An issue that i've had in both my 07 grand cherokee and my '10 Ram is the auto-stick. When i try to shift into a higher gear, the truck wont do anything. If i downshift most of the time it will drop into gear and i'll be on my way (useful if i need to make a quick pass etc).

Where i notice this problem the most is when using cruise control. Whenever i go down a hill, as you all know it will try to downshift to slow you down. I dont see why it just wouldnt let off the throttle and use the brake, but that's another rant altogether. To save the gas, i will take it off cruise control, but the truck will stay in 4th gear. I'll use my stick to push it over into 5th, but it wont do anything. This problem is repeatable and persistent. Its happened to me with both my Jeep and my Ram, with and without aftermarket programmers.

Is there anything i can do to actually force it to do what it was designed to do?

 

I feel your pain. Unfortunately, it IS doing what it was designed to do.

 

Yep like 05Dakotaho said thats pretty much normal hehehe. When you use the downshift its almost instantaneous control but when you want to upshift the tranny decides on her own when she wants to shift, so less control over that.

As for the downshift when in cruise gong downhill i feel ya there, i hate that setup as well, it should only happen when in tow/haul, but when the truck is in cruise control i noticed it will always try to keep you +-4 km/h of your set speed. Therefore it will downshift downhill to keep you at a certain speed, compared to older cars where they would just coast until you hit flat ground again. Your best bet is to catch it before you feel its going to downshift and cancel the cruise and resume at the bottom of the hill. (also noticed a shutter when i do that).

 

You may be misunderstanding the function of the manual gear selection process...

In most vehicles with automatic transmissions that have an 'autostick' or other 'shift it yourself' feature it is really a 'max gear selector'. You choose the gear and the transmission won't shift up past it. You can keep the trans in a lower gear longer as you accelerate or use the feature to force a downshift. You cannot force an upshift at an RPM/MPH combination that the transmission wouldn't normally let that gear ratio be used. If you manually select a higher gear but the RPM/MPG doesn't warrant use of that gear the transmission will stay in whatever lower gear it deems appropriate.

This has been true on various vehicles I've owned - several Jeeps, the Ram, and an IS300.

Rob

 

I'm sorry but, WOW! WHY WOULD AN AUTO TRANSMISSION LET YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE LET YOU ACTUALLY shift it into 5th gear while going, let's say 15 mph. Now you get it? Sorry if it sounds rude but its because the engineers weren't stupid. I'm surprised this got responses other than, WOW! You should get a bike. Not a 10 speed. In other words, your lucky the engineers weren't that stupid cuz....well, nevermind. Sorry!

 

As designed, the system really will do whatever it needs to, to hold your "programmed" speed. It just might keep you from getting a speeding ticket... if the hill is big enuf, older types of controls would let it coast up to whatever speed was possible.

If you don't want it to maintain control (like you asked) take it out of "cruise."

 

Section88, anybody with common sense isnt going into 5th gear at 15mph, your post was not very helpful to this thread.

BigBlueEdge, thanks for explaining it. When you look at it in that perspective, as a gear cap, it makes sense.

InterpunX, like i said, i usually try to beat it to the punch, and take it off cruise control down hill. This issue is just most pronounced when i miss the beat, and i get stuck in 4th gear going downhill at 55mph. There is NO reason the tranny shouldn't shift back into 5th on its own if its not in cruise control. Equally no reason i shouldnt be able to shift into the gear myself. If you're going highway speed, why would the computer resist changing gears? I just dont get that.

 

I get what you mean TheDarkFox,

My answer to that would be a safety feature that disables the tranny from shifting excessively. I noticed that too but the only answer i got is just a safety feature, that way the tranny stays locked in 4th a lil longer when this happens to avoid damage or overheating of the tranny.

 

I had a 4th gen for a loaner a while back when my truck was getting some work done and I noticed something similiar.. and that was getting the damn thing to go into manual gear selection mode or even listening to my commands. I'd press the damn button on the shifter for downshift... and nothing... then again and again.. then i'd hold it and it would go from full auto into autostick mode but go to like 2nd gear at 40 mph which was just epic fail..

I understand about the upshift process though and agree with the previous posts that say it's really a max-gear selector but I did find that it was pretty picky.. and that truck was a 2011 Hemi crew cab

 

Did the truck you used have a console shifter or a column shifter? The console shift doesn't have any buttons to press to use 'autostick' mode, you just bump it to the left or right.

Rob