? about using the cruise control and the downshifting

[vibebob]

I was using the cruise and when going up a short and not that steep of a hill, the trany downsifted twice, the first and then about 2 seconds later another shift with RPM at 4,000.is this normal ? speed was 65-70 MPH

[damronjr]

I'm pretty sure that's normal as it tries to keep it at the pre-set speed and with the incline it has to downshift to gain RPM's to keep it at that speed.

[JohnC]

Welcome to the world of small displacement low hp low torque engines. The two downshifts were the overdrive and high gear. When I get into any hills I turn the cruise off. You will get the feel of the engine/trans and you can let up on the throttle just enough to keep it from downshifting. This usually will slow you down several mph. Another option is to take it out of overdrive to let it keep the engine rpm's up when using cruise in the hills.Or just do what my wife does...keep the cruise and the OD on a let er shift! I don't think it hurts anything, it is just a little un-nerving while watching the tach.Your right about the hill, it doesn't have to be very steep to cause a downshift.

[Thewhite]

consider yourself lucky, the cruise downshift for you. on mine, cruise control stops working as soon as I hit the clutch, so when I'm on a miduim size hill and have to downshift, I have reset the cruise after coming back in 5th and to my cruising speed...

[Rivet]

When I see a hill coming up and have the cruise on, I will step on the the gas pedal to speed up 5 mph or so before the car starts climbing. Then I just keep the gas pedal at constant level while the car naturally slows down and the cruise takes over again. Usually can avoid the downshifting that way.

[JohnC]

Quote, originally posted by Rivet »When I see a hill coming up and have the cruise on, I will step on the the gas pedal to speed up 5 mph or so before the car starts climbing. Then I just keep the gas pedal at constant level while the car naturally slows down and the cruise takes over again. Usually can avoid the downshifting that way.Thanks Rivet, this works great for most of the hills on my daily drive. Learn something new every day, then ya die.

[gargoyle]

Quote, originally posted by JohnC »...When I get into any hills I turn the cruise off. You will get the feel of the engine/trans and you can let up on the throttle just enough to keep it from downshifting. This usually will slow you down several mph... Another way to do this is to tap downward on the cruise lever three or four times (without turning it off) whenever you feel the engine/trans is about to downshift. This will also slow you a few mph, but it will avoid the downshift while still keeping your cruise on... that way you don't have to reset the cruise, just tap upward a few times to regain normal speed once the hill levels off.

[ColonelPanic]

Yes, it's "normal" and annoying! When I approach a hill, I'll cancel the cruise and control the throttle myself so the tranny doesn't jolt itself to deathy trying to downshift abruptly. Yes, welcome to the realm of low horsepower and torque! Sure, the cruise is just trying to do its job and keep the same speed, but it gets a bit dramatic sometimes.

[Kari]

Try living in the mountains...I really can't use the cruise control at all on our local interstates, because it will be doing nothing but downshifting and running along at 4000+ RPMs, which annoys me...probably wouldn't hurt anything but I'm paranoid. The Vibe really hated one stretch of interstate going up to the Cumberland Plateau a few years ago...it got the most excited I've ever seen it in cruise control...heh. On relatively flat land, the cruise control works great, but if there's any type of grade, it just gets useless...

[ColonelPanic]

I believe ya! It gets even worse when things crap out like mine and it's putting out a whopping 50 HP or whatever it was doing. That sucked!

[vibebob]

thanks for all the great replys, next time I'm on that stretch of road I'm impliment them. I traded in a 5 speed VW Golf TDI (diesel) and while it had a 90 hp engine it had tons of torque, I never had to down shift to keep speed. Still, I really like the Vibe.

[ColonelPanic]

Man, could we ever use more torque! I could care less about ponies, as you pointed out - even with only 90 of 'em it still sounds like that car was able to move better than the Vibe!Horsepower, blah... Give me something I can use, like torque.