Hey guys and gals,

Does anyone else here have this problem: on wide open accelerations, I hit the rev limiter between the first and second gear shift about half of the time. I will be accelerating hard, and within a second of shifting into second gear, I hit the rev limiter, and the car stands on its nose, then it shifts into second and slams me back into the seat and carries on as if nothing happened.

This is very violent, and is probably causing a lean condition in the cylinders when the rev limiter cuts the fuel, so I definitely want to eliminate this problem. I didn't expect an automatic transmission car to ever let you hit the rev limiter under any conditions, so I'm really suprised this is happening, and I dont see much of any way to avoid it, since I am not doing the shifting myself.

I've taken it to the dealer for this, and "big shock", they claim they can't reproduce the problem. That tells me its probably something really big like rebuilding the transmission or something that they dont WANT to do, so i wanted to check in here and see if anyone else has this problem, or better yet, has had this problem fixed.

Eric

 

Try reseting the car....

Go out put your keys in the ignition turn to on setting with out starting car.
Put the gas pedal to the floor count to 5 turn the key off leaving the keys in the ignition then take your foot off the gas and then leave the car alone for at least two minutes...go get the mail or something then come back and start the car and drive it and see if that changes it....I do this after my wife drives the car for a week.

 

Are you sure it's the rev limiter and not the traction control kicking in ?

If it only happens on the 1-2 upshift that sounds like the traction control.

Try turning off the TC button on the console and do a WOT run.

If you hit the 1-2 shift at full throttle and the tires start to break loose the traction control will cut fuel and retard spark trying to regain traction.

Slim

 

I have tried resetting the fuel tables many times as described above, and it has no effect on this issue.

I never run with traction control on (turning it off is the first thing I do after starting the car), so it is not part of the defeatable traction control system.

I think the transmission is just taking longer to shift than the computer expects it to, so the revs are hitting the limiter before the lazy transmission is getting its job done.

 

yup mine does the same thing ..
seems the rev limiter keeps the engine from blowing , too much motor maybe..
i dont know if anyone else has this issue and has resolved it
please reply ..

 

Seems like an aftermarket ECU tune could solve it by moving the rev limiter up, or moving the shift point down under wide open throttle, but that doesn't really solve the problem, if only a few cars are doing this.

If its not something all of our cars do, I would assume there is a problem with our transmission not shifting fast enough. Maybe the line pressure is too low or something?

 

good point , ((mine does not do it all the time)) , might be like it is a bind or strange position... if i don't floor it but feather the throttle it really does good..

oh and it is not the traction control , i have had that come on before that really sucks when it does it with a mind of it's own.

 

Mine is intermittent as well. Does it once every 5 times or so.

 

Why don't you shift out of 1st. gear, a few hundred rpm's sooner, then you won't hit the rev limiter?
Or are you saying this happens when you simple leave the transmission in Drive?

 

I never shift into manual mode. This is just leaving the car in drive and mashing the pedal. I can usually tell when its going to do it by how strong the acceleration feels...on the really good hookups, and big power runs, *BAM* I hit the rev limiter and pop some vertabrae in my back.

 

you do realize that just because the TC is off... it never really is fully off?

 

Wow, that is a problem, sorry I misunderstood. Having a manual, the only time mine has ever done that is when I accidently over reved it, and the limiter kicked in, and like you said it falls flat on it's face.
I can only imagine that happening with an SRT, when it suddenly kicks back in violently and starts accelerating again in 2nd. That has to be rather startling. (Not mention very hard on the mechanicals and your neck.)
Have you noticed if it happens at exactly red line? I mean is that where the limit switch normally kicks in on an SRT?
I know things happen very quickly in an SRT, but have you tried lifting off the accelerator (ever so slightly) just to get it to make the 1-2 shift. I realize you shouldn't have to do that, but until the dealer admits there is a problem, or they come up with an answer, I wonder if that's not going to be your only alternative.
Good Luck.

 

fflores,

Yes, I do realize that. That is why I said it wasn't part of the DEFEATABLE traction control system. Who knows if this is part of the rest of the system that is non-defeatable.

Whatever it is, I consider it a serious problem, and need to figure out either a way to fix it myself, or a way to get a dealer to fix it.

Eric

 

I can almost promise that it's the traction control. Mine does the same thing as well. And I can also tell when it's about to do this. Mine does exactly as described above. I run mine on the track and it DOES NOT DO IT on the track ever. Only on the street. Mine does this 100% of the time when the Traction Control IS ON. Only sometomes when it's off. Given that the TC is never 100% off, I think this is doing it. I noticed that when at the track, if the wheels start spinning after launch, the TC still activates when it's "off".

My belief is this is a function of the stability control. Thinking about it logically, the car doesn't have a Limited Slip Rear End. So, if you are already traveling at a good rate of speed and it senses the wheels begining to break lose, it comes on line to keep the car from losing stability. Without a LSD, if one side spins and one side hooks at 45 MPH, it could EASILY send the car into a skid/spin. I even think I remember seeing the TC light flash when this happens, but I can't say for sure, because I'm looking at the road.

 

mine does it too. Sometimes my trans shifts early (5500), sometimes it seem to forget to shift and hits the rev limiter(6200). And yes, all of this with trac on or off.

 

Well, it's starting to make me feel better that I'm not the only one with this symptom. If several other cars are doing this, it makes me assume we're talking about something in the design, and not some mechanical system failing.

If it is indeed the traction control, and not the rev limiter, standing the car on its nose seems a very odd way to stop me from going into a skid on a slippery surface. Having had a 2004 Mustang Cobra, this is identical to the reaction the car would give me when I missed a shift and hit the rev limiter, so I never really questioned if that is what it was or not, because experience told me, "ah, you just hit the rev limiter." Add to that the fact that it always sounds and feels like the car revs just a little too far before it happens and it shifts to second immediately after kept me from questioning this.

If it is in fact the stability control system doing this (wow, it is a fast-reacting system, if it is), is that system defeatable with an aftermarket ECU tune? Maybe a limited slip differential would improve this situation. The traction control on my cobra had much slower reflexes than what this system would have to have to create this problem. In the cobra, you would be in a slipping tire situation for nearly a second before the system would engage and you would get the flashing light on your dash. This is happening before I can detect any ammount of wheel spin from behind, and it would have to be happening just AFTER the shift into second gear, in that 1/100th of a second as the tires were getting ready to break loose. Again, cutting the fuel to achieve the equivalent of slamming on the breaks doesn't seem like its a very safe "traction control" solution.

 

My car does this too even with the TC off and it has a Renntech ECU tune. Mine will do it sometimes all the way through 1st gear depending on the type of road I'm on (loosing traction), so my bet is it's the stability control kicking in. I'm currently working on building a little circuit that will disable the stability control with a little remote control key fob. I've yet to recieve all the components to build this little circuit, when I get it done I'll post up what I did.

 

I would be interested in a bypass circuit switch!
If ya can make more than one I would buy it!
I am tired of that flashing light!

 

You aren't hitting the rev limiter. The automatic trans simply won't allow for this. If you will notice it upshifts at exactly redline, never higher. What you are experiencing is indeed the ESP program kicking in.

Also spark is most likey what is cut (not fuel) when hitting the limiter.

 

Well, it seems several people are in agreement that this is the ESP system I'm experiencing...

Does this mean that higher traction tires would eliminate or reduce this issue?