22 Mach1/A10 hard downshifts downhill twisties

[MachNroll]

22 Mach 1 owner here with the A10 transmission. I'm new to the A10 (2 months in) and have read on here that the A10 isn't exactly the smoothest shifting transmission. During normal driving it appears fine to me. However, when I am in Sport mode on a coasting downhill twisty road, my A10 suddenly starts downshifting fast all the way to 2nd gear. Like bam bam bam bam bam etc. and revs like crazy. Sport mode any other time for me is fine. Crisp firm appropriate shifting during all other normal or spirited Sport mode driving. But downhill coasting twisties in Sport mode, 9th to 2nd fast and hard with high revving. My first thought was the car senses the combination of twisties and coasting downhill driving and thinks maybe its on a road course/track and drops the gears for max torque. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is this just another example "normal" characteristics of the A10?

Thanks all!

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[RiotfunK]

You have to use the paddles and drop them yourself or get a tune to adjust the shift points.
I have a manual Mustang, but any of my auto/paddle shift cars, I had to do that because of what you’re experiencing. There’s far more better versed than me on this. But I’d try the paddles

 

[skinnyb]

Mine is/was very agressive downshifting when it detects a fairly steep decline in sport mode especially if I use the brakes at all. I got it tuned and it does still downshift but not nearly as agressive. I typically use manual mode if I am driving spiritedly and shift myself..

 

[MachNroll]

Ok, cool... at least now I know that it is "normal." Or others have experienced it too. My first two Mustangs were manual, so this is a first for me. Thank you for replying.

 

[young at heart]

My 2023 does it for sure, exactly as you describe. In track mode, anyway.

I’ve learned to try to anticipate it and paddle up one gear when it’s almost all the way down. The engine revs so high sometimes I’m surprised it doesn’t hit the limiter.

 

[Paddles]

You have to use the paddles and drop them yourself or get a tune to adjust the shift points.
I have a manual Mustang, but any of my auto/paddle shift cars, I had to do that because of what you’re experiencing. There’s far more better versed than me on this. But I’d try the paddles

Aw yea
I am always in support of this
Give that girl the paddle

 

[shogun32]

I could see programming it to keep the revs from dropping below 3k, but this operation mode was written by a retard, surely. Where does Ford find these mouth breathers?

 

[ChitownStang]

22 Mach 1 owner here with the A10 transmission. I'm new to the A10 (2 months in) and have read on here that the A10 isn't exactly the smoothest shifting transmission. During normal driving it appears fine to me. However, when I am in Sport mode on a coasting downhill twisty road, my A10 suddenly starts downshifting fast all the way to 2nd gear. Like bam bam bam bam bam etc. and revs like crazy. Sport mode any other time for me is fine. Crisp firm appropriate shifting during all other normal or spirited Sport mode driving. But downhill coasting twisties in Sport mode, 9th to 2nd fast and hard with high revving. My first thought was the car senses the combination of twisties and coasting downhill driving and thinks maybe its on a road course/track and drops the gears for max torque. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is this just another example "normal" characteristics of the A10?

Thanks all!

You have to tune your Mach 1 10-speed if you ever want to enjoy it. Bottom line

 

[CrazyHippie]

Mine is/was very agressive downshifting when it detects a fairly steep decline in sport mode especially if I use the brakes at all. I got it tuned and it does still downshift but not nearly as agressive. I typically use manual mode if I am driving spiritedly and shift myself..

I've experienced this too. But in my case, the downshifting seemed to be appropriate for the situation - down a steep hill on the bakes. It only dropped two gears to provide sone dynamic braking and didn't over-rev the engine.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

The more I hear about these A10s, the happier I am I got a manual.

 

[Krankenstein]

A Dark Horse owner and I both experienced this same issue when taking our cars out to Ozarks International Raceway. The 10speed is a great transmission (especially for roll racing) but for some reason whoever wrote/approved the tune for it clearly did not account for elevation change (or they are just stupid and programmed it to behave way too aggressive). It's seems once the car feels any kind of steep decline it throws it to the lowest gear possible as if it is anticipating you to brake hard or go flying out of a corner.

It will perform very well on courses that are flat or have minor elevation change (like Ford Racing School Roval), but on tracks like OIR that have lots of hills/elevation change the transmission doesn't seem like it knows what gear it wants to be in. Turn 1 at OIR is a fast down hill off camber turn and I found my transmission downshifting mid-turn, which is not ideal. Took me two laps of odd shift points before I got fed up and swapped over to manual paddles. I ran paddles for the rest of the day which was way more fun and the car performed much better.

Seems that this behavior is typical for the 10speed and the only ways around it are to swap to paddles and manually determine the shift points yourself, tune the transmission to behave differently or simply get the tremec from the start. I do love my car, but honestly there are times where I do wish Ford had made the Mach a manual only car.

 

[MachNroll]

A Dark Horse owner and I both experienced this same issue when taking our cars out to Ozarks International Raceway. The 10speed is a great transmission (especially for roll racing) but for some reason whoever wrote/approved the tune for it clearly did not account for elevation change (or they are just stupid and programmed it behave way too aggressive). It's seems once the car feels any kind of steep decline it throws it to the lowest gear possible as if it is anticipating you to brake hard or go flying out of a corner.

It will perform very well on courses that are flat or have minor elevation change (like Ford Racing School Roval), but on tracks like OIR that have lots of hills/elevation change the transmission doesn't seem like it knows what gear it wants to be in. Turn 1 at OIR is a fast down hill off camber turn and I found my transmission downshifting mid-turn, which is not ideal. Took me two laps of odd shift points before I swapped over to manual paddles. I ran paddles rest of the day which was way more fun and the car performed much better.

Seems that this behavior is typical for the 10speed and the only ways around it are to swap to paddles and manually determine the shift points yourself, tune the transmission to behave differently or simply get the tremec from the start. I do love my car, but honestly there are times where I do wish Ford had made the Mach a manual only car.

This is exactly what I have experienced and thought. It's the steep or semi steep downhill elevation change that takes an otherwise excellent driving experience and ducks it up with the sudden and severe downshifting. It's almost embarrassing when someone is in front or behind me and my car starts revving like a psycho.

I'm not terribly keen on a tune because of my warranty (at this time) so I will use the manual paddles or switch over to normal mode as needed. Thanks for responding and sharing your experiences and thoughts!

 

[ChitownStang]

Can't believe they haven't fixed that on the DH ! trans has been out for 7 years un the mustang.
Unfortunately DH can't be tuned as this doesn't happen anymore on mine.

 

[sakman84]

Can't believe they haven't fixed that on the DH ! trans has been out for 7 years un the mustang.
Unfortunately DH can't be tuned as this doesn't happen anymore on mine.

Wasn't this A10 also used in later model Camaro SS? As I remember it was, yet the magazines said Chevy had it tuned better. Now they were not mentioning this downhill use case specifically but its food for thought.

Elevation changes make a track much more interesting! crappy to hear for the A10 guys.

 

[ChitownStang]

Wasn't this A10 also used in later model Camaro SS? As I remember it was, yet the magazines said Chevy had it tuned better. Now they were not mentioning this downhill use case specifically but its food for thought.

Elevation changes make a track much more interesting! crappy to hear for the A10 guys.

That’s what I also heard from many others but never have driven their version .
I’d like to see for myself out of curiosity but I really don’t like the new gen Camaros.

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