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Is250 Automatic - Change From 'd' Mode To 's' Mode


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Hi there!

I came here to ask you for your experience (rather car behaviour) with your Lexus car (since, I am not able to understand whether my car behaviour is correct)

I have Lexus IS250 MY08 Automatic gear + Luxury pack + MM. While driving in full auto-mode ('D') at any speed (and any automatically set gear) when I change to 'S' mode, the gearbox set all the time to 4th gear. For example, speed 130 km/h 6tf gear in 'D' mode - changing into 'S' mode -> 130 km/h 4th gear; or speed 20 km/h 2/3rd gear in 'D' mode - changing into 'S' mode -> 4th gear at 20km/h.

Can you share your auto gearbox behaviour?

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Kind regards,

pepO

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when you go from D to S mode the gearbox intitially select 4th gear as long as this will not over rev the engine....so yes your car appears to be normal!!!!

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when you go from D to S mode the gearbox intitially select 4th gear as long as this will not over rev the engine....so yes your car appears to be normal!!!!

Thank you for your reply - so it's normal (hmm - however, I would expect while changing from D to S, stay on the same gear)

Funny thing is I noticed that after 1 and 1/2 year after running the car

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when you go from D to S mode the gearbox intitially select 4th gear as long as this will not over rev the engine....so yes your car appears to be normal!!!!

I have always seen this as a sensible approach since the time that I would normally go into manual mode is when I am running downhill and want to increase the amount of engine braking. My normal action after going into manual mode is a further change down, so it all makes sense.

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Thank you for your reply - so it's normal (hmm - however, I would expect while changing from D to S, stay on the same gear)

I think the rationale is that you select S mode because you want exta oomph. Therefore 4th gear is a reasonable starting point for most situations.

You need to bear in mind that S mode isn't a true 'manual' mode. It just allows you to specify the upper gear that the auto box can select. Consequently, its only use is when you want to select a lower gear than would be selected when in D. i.e. when you want to push the car that bit harder.

To be honest, I can't say I've ever found a use for it. If I want extra power I just floor the throttle, and I mean floor it. There's an extra bit of travel at the bottom of the pedal range that requires you to push it down harder. That normally takes care of my extra power requirements when overtaking. :whistling:

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Thank you for your reply - so it's normal (hmm - however, I would expect while changing from D to S, stay on the same gear)

I think the rationale is that you select S mode because you want exta oomph. Therefore 4th gear is a reasonable starting point for most situations.

You need to bear in mind that S mode isn't a true 'manual' mode. It just allows you to specify the upper gear that the auto box can select. Consequently, its only use is when you want to select a lower gear than would be selected when in D. i.e. when you want to push the car that bit harder.

To be honest, I can't say I've ever found a use for it. If I want extra power I just floor the throttle, and I mean floor it. There's an extra bit of travel at the bottom of the pedal range that requires you to push it down harder. That normally takes care of my extra power requirements when overtaking. :whistling:

Hi, I use manual mode to support brakes (downhill, traffic-lights, emergency braking).

I expected that the driver uses manual mode to "influence" the gearbox - therefore I would expect that chanigng from auto to manual do not influence engaged gear.

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I expected that the driver uses manual mode to "influence" the gearbox - therefore I would expect that chanigng from auto to manual do not influence engaged gear.

I hear what you're saying, but the point is that it's not a 'manual' mode on the Lexus 250, it's a 'sports' mode.

I understand that it might have some use to assist with braking, but is that really necessary? Personally, I'd rather let the brake pads take the strain than the gearbox. However, I know people who'd disagree with me.

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I expected that the driver uses manual mode to "influence" the gearbox - therefore I would expect that chanigng from auto to manual do not influence engaged gear.

I hear what you're saying, but the point is that it's not a 'manual' mode on the Lexus 250, it's a 'sports' mode.

I understand that it might have some use to assist with braking, but is that really necessary? Personally, I'd rather let the brake pads take the strain than the gearbox. However, I know people who'd disagree with me.

I use it to assist with downhill braking, e.g. in a 40 mph zone if you start going downhill the car will speed up and unless you brake, will exceed the limit (watch out for those speed cameras!). So i'll often switch into S and immediately downshift into 3rd. I don't like braking all the way down a gentle hill, it wears out the brake pads, gets load of brake dust on your alloys, and annoys people behind who are in the 'correct' gear. It won't wear out the gearbox doing this, the braking effect comes from the engine.

What i would really like would be the ability to down/up shift manually without having to move the lever into S - i believe you can do this in some BMWs. The gearbox would have to be pretty smart though, otherwise it'll just shift back up or down again immediately!

