Soarer Central: A couple of questions.

Soarer Central Mechanical - V8 A couple of questions.

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Christian Somerville
TryHard
South Australia
UZZ31 V8 LTD

Posts: 298
Reg: 03-2009

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Friday, February 05, 2010 - 12:03 am, by: Christian Somerville (Csomers)

Hey guys, I have noticed when I hit 64kph (seriously) I feel this drop in the engine (hard to explain but you can feel it) does anyone know what this is.

Also, when do most people use overdrive? I use it sometimes over 60kph, but never under.

And finally driving on the freeway, sitting at 100kph, flattening the petal and the ecu won't allow it to kick back a gear it will just slowly climb?

Thanks!

Boris Siljanoski
TryHard
Western Australia
Soarer GZ20 TT

Posts: 229
Reg: 11-2007

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Friday, February 05, 2010 - 12:08 am, by: Boris Siljanoski (Z2tt)

You keep Overdrive on and it engages when it is required, Ussually about 70km/h when cruising at light throttle.

Maybe the drop in the engine you feel is a harsh gear shift.

Because of the lack of information/knowledge here on Automatics bar the basics, the only thing we would usually ask is what type of Fluid are you using, is it upto level, and has the filter been changed recently?

You should be using Toyota Type T-IV for the Auto trans mated to the V8.

Peter Nitschke
Junk Filterer
South Australia
UZZ30 UZZ31

Posts: 11289
Reg: 11-2004

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Friday, February 05, 2010 - 12:46 am, by: Peter Nitschke (Pen)

Christian, at just over 60kph you will feel the torque converter lock kick in, it feels a bit like another gear change. Squeeze the pedal a bit and you can feel it release and the revs climb a bit.

You can pretty much leave O/D on all the time, it will only get used if the ECU thinks it's a good idea. Switch it out if you want extra engine braking in the hills etc.

It's been a while since I tried it, but at 100 kph it should kick back to 3rd and possibly 2nd.

Ali Saeed
Goo Roo
WA
V8 Limited

Posts: 1802
Reg: 09-2007

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Friday, February 05, 2010 - 08:06 am, by: Ali Saeed (Ali)

hardly ever kicks back into 2nd at 100. maybe at 90-95..anyway ive come to the conclusion that our autos/ecu is terrible. way too sluggish. needs more manual me thinks

Damian Ware
Goo Roo
Victoria
UZZ32

Posts: 1339
Reg: 10-2005

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Friday, February 05, 2010 - 05:18 pm, by: Damian Ware (Frozenpod)

Ali Saeed wrote on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 08:06 am:
anyway ive come to the conclusion that our autos/ecu is terrible. way too sluggish. needs more manual me thinks

IMO the factory V8 auto control is the best I have ever seen.

The car will be in the gear I want it to be when I want it to be, there are no random shifts no unwanted sudden kick downs and they are silky smooth.

Rich O'neil
DieHard
Queensland
90 Celsior

Posts: 531
Reg: 05-2006

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Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 07:41 am, by: Rich O'neil (Kiwiinaus)

I tend to think that the over-drive is just that...an over-drive , I never have it on unless I'm doing at least 70 KPH constantly , after all it is only a 4 litre V8 a few extra rev's is far more preferable then loading the engine up , it also makes the car far more pleasurable to drive , it's awfully sluggish at 60 to 70 k in top gear and no wonder as it's only at about 1700 RPM and loading a small engine up like that is not really good for it long term!!
The car much more responsive if the O/D is off .
On the back of where the throttle cable is there is a cable that goes down to the gearbox , it's not really a kick down cable but more of a throttle position unit [ on later models this went electric ] , what I've done is preload this cable by about 6 mm , this makes the g/box think you have more throttle on than you actually do , this will give you a quicker change [ but still not harsh ] and it also means you can make the car kick down without having to floor the pedal .
I have mine set up so that at 60 or so K's I can still give it a bit more juice without it kicking down , but if I give it a little bit more throttle it will kick down and I'm still way off having the pedal on the floor , again this makes the car a lot more pleasant to drive , best of all you can set it up to kick down exactly when and where you want it to .
I've had this little mod on my car for about 4 years with no ill effect .
Takes about 5 mins to do and if you don't like it you can always return it to whence it came from !!
One of the other benefits of pre loading this cable up is that you can then leave the O/D on at lower speeds [ I still don't !! ] as the car will kick down a lot quicker when you need it to .

Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31

Posts: 5140
Reg: 10-2005

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Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 10:01 am, by: Matthew Sharpe (Madmatt)

The overdrive switch is just the same as having a car with no overdrive switch and D, D3, D2 and D1 positions on the selector. By having it off you are basically leaving the car in "D3" all the time. Nothing wrong with that, if you don't want to use top gear around town, but any Soarer has plenty enough torque to make use of "overdrive" to save petrol, even at suburban speed limits, its not going to lug, the TCU won't let it.

Mike Beck
Goo Roo
New Zealand
325i Coupe

Posts: 4163
Reg: 11-2005

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Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 03:10 pm, by: Mike Beck (Gold_40gt)

Damian Ware wrote on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 05:18 pm:
IMO the factory V8 auto control is the best I have ever seen.

The car will be in the gear I want it to be when I want it to be, there are no random shifts no unwanted sudden kick downs and they are silky smooth.

I agree.

Helps being a bigger engine with more torques too. In my BMW which is currently auto its terrible when left in drive, kicks down erratically, but what can you expect from a 2.5 Six... I just use it in tiptronic instead.