Hesitation off the line in sport mode normal?

[DejaVu]

I finally hit my break in miles and am just now starting to drive around in sport mode. When in sport mode at a stop, I fully and rapidly depress the gas pedal, and it seems I can count a full second before the car goes. It's like it wants a second to rev the engine before kicking it in gear to give a more exciting launch.

My Infiniti G37 did this, on purpose according to the manufacturer. But the amount of time it took to decide to go was random to the point that my one and only accident in 30+ years of driving was because I floored it to go on a left turn and the car hesitated so long that a car that was speeding clipped my corner. I found out after this you could code out that feature.

Instead, I got rid of the car after that and swore I'd never buy another auto.

But here I am with an automatic again and it feels like it does the same thing.

Is that normal? Or when you punch it from a dead stop does your car just go?

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[starman]

annoyingly, it appears to be normal, i get it from time to time even in comfort mode… dangerous if you ask me, recently happened when I wanted to go across an intersection with traffic coming up quickly, floored it to make it across instead the darn car stood there like a scared idiot.

i dont think its the auto, may be something with traction, then again this is my first automatic car so who knows

fyi my 21 is fully stock and right at break in period. Theres a bunch of theeads about it, but these two here appears to be the more active one..

https://www.supramkv.com/threads/hesitation.7774/#post-1151

and

https://www.supramkv.com/threads/throttle-hesitation.8938/

 

[DejaVu]

For me, it definitely is not traction control, warm up time, or weather related. Which is what the other threads seemed to me, my apologies for starting a new thread, I missed that second thread you linked in my search. Thank you for the link.

It was eighty something today and sunny, and the problem was happening 40 minutes into a commute.

There is no wheel spin, it is more like the car is trying to perform the automatic equivalent of a clutch dump. Floor it, car does nothing for a fraction of a second (unlike others it doesn't seem a lack of power, or that it is going to stall, it's more like it doesn't even realize I hit the throttle), then the engine starts to rev, then transmission finally engages. It's definitely dangerous, a car should go when you tell it to.

Mine's a stock 21 as well.

 

[MyCorolla]

Sounds like the issue covered in this video:

 

[handsoffsam]

Sounds like the issue covered in this video:

It is not.

 

[DejaVu]

Sounds like the issue covered in this video:

Ugggghhhh...or maybe Arrrggghh! Driving home today it was so bad I started looking for a different car this evening. I can't do another automatic that won't go when you push the throttle. Frankly I'd rather go back to a manual, deal with the nerve pain from my back surgery, and then pop a percocet at the end of the day than drive a car that thinks it should decide on its own when it should go. I don't get how its getting worse over time. Could be that up until two days ago I was being a good boy and following the official break-in procedure and so wasn't ever stomping the gas. Perhaps it has always had the problem.

Regardless, for me, this video shows my exact issue, even though I'm completely stock. Thank you for posting.

The question is should you really have to buy an aftermarket product to trick your ecu into driving correctly? I assume if I take it to a dealer they'll just tell me it is working as designed.

Do I dump the car for a slight loss or bandaid it?

Something I have to think about.

 

[handsoffsam]

@DejaVu - throttle response and hesitation / lurching after seconds of input off the line are pretty different things. One is just a general complaint and the other a serious safety and/or software defect issue.

As a Nov-2021 owner now nearing 10k miles, my advice is to give it a few weeks of wringing the piss out of it before settling on any decision. Contrary to what many of the posts on this forum would have you believe, Ive personally found this car only really wakes up when you abuse it. There’s a pretty thick layer of numb on everything that takes piercing through with aggression. Brake boost at stoplights. Rev the shit out of this thing. Drive it anger in manual sport mode 100% of the time. Personally, once I started doing that, I noticed many of my complaints disappeared. Now regarding throttle response, that’s an entirely different complaint. Good luck to you!

 

[freeform911]

Ugggghhhh...or maybe Arrrggghh! Driving home today it was so bad I started looking for a different car this evening. I can't do another automatic that won't go when you push the throttle. Frankly I'd rather go back to a manual, deal with the nerve pain from my back surgery, and then pop a percocet at the end of the day than drive a car that thinks it should decide on its own when it should go. I don't get how its getting worse over time. Could be that up until two days ago I was being a good boy and following the official break-in procedure and so wasn't ever stomping the gas. Perhaps it has always had the problem.

Regardless, for me, this video shows my exact issue, even though I'm completely stock. Thank you for posting.

