a vigorous driving style but it is still a part throttle down change.

Yes you are correct and that was miss worded by me.

Thank you

 

[Ted]

I'm assuming the kickdown switch in a manual is just a dummy. Right?

Not quite
It's used to overide the speedtronic setting in a manual (Mercedes) car

 

[Friz]

Not quite
It's used to overide the speedtronic setting in a manual (Mercedes) car

Can you elaborate on that? I just floor it and hear the click. It's usually drown out by engine roar and the rear tyres lighting up.

And yes I know I'm too old for that sort of thing. But after many years of anemic front wheel drive cars I'm reliving my youth.

 

[Ted]

If your (manual) car has cruise control, it should also have speedtronic - press in the cruise control stick (an amber led comes on) and a light in the dash.
You can then set the maximum speed that the car will go at (great for roadworks with cameras etc) by using the cruise control setting.
The 'kickdown' switch is used in an emergency to override the setting

 

[Diesel Benz]

If your (manual) car has cruise control, it should also have speedtronic - press in the cruise control stick (an amber led comes on) and a light in the dash.
You can then set the maximum speed that the car will go at (great for roadworks with cameras etc) by using the cruise control setting.
The 'kickdown' switch is used in an emergency to override the setting

Let me guess, I've probably never used it but if you set the cruise for the speed limiter mode (not the max speed for winter tyres), the car does not exceed the set speed even at full throttle, unless you press the pedal to the kick down point?

 

[Friz]

If your (manual) car has cruise control, it should also have speedtronic - press in the cruise control stick (an amber led comes on) and a light in the dash.
You can then set the maximum speed that the car will go at (great for roadworks with cameras etc) by using the cruise control setting.
The 'kickdown' switch is used in an emergency to override the setting

Ah the limiter. I think I used that once by mistake.

 

[television]

Let me guess, I've probably never used it but if you set the cruise for the speed limiter mode (not the max speed for winter tyres), the car does not exceed the set speed even at full throttle, unless you press the pedal to the kick down point?

On a auto box where you have a speed limiter, yes the kick down will over ride the limiter function, and this has to be the case on safety grounds