locomotiveBart

I was driving home yesterday and put it in DS for the first time. I found that it will not shift in to 6th gear on it's own..... Is that normal? Couldn't find anything in the manual about it. If I move the shifter up and down (manual mode) it will go to 6th. My 525 went to 6th in sport mode but I'm not sure if the logic in the V8 transmission is setup differently.

jaycal3

The shifting is rev matched... are you sure you "tested" it and got it up to a high enough rev and speed?

locomotiveBart

I was doing 70 with the cruise control on, I thought eventually it would go to 6th but it never did. If I moved it to drive it would shift but whenever I went back to DS it would downshift to 5th.

turboawd

My car in DS mode shifts into 6th when over 65 mph.

jaycal3

Just got home from 170 miles of highway driving and I can tell you my car stays in 5th all the way up to 85mph while in DS mode... It makes sense if you think about it - DS is for acceleration and cornering not cruising at hwy speed. So when I am going hwy speed on cruise control why would I keep it in DS???

BLooD

The reason is in D mode it uses gears 2-6 and in DS it uses gears 1-5, it does not use 6th in DS.

You ony get rev matching if you have the sport auto with the shift paddles.

locomotiveBart

I guess my reasoning was just a leftover habit from the 525 with it's monstrous 2.5 engine. Keeping it in DS was the only way to make it even slightly get out of it's own way when in town. Thanks for verifying it for me.

usmabmass

I believe it states in the manual that it will not use 6th gear in DS mode. The only time I've seen it in DS 6 was at more than 100mph o the autobahn because it couldn't do those speeds in 5th