I have done search on e-gear shifting to prolong clutch life & it is agreed that if you know you are coming to a stop it is best to go to neutral...but if you have to slow down for a turn or any other reason is it best to let the e-gear do the downshifting or do it manually...thx
downshifting?
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If you are actually making a turn, I would shift manually - knowing exactly when it will be in 1st gives you slightly more control - also the sound of that down shift blip!
I also keep the G in sports minimizing clutch slippage.
Aventador Roadster Extreme Edition, Huracan Performante, Gallardo Performante
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I like driving with the rpms up, so the exhaust is constantly roaring, and that's where the car "finding" the gear doesn't work for me, because it always picks the tallest gear, leaving me real low on rpms.
Sorry if this is a stupid question. I'm a new '08 Gallardo owner. I've been driving the car for about a week now, and I just can't get used to the downshifting. Seems that often when I go to downshift, the car downshifts for me even though I'm not in automatic mode, and I end up double down shifting by mistake. Is it supposed to downshift by itself when not in automatic mode? I don't have this same problem upshifting. I see this thread is 5 years old, so hopefully someone sees my post. Thanks.
KBog, if you are truly driving around in Sport mode on a preLP then no, it should not be down shifting on its own unless you come to a stop without going to N. Is the "Sport" light illuminated on the dash top center? If not, you need to hold the S button down longer maybe a full second until "Sport" comes on. Failing that, I would suggest a reset by sitting at idle, foot on brake, with both handles pulled back at same time for ~ 20 seconds. Then turn off, back on, and wait at idle for say 1 minute. Off/on again and see if it works correctly. Failing that, there might be another issue going on that I don't know readily. You should also do a search on this forum for eGear issues and frankly read, read and read all the many posts that will help you familiarize with the car.
Welcome to this forum and congrats on your new (to you) Gallardo!
Welcome to this forum and congrats on your new (to you) Gallardo!
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Diablo,
Just want to clarify something. I have owned my 06 Murci roadster since Spring. It’s my first exotic. I’m a rookie as far as driving it.
If I was in 3rd gear slowing down for a red light, should I manually paddle shift down gears or let the car do the downshifting? Also, when the car eventually comes to a complete stop, should the car be in 1st? Or is the driver supposed to put the car in neutral by pulling back both paddles? FYI, I’ve been leaving it in 1st.
TIA!
Angel of Murci, I don’t own a Murci I have a Gallardo but I assume the E gear is the same in both cars. That said in your example, if I am in third gear and coming to a red light I go straight to neutral and brake to a stop. If you downshift you have the added appeal of hearing the engine rev match but generally I believe brakes are cheaper to replace then clutches. If you are anywhere close to a stop I would be in neutral. Sitting in gear in a low speed or coming to a stop in 1st places unnecessary wear on the clutch, in my understanding.
As noted, I also never drive my car in automatic I drive always in sport mode. When I park I try always to avoid putting myself in a reversing uphill situation. One thing I really dislike about the pre-LPE eGears is you cannot roll backwards in neutral. I have to use reverse to get out of my flat garage and onto the downslope driveway but once I’m rolling in reverse I cannot go straight to neutral to continue rolling out to the culdesac unless and until I come to a complete stop.
A final note on this matter, which essentially is clutch saving driving tips, I installed a sprint booster in my car. I have no affiliation with Jason at all but I will say that for approximately $300 and about 10 minutes to plug it in, it significantly saves clutch life particularly in these scenarios of low-speed driving where the clutch does not want to fully engage per the eGear system.
As noted, I also never drive my car in automatic I drive always in sport mode. When I park I try always to avoid putting myself in a reversing uphill situation. One thing I really dislike about the pre-LPE eGears is you cannot roll backwards in neutral. I have to use reverse to get out of my flat garage and onto the downslope driveway but once I’m rolling in reverse I cannot go straight to neutral to continue rolling out to the culdesac unless and until I come to a complete stop.
A final note on this matter, which essentially is clutch saving driving tips, I installed a sprint booster in my car. I have no affiliation with Jason at all but I will say that for approximately $300 and about 10 minutes to plug it in, it significantly saves clutch life particularly in these scenarios of low-speed driving where the clutch does not want to fully engage per the eGear system.
