Normal 10 speed automatic behavior (quirks)?

[4leghorse]

Hi friends! I've been driving my GT 10 speed for over half a year now. It's been great. However, just want to confirm a few behaviors (quirks) of the automatic transmission, make sure it's not just my car that does these weird things.

Normal mode:
Everything is normal, although the car is pretty eager to shift to higher gears even at low speed. I've seen it shifting into 10th gear when going like 45 mph. Smooth shifts.

S, S+, Track mode:
2-3 shift very rough, almost feels like I got rear ended. 4-5 shift also pretty rough, but not as bad as 2-3. However, the rough shifts are not as noticeable if I'm press hard on the accelerator. If I floor the gas while shifting from 2 to 3, it's not rough at all. The shift is only rough when I do it while not giving it a lot of gas.

S, S+, Track mode (paddle shift):
Taking off in 1st gear, after pulling the upshift paddle, it takes forever (1-3 seconds) for the transmission to shift into 2nd. Even moderately pressing the gas paddle, the transmission won't shift from 1 to 2 until I'm almost at 5000 rpm. Pretty annoying.

Down shifting from 3 to 2 sometimes takes a while (1 second ish).

If I want to drop 4 gears at a time, I quickly pull the downshift paddle 4 times, but the transmission sometimes would issue two separate shift commands, like it would drop 2 gears and another 2 gears.

Drag mode:
Chirps the tires on every shift.

All modes:
Very occasionally I would take off from a stop in D, giving the car gas and the car would just sit there and rev, almost like it's in neutral for like a second. Then it engages drive and starts to go forward. Everything would be normal after that. This has only happened to me twice since I owned the car.

When the car is still cold, the idle rpm is kind of high. If I shift into D and just creep around parking lot, sometimes the car would increase throttle and speed up on its own for 1 to 2 seconds, then slow down. Not sure what's going on, almost like the transmission is shifting into another gear and shifting back.

It takes a couple of seconds to engage D from R. I scared myself the first time when I was backing up on a hill, trying to park in tight space. When I went from R to D and let go of the brake, the car started to slide backwards for a bit.

Do you guys agree with the behaviors I just described?

Final question: do you guys like to drive in paddle shift mode? Aside from the 1-2 slow shift from the start, the paddle mode has been quite fun. The shifts are mostly quick and responsive. When I first drove the car around mountains, I put it in auto mode, and the car would get pretty confused with what gear it wants to be in (the downshifts when I brake at corners make pretty sweet sounds tho). With so many gears, I feel like it's constantly shifting. I only use auto mode when I'm feeling lazy or around parking lots (the rough shifts scare me in parking lots!). Otherwise I use the paddles. What are your thoughts?

got mine back from the dealer today they did some update to the the trans and every shift is like butter now the 4-5 in track and sport that would throw me in the trunk is gone. Car drives great now extremely happy. Think they released a better tune for the 10r80

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[Echo4papa]

The transmission learns your driving habits but you don't do the same things all the time. It's trying to perform based on what it thinks you're doing. Under heavy throttle, it's a simple matter. Floor it and those shifts are amazing, especially in the higher modes. When you aren't giving it heavy throttle, you're introducing more guess work into the mix. Light to mid throttle in S or S+ and it shifts "harder" because you're driving soft in a mode made more for performance. Though, in S+ paddle shifting there is a minor delay shifting from 1-2 it should not be 1-3 seconds and if that really is the case, have the dealer check it out.

My last two cars before my '15 GT both had a DCT and under full throttle the a10 shifts nearly as fast and smooth if not just as fast. I wasn't expecting that and was pleasantly surprised. My suggestion would be to have the tables reset and keep it in D if you're just cruising and want smoother shifts. If you go into S or higher and aren't driving harder, be prepared for some rougher shifting, especially 2-3 and 3-4.

If you do that and still feel something is off, have the dealer check it out.

 

[trewon1]

I bought my 18 new back in April of 18. I had my transmission check and re-flashed about a year later give or take. My main issue was jerking from p to d or r to d. My car shift smooth for maybe a year. Now my car is back to jerking in to drive. I have about 30k easy driven miles on it.

