wtf; why go to 4th gear when put in S?

[omaralt84]

hey guys, sorry i cant really search (on vacation and posting this from my phone). I have a 2010 camry LE and today i decided to play around with the S setting on the transmission. I realized that everytime i put the transmission into S ot will go into 4th gear? WTF? Why? If ur on the highway going 80 its gonna over rev the engine and if ur going 20mph its gonna bog down the engine? Why doesnt it just go to the gear ur currently in like all the other triptronic transmissions i've ever seen? Is there a way to change it? Othereise this is completly useless to me..

Omar

[Redline_Me]

I still don't know what your problem is?? Is it going into 4th and you don't want it to or is it the other way around?
And idk if this is what you meant to say, but if you're going into 4th gear at 20 mph, of course it will bog.

[workerant]

S is the 'gear limiter' and the default gear that it ALWAYS start is the 4th gear doesn't matter what speed you are when you put it into S.

If you do go 20mph when switch into S, no it doesn't "bog down". It actually doesn't do anything cause 20mph is still use lower gear than the 4th.

S is the max gear you limit your engine go.

Yes it is useless to most ppl. To me too.

[jaysi09]

that's the weird thing i noticed with Camry when we still had one.

Everytime i go to the 'S' mode the default gear is always at '4'. why didn't they make it that it starts at '1' if you're just starting from 0. i find this weird, i've driven other cars with the 'S' mode and it automatically downshifts when needed and it starts in the gear that you currently are.

and yes, IMHO the manual mode is useless and the response is also slow. when you try to upshift or downshift there's a lag to it.

[Pawel062]

if you know how and when to use the S mode then it's not useless. i use it sometimes for fun and it behaves mostly like a manual. of course unless you under 20mpg it won't let you go into 1st but it will allow atleast 2nd. it's the way how toyota wanted it and will stay that way unless we give them reasons to change it.

[workerant]

Originally Posted by djkor

However the "ALWAYS" that he wrote is not true. Once you start to go above 150km/h or there abouts (never tested it in depth), it will default to 5th.

now that's one speed I have not tried. hahaha I think the first time I did it I was going around 80mph and I believe shifting into S caused RPM to redline. so i only tried lower speed.

[MJZ]

People should really read their manuals...

Shift into S on the highways for PASSING POWER - 4th gear at 80mph is around 3500RPM - which has a lot more torque available than 6th gear at 2500RPM.

Shift into S at low speeds if you want to shift around further for manual like controls.

[Pawel062]

wow that looks like loads of fun. the gearbox is not that bad. i did some 1/8 runs with the camry not at a race track but at a large clossed parking lot with proper safety etc.. and it seemed to do really good while not even in S. i need to go back to this spot when it's empty again and try now with the S.

[MJZ]

Originally Posted by Pawel062

wow that looks like loads of fun. the gearbox is not that bad. i did some 1/8 runs with the camry not at a race track but at a large clossed parking lot with proper safety etc.. and it seemed to do really good while not even in S. i need to go back to this spot when it's empty again and try now with the S.

I highly doubt you'll do better than the Auto in a straightline. If you mash the power, the Auto will downshift hard or start low (I think the car starts in 2nd gear as a rule) and will rev going into redline before going to 3rd, 4th and 5th etc...

[Pawel062]

i doubt so too. still might try it one day. it can't do it every day because we need to scout the lot for anything that can kick up etc.. and it's not always free. it's fun to do once in a while though. plus it's a short strip so maybe we get up to 60 before braking.

[ford_jj]

HI, I think the Drag Radials. Getting out of the hole has alot to do with it. Traction is the problem.

[Redline_Me]

I love my 5spd Manual. I also need to go to the track.

[MJZ]

Originally Posted by djkor

When I talked about the times being consistently 0.2 seconds quicker in 'S' mode, this is a comparison against my own times when in 'D' mode. Same day, same conditions, same launching RPM, etc. Yes there is slight variations that can occur, but I've noticed this over different days at the drags as well. My tires are a performance street type as well by the way.

As I said, it's not hard evidence but rather something that it possible. This is just what I believe and that's the way I would think about it. At the end of the day, these differences mean nothing for most people. I just like to know what my car is capable of and I usually drive it hard.

That makes sense to me. S mode probably increases pedal sensitivity and shifts more aggressively. But 0.2 is not much, so it D probably anticipates hard acceleration situations (like a freeway merge) but returns to smooth driving shiftlogic for the most part.

D mode is designed primarily for smooth driving and fuel economy.

I am absolutely SURE that I have driven whole tanks of gas on purely S(6) before and the Fuel Economy was worse than leaving it in D.

[nuchieboy]

i wonder why toyota never made a 6 speed manual v6

[TheKevin]

i noticed that the default gear is 4 also. i've only gone into S mode once, just to see how it was. never used it again and i dont plan to any time soon