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You can move between D and S while the car is moving!!!

Now, I actually opened up my owner's manual and read it and did not have my question answered, so don't try that on me!

I've wondered since I got this CVT-equiped Accord whether it was safe and sane to move the shift from D to S and from S to D while the car was in motion. Intellectually I know it's all drive by wire and it SHOULD be safe, and that if it were not safe there should be mechanical lockouts, and yet READING THE MANUAL it does not ever quite say that it's OK to do this while the car is moving, the engine engaged, etc. So f*ck, I finally tried it - and there was no lockout and there was no gnashing of gears and flying shrapnel, and I lived to tell the story. The shifting algorithm changed, and all was well.

Hurray!

Now if Honda would just make the shift lever a much lighter video-game style click shift like BMW, appropriate to a drive by wire system, it would all be over.

J.

ps - or would be when I finally call the dealer and see if they can add paddle shifters to my 2013 EXL, as they are apparently included on the 2015 EXL. but then I only have about ten months left on the lease and I'm a little queasy about what they would charge to add paddles even if they can do it.

Reply to
JRStern
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I've occasionally found that when I first started I was in S instead of D (still not fully used to looking at an LCD display to determine what gear I am in) and always switched directly to D without stopping the car and never heard or felt anything unusual.

Reply to
Jim

Yes, it's fine.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

I mean sure it is, it could and maybe should be a button like the Econ mode but how many buttons really can they fit on the dashboard?

J.

Reply to
JRStern

Yes it is safe, and normal to switch back and forth between D and S in areas with long downhill stretches that need engine braking. If it is like my 2003 HCH shifting you should not push the shift button to switch between the forward gearing ranges. (So you won't accidentally move past D to N.)

Reply to
Alan Bowler

"S" is sport, "L" is engine braking.

Seems you do need to squeeze the shift button before the lever will move even between "D" and "S" and I presume "L" which is past the "S".

"S" is much more responsive and drivable in stop and go traffic, hardly the "sport" mode. Mostly the whole CVT algorithm needs work. And/or paddle shifters.

J.

Reply to
JRStern

On 2014-11-24 1:40 PM, JRStern wrote

Urban legend. No "S" is NOT "Sport", it is a lower gear range and does give you engine braking, just not as much as "L". Only only really long steep hills or ones that needed a slow speed for tight curves have I found the need to use "L".

"S" may seem more responsive because the engine is revving higher and if you are not using it for engine braking it is burning more gas. You will get about the same responce in "D" if you simply push a bit more on the gas.

It is more accurate if you think of it as "Second" like the "2" old 3 speed automatics.

Reply to
Alan Bowler

Not at all, all these modern engines (and trannies) have algorithmic curves and limits no matter how hard you mash the pedal.

Automatic transmissions have always been problematic about allowing engine braking, it does seem to happen even on the CVT and I'm a bit surprised at that.

What difference that leaves between "S" and "L" is still unclear to me. But I cannot get the same behavior out of the car in "D" that I do in "S". A smarter "D" algorithm would read pedal movements better and would allow something closer - I wish, even driving in "S", that sometimes the CVT would relax a little more and upshift if no acceleration is being demanded.

FWIW in standard urban driving the "S" setting seemed to use about 15% more gas than the "D" setting - which is already a pig in urban driving, and unresponsive to boot. The "Econ" setting saves maybe 10% over "D" and is marginally even less responsive.

J.

ps - I just now finally called the dealer and asked about adding paddle shifters to the 2013 and the service rep's take, after asking somebody (?), was that no, they couldn't add them at the dealer.

Reply to
JRStern

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