 

[Alan2955]

got mine back from the dealer today they did some update to the the trans and every shift is like butter now the 4-5 in track and sport that would throw me in the trunk is gone. Car drives great now extremely happy. Think they released a better tune for the 10r80

It probably won’t last. Mine was great for a couple days then went downhill as it ‘learned’ how to be a crappy transmission again. It’s still better than before the update, but does lots of weird things. Most annoying is a jerk just before I come to a stop, slow change from R to D, and occasional harsh engagement when going into R. Sport mode shifts are still rough at times too.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Geez, my A10 is spectacular, in D/Normal mode, it's a Lexus, in Sport+ (either in D or S), it's a beast like an old school shift kit, fast and hard. Mine is also tuned, so maybe that included sorting out the normal modes as well.

 

[Stage_3]

Geez, my A10 is spectacular, in D/Normal mode, it's a Lexus, in Sport+ (either in D or S), it's a beast like an old school shift kit, fast and hard. Mine is also tuned, so maybe that included sorting out the normal modes as well.

Mine seems to be the same way, but I only have almost 1,400 miles on it. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.
I almost always drive it in D and in Normal mode with traction control off. Once in a while, I'll drive it in D in Sport+ mode with traction control off. Mostly on the highways as it's really aggressive for around town stop and go.

 

[Norm Peterson]

It's because humans and machines/electronics don't work the same way. The driver is an analog kind of device with the ability to choose from a near- infinite variety of choices, while car mode selection is limited to having only six basic approaches that try to approximate the entire spectrum. As good of a job as the PCM and the A10 can do most of the time, it's not going to be able to find all of the "in-between" schemes that some individual human driver might want to use at any given moment. The electronics may get close, but the driver is most likely doing some adapting of his own at the same time.

Some people will notice this more than others.


Norm

 

[Aldra]

Mine only has 600km on it but it does seem a tad fussy under hard acceleration at lower speeds, with some other odd behaviors like reversing faster than you would expect. Apparently some cars have come with the transmission under filled, I'm wondering if mine is one of them.

 

[GT2022]

My 2019 a10 does some strange stuff, lots of jerky shifts, the whinning noise it makes worries me - plus, I have 3.55 gears, so 1st gear is just about useless

Sorry to revive a 2 year old post lmao but did your transmission whine ever get better/go away? I got a 2022 that whines like nobodies business -.-

 

[speedup]

lol, actually no - 2 years later and its still whinny, jerky, and clunky. I checked and found the trans fluid about a half a quart low. I topped that off and it seemed to help a little.

I have about 22k miles on it now, and its still going strong... still loving the car

 

[GT2022]

lol, actually no - 2 years later and its still whinny, jerky, and clunky. I checked and found the trans fluid about a half a quart low. I topped that off and it seemed to help a little.

I have about 22k miles on it now, and its still going strong... still loving the car

Damn ahaha yea I got the whine and only super jerky when using the paddle shifters from 3rd to 2nd the car lurches forward quite considerably. As you said though, still loving the car. Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[sirben711]

Sorry to revive a 2 year old post lmao but did your transmission whine ever get better/go away? I got a 2022 that whines like nobodies business -.-

lol, actually no - 2 years later and its still whinny, jerky, and clunky. I checked and found the trans fluid about a half a quart low. I topped that off and it seemed to help a little.

I have about 22k miles on it now, and its still going strong... still loving the car

Same problems. But after Ford reworked my valve body (which helped a little) they said all this behavior is normal.

I still disagree. But I am tired of fighting them.

 

[Johnnybee]

I often use sport around town because I’m tired of the transmission, as far as I’m concerned, lugging my turbo engine in D. I find that there is a fine line between too little throttle and just enough to have it shift not too harshly. Of course, if I floor it it shifts better but , LOL, I’m not into producing GT fuel economy all the time. That said, I have been experiencing a harsher 4-3 downshift when coasting up to a stoplight in the past few months, although to some degree this has been mitigated if the transmission is up to temperature. This at approximately 25K miles.

 

[GT2022]

Same problems. But after Ford reworked my valve body (which helped a little) they said all this behavior is normal.

I still disagree. But I am tired of fighting them.

Yea I got the whole “it’s within spec” “it’s normal” when I brought it in, which to me doesn’t really make sense. If it wasn’t designed to whine or be jerky, and it is whining and jerking, then clearly it’s not “normal” .. :/ I have read some posts about eliminating the whine by replacing the gears on the pump for the trans, but good luck getting ford to do that under warranty

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