Oh, and for extra sports 'shove, i switch the sports mode button on - you know the one that's completely hidden by the steering wheel and which you have to feel for...... :duh:

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I use it to assist with downhill braking, e.g. in a 40 mph zone if you start going downhill the car will speed up and unless you brake, will exceed the limit (watch out for those speed cameras!). So i'll often switch into S and immediately downshift into 3rd. I don't like braking all the way down a gentle hill, it wears out the brake pads, gets load of brake dust on your alloys, and annoys people behind who are in the 'correct' gear. It won't wear out the gearbox doing this, the braking effect comes from the engine.

What i would really like would be the ability to down/up shift manually without having to move the lever into S - i believe you can do this in some BMWs. The gearbox would have to be pretty smart though, otherwise it'll just shift back up or down again immediately!

Oh, and for extra sports 'shove, i switch the sports mode button on - you know the one that's completely hidden by the steering wheel and which you have to feel for...... :duh:

I do the exact same thing. I hate riding the brake down gentle declines, or even a steep ones at that. I feel like I have more control if I shift down to use engine braking, sometimes I will work my way down through the gears right to 2nd to get maximum engine braking on steeper declines. I do still use the footbrake, but only for shorter periods.

I currently have over 100k on the clock, have had it from new, and I'm still on the original discs, and am on my second set of pads all round :yahoo: but will probably need front pads at next service (110k)

I drive in S mode alot of the time, in town, on motorway, and of course open road :whistling: (which is very hard to find :( )

I still enjoy driving the car everyday, even after 3 1/2 years, and she still looks good, well apart from the cracked windscreen I have at the moment :angry:

I know what you mean about the ECT PWR switch, i'm always switching it SNOW by mistake, as I forget which way is which even though I use it quite often :duh:

At the last service workshop said car (engine etc) was in really good condition :yahoo::yahoo:

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  • 3 months later...

[What i would really like would be the ability to down/up shift manually without having to move the lever into S - i believe you can do this in some BMWs. The gearbox would have to be pretty smart though, otherwise it'll just shift back up or down again immediately!

If I'm not mistaken you can do this using the paddles on the 2009 model, don't know about the older ones.

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Yep in 09 facelifted cars you can now just hit the paddle in D and it will shift into manual like Mercs (and possibly BMs)

Does that mean the selector on the central console has been redesigned? Currently you have to physically move the selector to the right to engage S mode.

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Yep in 09 facelifted cars you can now just hit the paddle in D and it will shift into manual like Mercs (and possibly BMs)

Does that mean the selector on the central console has been redesigned? Currently you have to physically move the selector to the right to engage S mode.

No, don't think the selector on the central console has been changed in any way. As parthiban says, flick the + or - paddle when in D and you can go up or down the gears. It just duplicates what you can do when in S mode, I think.

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Does that mean the selector on the central console has been redesigned? Currently you have to physically move the selector to the right to engage S mode.

No the console is still the same, if you want to put it permanently in S mode, you still need to push the gear lever over.

However if you just want a bit of acceleration you can use the paddles to come down the box, then when you pop it back up to 6th it just goes back into D (like it does in a Merc if you've ever used their auto boxes)

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Does that mean the selector on the central console has been redesigned? Currently you have to physically move the selector to the right to engage S mode.

No the console is still the same, if you want to put it permanently in S mode, you still need to push the gear lever over.

However if you just want a bit of acceleration you can use the paddles to come down the box, then when you pop it back up to 6th it just goes back into D (like it does in a Merc if you've ever used their auto boxes)

I wonder is this is acheived purely by software, or if there is hardware involved as well

If software only, could it be possible to upgrade earlier versions?

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I wonder is this is acheived purely by software, or if there is hardware involved as well

If software only, could it be possible to upgrade earlier versions?

I'm sure it is just software, worth asking but I'm guessing you'll probably get the same answer as if you asked for the autolock doors or auto folding mirrors that are available on the newer cars......

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Does that mean the selector on the central console has been redesigned? Currently you have to physically move the selector to the right to engage S mode.

No the console is still the same, if you want to put it permanently in S mode, you still need to push the gear lever over.

However if you just want a bit of acceleration you can use the paddles to come down the box, then when you pop it back up to 6th it just goes back into D (like it does in a Merc if you've ever used their auto boxes)

Thanks for the description. Sounds like it's just a software change.

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makes more sense just being able to use the paddle sticks while still in D..so much easier. will see if I can ask a lexus dealer..though I doubt they will be able to do it. remember a while back asking them about the new saat nav dvd which which now come as standard with the facelift 09 cars that allow sat nav entry on the go, and asked if put in my 08 system would it upgrade the software/firmware on my car allowing me to do the same, and they said no it was hardware related....even though the DVD does upgrade it :|

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and they said no it was hardware related....even though the DVD does upgrade it :|

Well that's just retarded - annoys me when they don't know stuff that's plainly available on the net for all to see.........

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