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How would the sprint booster help the clutch? Would just pressing the pedal slightly more do the same thing as a sprint booster? If it can really help save the clutch, I'll spend the $300. But I just can't wrap my head around that helping.
Hi Diablo,
Yes, I always drive in sport mode and not in automatic. The egear reset procedure you recommended seemed to help. I now have more control over my downshifts. The Gallardo will still down shift by itself to 1st gear if I'm coming to a stop and do not manually downshift. But I assume that's normal to prevent the car from stalling, correct? Thanks for your suggestions.
KBog
If Jason is on here he can answer that question as I have no idea the electronic answer. All I know is it engages the clutch more quickly. it does make it more, shall we say jumpy, when you first put your foot on the gas particularly in race mode. I believe it just tells the computer to engage the clutch more heavily or quickly than your foot control can do on the accelerator and the theory is more engagement equals less slip. I’ve only had mine for about 2000 miles so I am not a representative sample but it absolutely up feels like it engages in reverse and first more quickly. There are others here who have it installed in their cars and could also opine.
Kbog, yes the car will downshift to first if you force it to do so at a stop and will eventually downshift to neutral as well, but I don’t recommend this driving style. allow me to reiterate that I am a new Gallardo owner this summer so others who have owned their cars for much longer could also give their opinions. my driving style as written above comes from reading this forum and the collective advice and experiences of many others in the years they’ve posted here. I would suggest do a search and read up on them.
Kbog, yes the car will downshift to first if you force it to do so at a stop and will eventually downshift to neutral as well, but I don’t recommend this driving style. allow me to reiterate that I am a new Gallardo owner this summer so others who have owned their cars for much longer could also give their opinions. my driving style as written above comes from reading this forum and the collective advice and experiences of many others in the years they’ve posted here. I would suggest do a search and read up on them.
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Thanks for the advice and response. The reason I asked the question is that, I’ve had 2 occurrences where when stopped at a light in 1st gear, the car automatically went into neutral. I’ve read after 5 seconds if the car has stopped and is in 1st without the brakes on, it will automatically jump to neutral. After that the car was able to be driven forward. On 2 other situations, the exact same scenario played out, except I could not drive forward. I put the car in reverse, then shifted to neutral and 1st and only then did the car go forward. Finally, the last time this scenario happened, the car could only go in reverse. I eventually had to shut the engine off, then on, in order to drive forward. I’ve scoured the earth to analyze the situation. Maybe I’m not keeping the brake pedal pressed down or the brake sensor is on the fritz? However, the last incident freaked me out since I had to shut off the engine to resume my driving. FYI, My vehicle had a full engine out service, new egears, throw out bearings, lines, hoses, clutch. Nearly $16k of work. That was performed 200 miles ago.
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Careful, there might not be a problem here. I know on my G, about 3-4 times in the 4 years I've owned it, when putting it into 1st after coming to a complete stop, it wouldn't do it as quickly as it usually does, which could lead someone to thinking there is a problem.
Then after about 5 seconds (which does seem like a lifetime when the light turns green) it goes into 2nd gear. This is perfectly normal. And is also outlined in the owner's manual. Just like when driving a manual car, sometimes there's some resistance going into 1st after coming to a complete stop. You solve that by selecting other gears then trying 1st again, or just starting off in 2nd or just rolling back an inch, then trying 1st again or forcing it into first. The E-gear system defaults to trying out 2nd gear instead (which will always work) and will never try to force it into 1st gear if it notices resistance.
The problem is most people don't wait this long and start panicking and clicking it back to neutral or R or restarting. Doing all those machinations.. will throw off the egear system as it tries to reset what gear it's supposed to be in.
Going into N I've heard will happen, esp. if your foot isn't firmly on the brake. I would never stop at a light though (in gear or N) without my foot on the brake, so I can't confirm that. Usually, if I know I'll be at a stop longer than 30 seconds, I'll just put it in N from the get-go and keep my foot on the brake.
The trick I've learned is just to time the lights... so about 5-10 seconds before I know it's about to turn green, I put it into 1st. Then just let it do its thing.