The question is should you really have to buy an aftermarket product to trick your ecu into driving correctly? I assume if I take it to a dealer they'll just tell me it is working as designed.

Do I dump the car for a slight loss or bandaid it?

Something I have to think about.

Have you made sure that engine and transmission are set for sport mode in the individual configuration settings?

Steve

 

[DejaVu]

@DejaVu - throttle response and hesitation / lurching after seconds of input off the line are pretty different things. One is just a general complaint and the other a serious safety and/or software defect issue.

As a Nov-2021 owner now nearing 10k miles, my advice is to give it a few weeks of wringing the piss out of it before settling on any decision. Contrary to what many of the posts on this forum would have you believe, Ive personally found this car only really wakes up when you abuse it. There’s a pretty thick layer of numb on everything that takes piercing through with aggression. Brake boost at stoplights. Rev the shit out of this thing. Drive it anger in manual sport mode 100% of the time. Personally, once I started doing that, I noticed many of my complaints disappeared. Now regarding throttle response, that’s an entirely different complaint. Good luck to you!

That's a fair point, I lumped them together because I saw it as just "a lot of hesitation." Yesterday at one stop light I hit the throttle and counted 1,2 and then the car went. Next light it was less than a second even though I attempted to replicate the same motion with my foot. Next one, back to a two count or so. Somewhere in there was a time it went immediately. I also started playing around with punching the throttle while traveling between 30-40 mph Much of the time it would look like in the video. Hit the gas, nothing happens, next thing you know I'm thrown back in my seat. The randomness of it all is what drives me crazy.

I guess maybe I should be counting the random massive hesitation off the line and the general lag as two separate issues.

With a manual (even a drive by wire like my F-type or the Evora) I've never had to stress about "will my car go if I actually need it to in order to avoid an accident." That's what makes me consider dumping the thing. I've got a 26 mile commute, but with Atlanta traffic it takes about an hour. I'm a firm believer that the right car can turn a crappy commute into an enjoyable experience. And for the first 1200 miles it genuinely was!

It certainly won't hurt to drive the crap out of the car to see if it'll learn to behave. I'll give that a shot, because I was loving it until it started to do this.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[DejaVu]

Have you made sure that engine and transmission are set for sport mode in the individual configuration settings?

Steve

I double checked and it is. Thank you for the troubleshooting step!

 

[legacy_etu]

Not normal at all for me. I have a 20 though FWIW. I think the transmission is adaptiv and since you're just coming out of break in, perhaps it has learned passive behavior. Give it a week or so of being aggressive with the gas.

My car jumps as soon as I hit the go pedal. It's downright twitchy in sport mode.

 

[jchadwell]

Not normal at all for me. I have a 20 though FWIW. I think the transmission is adaptiv and since you're just coming out of break in, perhaps it has learned passive behavior. Give it a week or so of being aggressive with the gas.

My car jumps as soon as I hit the go pedal. It's downright twitchy in sport mode.

Me too but mine is a 21. I also recently coded in sport +. I use it for my individual settings. For me I use normal steering (I like it better - even for AX), sport dampers and sport + for both engine and trans. Note: sport + is only an option for engine and trans. Steering and Dampers are sport or normal only. In this configuration the car jumps immediately at even the slightest throttle application.

 

[DejaVu]

Me too but mine is a 21. I also recently coded in sport +. I use it for my individual settings. For me I use normal steering (I like it better - even for AX), sport dampers and sport + for both engine and trans. Note: sport + is only an option for engine and trans. Steering and Dampers are sport or normal only. In this configuration the car jumps immediately at even the slightest throttle application.

I'll have to track down the thread with how to do that, I vaguely remember seeing it. You can do it with bimmercode right? (first thing I bought after the car. The fake noise had to go!)

 

[jchadwell]

I'll have to track down the thread with how to do that, I vaguely remember seeing it. You can do it with bimmercode right? (first thing I bought after the car. The fake noise had to go!)

Yep. BimmerCode. The locations and settings are in that thread. Very easy.

 

[Moorman]

Unless I manually select 1st gear early when rolling to a stop, I can easily find myself in that scenario where I'd *just* stopped (or come to a very slow roll) and when I decide to go, it will be just as the car has started to downshift to 1st on its own causing an extended delay followed by sudden giddy-up. Should be easy enough to reproduce and capture in a log to have a visual, and I'll see if I can grab that & post it up after work today.

If you stay in manual and select 2nd from a full stop, it will remain in 2nd for subsequent stops and avoids that issue.

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