I took the wife's AT out for a spin yesterday... did about 30 miles and then parked it while I went for a coffee somewhere. Got back in.. started her up.. and WAM! The AT suddenly sprang into life. The only thing that had changed was that I had just passed the 900 mile mark....

As an example.. previously, when accelerating... the Auto would shift around the 4K mark through 1-4th when I would floor the pedal.. but now it suddenly began to rev up through the 7K+ mark for each gear.. The difference was like night and day.. The whole character of the car changed.. from the gentle but spritely cat.. that was fun to drive.. to the wildness of a tiger... surging and leaping from gear to gear..

Okay.. maybe a little 'over the top' but really the difference was astounding! Not that the AT was exactly slow or anything before.. but i could tell the difference between the AT and my MT quite easily.. but now, the difference is very blurred indeed.

So, my question is.. does this occur to every AT at about 900 miles? If not.. what could have happened to hers? I'm assuming its something built into the ECU but searching in the forum do not seem to indicate any such 'leap' in performance compared to what I noticed....

I didn't notice the same thing with my MT at all.. though maybe it was just a more subtle change compared to the AT?

Anyone else??

 

I redlined my AT right off the dealer lot, never had any problems. It's very strange that your AT would not rev past 4k, didn't you think that was a little odd seeing as how the tach goes to 7.5k?

 

Mine is still really new. I don't even have 500 miles on it yet. When I did floor it to get up to speed of traffic, it shifted at like 6k.

 

I agree with what you noticed.I have had my AT for two months and have put 3000 miles on it. Yes i gets faster as the engine brakes in. I am VERY happy with it. I noticed it at 1300 miles. I feel very confidant at stoplights as long as no one is in front of me, because you have to rev it up so long that i will run over the car in front. Those automatic pistons have that little jerk around 4000 rpms and i about run over them. Because of them i have to back off and loss my momentum , then my AT is not happy. I love to be first so i dont have to back off and my AT will fly. ( i hope this makes since, i have been trying to put what i feel in words and its hard to explain ) Anyone else know this feeling?

 

Well, not really as I had read here, somewhere, that the ECU limits power for a while, during the break in period.. and so when it would shift early, it made sense to me... as I assumed this was being limited by the ECU.. but I didn't expect the kind of difference that occured after 900 miles.. It was really like something totally took the 'cuffs off' the engine and let her 'sing' properly for the first time... What's odd however, is that I did not notice this with the MT to any such degree... which is why I am wondering if this is related to the AT only.. or maybe it limits the AT more than the MT during break-in?The other change I noticed was that the AT, when flooring the pedal during the first 900 miles (and I did it so rarely so to break her in gently..) was a little sluggish to respond.. especially when passing... The drop down to third or second seems to lag somewhat.. like a pregnant pause.. before the engine would really accelerate.. Now it's almost instantaeous.. and it revs right up to the red line without issue. I could redline it before mind you.. but it took a while to do so.. and the AT would shift quite early unless I used the paddles.. Hope that makes sense??

Anyhow.. whatever the reason.. the AT now is even more fun than before.. and I do enjoy driving both the MT and AT almost equally though for different reasons.. as I gave in another thread.

 

Hmmm.... I've got over 10K (miles) on my AT and if I put my foot down it almost always revs past 6K before it shifts in any gear. Of course when my wife drives it seems to shift under 4K.

Tinkerer

 

I definitly agree I had about the same experience. I just hit the 1300 mark and it's like the car has taken a different personality on. I think it's great. I was considering a MT after reading the power diffence but I no longer feel the need, there are good things about the MT but I'm staying my AT. There is too many stop lights in my area.

 

Not my AT... I notice it at 600K?... But I baby my baby LOL.