What are you guys seeing for stock 1-2 shift points?

I'd like to hear from some other auto 4.0 owners as to what they're seeing for RPM on stock 1-2 upshifts. I just finished restoring an '08 V6 Premium, and it seems like it winds up crazy high before it pops 2nd. This is my first S197, and I'm just wondering if they're all like that.

Light throttle, moderate throttle, WOT, whatever, I'm looking for your input.

Thanks! Carl

The stock automatic, 5R55S, doesn't wind up much at all in first gear. With light throttle, normal driving, it's typically around 1500 1800 rpms. Even with a performance tune, it still shifts around that same point, unless you lay into the throttle, which case is waits longer to shift, but not whole lot longer.

Benwhite911 said:

The stock automatic, 5R55S, doesn't wind up much at all in first gear. With light throttle, normal driving, it's typically around 1500 1800 rpms. Even with a performance tune, it still shifts around that same point, unless you lay into the throttle, which case is waits longer to shift, but not whole lot longer.

Click to expand...

Must be something wrong with mine. 1-2 comes in between 3500-5000 RPM most of the time. You really have to feather it to get it to shift 1-2 at much less than that.

Anybody else?

You said you restored it, was the car OBD touched in any way? The only two things I could think that might be the reason is; 1. The cars ECM has a custom tune one it, or 2. There might me something infact wrong with the tranny. When you're sitting at a stand still, and you give it a little gas, does the car move at all, or will is sit until the revs get higher?

Yep, I programmed it with a Hypertech Max Power. I enabled "increase shift firmness" (there's only an on/off toggle) and reduced the 1-2 shift RPM by 400.

I didn't think that those settings could have that effect. The same programmer on my '09 F150 didn't behave that way at all. In fact I raised the 1-2 shift point, but it only affected WOT shifts.

Guess I could try returning it to stock and see what happens.

Returning to stock tune resolved the problem, it shifted as you would expect, including light throttle upshifts at low RPM. Seems like increasing shift firmness with the Hypertech also cranked up the shift points, which is some pretty wonky behavior.

I wanted an SCT tuner anyway to try to resolve an annoying harmonic vibration at idle, so I picked up a used X3 3015. With that tuner I was able to adjust the firmness individually for each shift, in the same way the Hypertech worked on my F150, without affecting the shift points.

For whatever its worth, I bumped the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts +20%, and they're fairly solid and crisp without being rough or annoying at all. But even going +25% on the 1-2 seemed to make no difference, it's still very soft. I'm guessing there's some sort of torque management at WOT, although why you'd need that on the 4.0 tractor engine is kind of a mystery to me.

Incidentally, the canned SCT 91 octane performance tune really woke up said tractor engine. I made the mistake of standing on the throttle from a dead stop with the windows down (listening for ping), and when I got wheelspin, I figured, "Eh, it's early in the morning, dew everywhere, tires must be wet" and by the time I realized they weren't, the interior was filled with smoke. Ooops!

Did the handheld end up fixing your harmonic vibration? I'm wondering what in the tune would have an effect on engine harmonics.

46addict said:

Did the handheld end up fixing your harmonic vibration? I'm wondering what in the tune would have an effect on engine harmonics.

Click to expand...

Sure looks that way. I'm not sure they were engine harmonics though. If I had to guess, I would say that something in my dual exhaust was the culprit.

The short version is, after replacing many parts in an effort to fix a really annoying driveline vibration at idle in Drive with the A/C on, I bumped the "Drive Idle" from 625 to 725 RPM using an SCT X3 3015 programmer. Presto, no more vibration.

Now, it was 45º the day I made that adjustment, so I may have to revisit this next summer. But I did replicate the problem before making any changes. I tried 575 RPM, which didn't help, then 675, which was better but still had some vibration, and 775, which didn't vibrate but had a bit of forward creep at idle. 725 was the sweet spot, at least, for me.