when I go from "D" to the "tiptronic mode" it always goes to "4" whether I'm on the highway or stopped. The dealership is keep on telling me it's normal...

please tell me it's not.

 

It's normal if you have an 03 or 04 sedan. You must manually select the gear you want. "4" is the default. It's actually a better setup for drag racing.

 

Yeah its normal...im also taking it that you are not at a stop though when you do it. You are prolly rolling doing 30MPH+ then putting it in manual mode. When you do this the auto drive mode is in 4th gear by the time you hit 25.

-sean

 

As they said, normal.

 

i have an 03. whenever i switch to manumatic, it ALWAYS reads as 4...it won't put me into 4th unless i am cruising in 5th, at which point switching over to manumatic will cause me to downshift to 4th.

i believe 04+, as has been my experience from loaners from the dealer, switching it to manumatic will put it into 1st if you are stopped, or the display will come up with whatever gear you are in while cruising. the 04+ also automatically changes the display to 1st by itself when you come to a stop, whereas in my 03 the display will still read 4 at a stop, even though the computer has shifted the tranny down to first.

so as others said, what you're seeing is normal. hope my explanation makes sense.

 

damn - i was convinced they're lying lol

Vengeqi, whenever i'm crusing on the hwy (100kmh.. i think that's about 60mph?) and shift to manual, it'll go into 4th by default as well! Kind of annoying.. it can probably be an issue if the roads are not too dry as well!

but when I'm fully stopped, the display reads 4th... and it will read that until I change it. so you guys are saying it actually is in 1st althought the display is reading 4?

DaveB, how is this better for drag racing? How can I use this as an advantage?

 

You don't have a Tiptronic transmission unless you swapped it from a Porsche.

It's normal in the '05 as well.

 

or a Volkswagen or even an Audi for that matter

Chillax mang, "tiptronic" is just like kleenex or xerox.

 

Correct, when at a stop. The transmission will then shift up to 4th and stay there until you either up or down shift.

 

I so badly need a lesson how to use the manual shifting!!

 

normally, the car's going to be in 5th by the time you're at 100kmh/60mph, so switching to manumatic will drop it to 4th gear...but if you've been pushing the car *really* hard, the computer might adjust the shifting pattern, so that you're in 4th when cruising at that speed....but i don't really recommend this method unless you like getting 10-12 mpg

and like g35papa said, once you are in manumatic and are really in 4th gear, it will stay that way unless you upshift/downshift manually OR come to a complete stop (bringing you to 1st).

 

Only if you're clueless I suppose. Call me silly, I like to be accurate.

 

Because at the track you can put the shifter in "2" and let the tranny do the 1-2 shift itself and then you have control of the 2-3 and 3-4 shift. With the 04.5+ cars, the tranny doesn't allow you place the shifter into 2 straight from the start. Since there is a slight delay betwen when the upshift is selected and when the tranny actually shifts, it is common to tag the rev limiter which will hurt your times. With the 04.5+ cars, you have no choice, but to shift the 1-2 yourself or leave it in D. Either way, you risk being slower.

 

03-04 is more of a top gear selector than tiptronic........and dave is right...1-2 the computer will shift faster than human in a 5AT G35....use it to your advantage like this.......

push shifter to manumatic....select gear 2.....launch and let the computer shift from 1-2...and then manually shift through the rest of the gears...