Well I think I know what you guys are experiencing.

But let me ask you guys this question first, have you ever driven a manual car to begin with? If not then you won't understand.

The only problem I see is when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear.

You floor it in 2nd and change to 3rd, but as you change to 3rd you let go of the gas a bit, which is where the kick comes from.

I've noticed when I shift from 2nd to 3rd I try and slightly ease of on the gas, and as I'm shifting to 3rd I'll press the accelerator all the way down, when I do it this way I don't experience any jerks or any harsh movements it just moves onto 3rd gear smoothly.

As for downshifting, at what RPMs are you downshifting from exactly? If you down shift at a retarded rpm or gear then for sure you'll get the tranny kicking your ***, but if you downshift normally (i.e. Rpms aren't over 5k then you should be fine)

What annoys me is when I downshift to 1st by mistake and I want to floor it but I can feel the tranny hasn't engaged yet, so I have to wait a few seconds. Now if you don't wait for the gear to lock then you'll get a very good *** kicking from downshifting.

Does this make any sense? I just think some people on here need to learn how to drive their cars better, and personally I believe that most people who have driven manual cars and know how to shift and downshift will face much less problems than those who are new to downshifting and general AT transmissions

 

edit* Defratos I didn't see you on the 2nd page. my thoughts excattly ^^^^+1

The grounding kit does alleviate some of the things you've described with 'smoothing' out the shifts especially between 2nd-3rd. A lot of it depends on how much and when you give it gas switching between the two gear ratio's. I've found if you let off just a bit to give it time to shift it wont snap into gear.

 

^ Agreed

 

This thread has been very helpful. I've experienced the exact same thing and thought it was just because I was a noob (still true, I am a noob ). I do love the manual shift though because it'll definately save a ton of wear on the breaks. I don't have any issues on the downshifting, but that 2nd to 3rd really feels jerky.

 

apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but we're new to the G35 ('07 Sport, have had it a few months.) The AT seems to jerk a bit upshifting into 3rd or 4th under light throttle, and I was browsing to see if this is "normal" or not. Appears that it is, though grounding wires may help? I'll have to search on that.

As for downshifting under deceleration, yes, it does help somewhat with engine braking, but I was under the impression that it's really more to ensure that the transmission is in the right gear should you need to get back on the throttle. When driving a manual in a spirited manner, it's perfectly normal to blip the throttle and downshift as you decelerate, instead of coasting. I perfected heel-toe downshifts in my manual tranny cars for this reason. You don't want to be downshifting in the middle of a curve, or while trying to squirt ahead - you gotta be in the correct gear ahead of time. I LOVE that this car's AT does this while in Drive. It has completely changed my outlook on automatic transmissions - I can actually enjoy driving one for the first time in my life.

 

This thread was def. helpful!

I drove a ford like 6 years ago and am scarred by the terrible transmission problems i had...thought this kick was the beginning of something awful, I'm glad to see a slight jerk is normal