Interesting transmission observation

[KCFlyer]

My 2008 Edge FWD has about 2800 miles. I was moving down the road and bumped the transmission into neutral. With my foot off the gas, the engine RPMs did NOT return to idle. Instead, the engine seemed to remain in gear, and the RPMs slowly dropped as the car slowed. If I tapped the gas (still in neutral), I could feel a small 'bump' in speed, as if the tranny had to be convinced to release.

 

I'm not concerned about this, just curious. In every other car I've owned, placing the transmission in neutral allowed the engine RPMs to immediately return to idle. I'd be curious if anyone else has the same experience.

 

Rick

[carbonedge+]

I noticed the same going down a mountain (I-24 north of Chattanooga). I was coasting downhill and put it in neutral and also noticed the RPMs dropped very little, if any.

[rcrose]

I noticed the same going down a mountain (I-24 north of Chattanooga). I was coasting downhill and put it in neutral and also noticed the RPMs dropped very little, if any.

 

I haven't experienced this but on the subject of transmissions, we were driving at highway speed last Sunday and had to slow down for a bad wreck. We were going about 5 mph and the transmission felt like it shifted, rather roughly, a couple of times, although our speed wasn't changing appreciably. Please indulge my deviation from the original thread.

[carbonedge+]

Check these 2 posts for the deviated topic:

 

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1337

 

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1535

Edited January 12, 2008 by carbonedge+

[kevinb120]

The programing allows for a slight bit of hold throttle, i.e. if you get on the gas to say 45mph and let off to half or less throttle, it holds the rpms for a few instants anticipating if you are going to stop it again and stay in gear instead of full throttle-to nothing and drop down to very low rpms. It's actually a pretty slick bit of programing that emulates what a manual driver would do in certain situations.

 

Shifting into N at a strange time may have initiated the sequence for a second. Although with thousands of lines of code to adapt to millions of situations and doing something *ahem* stupid like shifting into N on a highway may just confuse it to what your are doing. Older cars had a basic program that was simply throttle/pressure based with nothing adaptive other then basic paterns of heavy foot=hold rpms a bit longer and shift a bit firmer/light foot= shift earlier and smoother. Its if you were standing in line at the grocery store in line and someone you didn't know was even there grabbed your ear lobe, you wouldn't do something 'normal' either. Personally I think the Ford/GM 6F is one of the best automatics from any maker to come along.

 

When you have a completely computer controlled transmission and even throttle pedal, in the millions of possible combinations you are going to find a 'hole' in the programing somewhere. Most cars don't spend thousands of hours of development into going 4-5mph or shifting into N. Its if it does something hokey at 35mph or leaving a light or going 5mph EVERY SINGLE TIME I would worry about it. I was driving our 07 CLS550 today and the transmission in an 80k car does dumb shit sometimes too. Actually I think the edge reacts much better to throttle imputs.

Edited January 19, 2008 by kevinb120