Does anyone know if the "timer" that returns the car to Drive "D" after using the paddle shifters WITHOUT moving the gear lever over to manual "DS" mode can be altered by the dealer? In other words, is it a setting in the computer that is alterable?

The programming as it stands now is designed to aggressively return you to "D" once the car belivfes you have no reason to be in manual shift mode. If you are shifting, accelerating, turning, etc., it will stay in manual mode for a short while (not long enough). If you are simply preparing for an upcoming passing situation or undulating road, it is useless as it will return to "D" after only a handful of seconds.

I would like to disable this timer completely or set it to a very, very long time. It is obviously designed now assuming we are idiots and hit the paddles by mistake and therefore want to return to "D" ASAP. The car could be returned to "D" by moving the gear lever to "DS" and back to "D" if it needed to be reset. Another alternative is to hold both paddles in simultaneoulsy for three or four seconds.

Moving the gear selector in the first place wouldn't be such a hassle or a problem, except for the ridiculous programming that drops you a couple of gears as soon as you do that--when most of the time that is not what you wanted to do. It is a manual mode so that you can manually do what you want, not have the car shift based on a pre-programmed algorithm. Selecting the right (up-shift) paddle avoids this, but it will shift back to "D" 99% of the time before you have had a chance to do whatever it is you preferred to do manually.

Thanks in advance if anyone knows the answer to this specific ECU/programming question.

 

i highly doubt it. Best bet is to just call and ask - or go there in person and see if you can convince them. I would be very surprised if they do it.

 

o and to add - if they do adjust it, please let me know as I would love to have this done as well haha

 

if you disable it why not just drive in DS mode all the time.?

 

Call who? My dealer didn't even know that the auto lock can be disabled and that you can make one click of the remote open all doors simultaneoulsy! I told them any modern car would have this capability so they searched and searched the computer codes and said "no--can't be done." Five minutes with the user manual solved it as they are both things you can adjust YOURSELF.

Only someone with direct knowledge of the codes and options in the dealer computer interface will know the answer to my question.

 

The whole point of paddles is not to have to use the gear stick.

I guess a simpler option is to have the activation of the paddle activate DS mode instead of the "in between" manual mode (although that would likely do the shift to 5th gear silliness).

Right now, just to use a proper manual mode that is available on any European car, you have to go through this process:

1) Hit the RIGHT paddle (not the LEFT, because that will put you into 5th gear even though 99% of the time that is not what you want to do or why you are activating manual mode).

2) Quickly, before the stupid short timer deactivates manual mode, move the gear lever to DS mode so that you retain manual control.

3) Shift up or down or hold a gear as you originally intended when accessing the paddles in the first place.

4) When you are done needing manual control, which could be 10 seconds or 10 hours later, move the shift lever back to D.

That is 4 steps to do what should be one step (#3). That is what we call poor user interface design.

The extra insult is that going directly to #3 is accommodated by the "in between" manual mode that is triggered by the right paddle, but it is rendered next to useless by the automatic return to D after only a few seconds. The car cannot anticpate the curves, hills, traffic, etc., that causes one to want to use manual mode, so it shouldn't try to do it. It will leave it in manual a bit longer under some driving conditions, but will still inevitably return to D prematurely.