Sport mode... Whats the point?

Can someone explain what its for? I never bothered with it until last night and i cant figure out wtf youd use it for. I assumed it was like tiptronic, basically take control of shifting, but it still shifts early and automatic. So what does it actually do?

 

It allows you to limit the gear it will automatically shift into. For example it defaults to S4, so it will still up/down shift automatically but never higher than 4th gear. This can be handy for towing when you never want to go into an overdrive gear.

 

Limits the highest gear the transmission will shift into.

 

It's not sport it's really a shift limiter. It does not force upshift. It only limits how high the max gear the truck will shift into. Set it at 4 and it will not shift above 4th gear. It is so when you're towing you don't tow in 5th or 6th which are overdrive gears.

 

You can also downshift with it -- I use it when going down big hills or coming up to a toll booth or something. Save the brakes a little.

 

I like sport mode, if I need to pull out some where in a hurry I will start it in first and go through the gears keeping the RPM's high and the truck will really move when you manually shift it.

 

My sport mode doesn't seem to work correctly. For instance I put it in 6th and the truck will not stay in 6th. You can hear and feel the truck shifting on its own but the number 6 does not change. Is this normal?

 

Yes that's normal, sport mode only limits the highest gear the trans will go into. If you have it set at 6 then it will just work like it does in auto.

 

The number does not change, and it does not keep it in the gear, it just limits how high it will go. If it's s4 it wont go higher than 4th gear, but it won't keep it in 4th gear. S5 will limit the upper gear to 5th, but wont force it to stay in 5th.

 

...but if I put in in 1 and drive fast it will still shift into 2 etc...so how does it limit it when it shifts anyways.

It's my first auto so I was hoping the sport mode would fill my manual needs.... It does not.

 

I've never tried to lock it to anything below 3rd, so I can't say for sure. Were you redlining it? Maybe the ECU has some programming to save the engine/transmission by forcing the upshift even in sport mode when it thinks you're going to damage something.

 

Try reading. You could learn something.

 

It does for me, I will start in 1st and run each gear til about 5,000 RPM's as I manually change each gear and the truck will move!

 

I don't know for sure but it's high. I only did it once and it definitely shifted to 2nd. I'll see how the limiting works tomorrow on my drive to work. All back roads with rolling hills.

 

Minivan engines don't typically like to stay at redline for too long...

 

I believe they cover this in the owners manual.

 

Who the hell reads instructions

 

People who like to know how their vehicle operates.

 

So it seems if you set it in 1st gear then you can use it like a manual. Eh, ill never touch it again most likely. Next truck will be a manual.