Then after about 5 seconds (which does seem like a lifetime when the light turns green) it goes into 2nd gear. This is perfectly normal. And is also outlined in the owner's manual. Just like when driving a manual car, sometimes there's some resistance going into 1st after coming to a complete stop. You solve that by selecting other gears then trying 1st again, or just starting off in 2nd or just rolling back an inch, then trying 1st again or forcing it into first. The E-gear system defaults to trying out 2nd gear instead (which will always work) and will never try to force it into 1st gear if it notices resistance.
The problem is most people don't wait this long and start panicking and clicking it back to neutral or R or restarting. Doing all those machinations.. will throw off the egear system as it tries to reset what gear it's supposed to be in.
Going into N I've heard will happen, esp. if your foot isn't firmly on the brake. I would never stop at a light though (in gear or N) without my foot on the brake, so I can't confirm that. Usually, if I know I'll be at a stop longer than 30 seconds, I'll just put it in N from the get-go and keep my foot on the brake.
The trick I've learned is just to time the lights... so about 5-10 seconds before I know it's about to turn green, I put it into 1st. Then just let it do its thing.
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Infinite,
I’ll check the owners manual for my 06 Murci Roadster, if I can find one ☺
thanks for all the advice. FYI, in all the scenarios I mentioned they all involved slow driving, followed by a full stop that lasted longer than 5 seconds. FYI, in the last scenario I described (where I had to shut the engine off in order to get things corrected), prior to shutting down the engine, the vehicle would not shift into 1st from neutral. I tried multiple times with no success. Yes I was panicking, so the next time it happens I’ll be extra patient and observant to see if the engine can resolve its state.
thanks!
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The problem is every time you try to put it into first, that sort of resets the timing for the egear system so it starts to try to go into first again instead of slipping it into 2nd. So if you click on the paddle say 5 times.. that's pretty much almost 5 attempts it's going to make to try to go into 1st, resetting the countdown each time. Instead of one time... realizing there's too much resistance, THEN going to 2nd. So yeah, you're basically resetting the countdown each time you click. So that what you're describing could be sort of in the normal range of activity.
Yes, give that a try. If it won't go into 1st after the first click, wait a few seconds (say 5-8) before doing anything else. Also try to time it so you don't panic (initiate the gear change before you need the gear). Also, only go into N when you're at a complete stop and waiting, if you're in stop/go traffic.. keep it in 1st the whole time. The clutch will disengage as needed (or just avoid stop/go traffic, hehe).
Yes, give that a try. If it won't go into 1st after the first click, wait a few seconds (say 5-8) before doing anything else. Also try to time it so you don't panic (initiate the gear change before you need the gear). Also, only go into N when you're at a complete stop and waiting, if you're in stop/go traffic.. keep it in 1st the whole time. The clutch will disengage as needed (or just avoid stop/go traffic, hehe).
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Oh so this is pretty much what it's doing:
1) When going from R to 1st, if there's resistance, it will go into 2nd instead after a few additional seconds (assuming no paddles are pressed again, if you keep pressing the paddle it sort of goes into a loop).
2) When going from 1st to R, it may go into N instead... that's just because of resistance felt. This time, you have to click the paddle again to go into the correct gear. This is normal too as the action of it going into N, then going into R would reset the syncros allowing for smoother engagement on the next attempt to go into 1st.
3) Finally but not specified here is when it will go to 2nd from N if it feels resistance going into 1st. This is part of some other tech spec I read and indeed does do it after a few additional seconds. I've put about 4k on my car 4 years and I'd say this has happened about 4 times after coming to a stop and going into N.
PS, all these (esp #2) would align with scenario 2 that you mentioned of only getting into 1st after going into R first. Doesn't mean anything is wrong and this is exactly how a manual car "feels" sometimes. It just won't slip into 1st easily, so you have to change gear, go into N, go into 2nd or 4th or whatever, just move it a little more forward or backward, then it goes into R or 1st just fine. Doesn't happen often, but on my other gated cars, does happen every blue moon (BMWs, Porsches, etc).
EDIT: oh, it also explains here when the egear might go into N (in the box on the lower right).
![egear.PNG]()
1) When going from R to 1st, if there's resistance, it will go into 2nd instead after a few additional seconds (assuming no paddles are pressed again, if you keep pressing the paddle it sort of goes into a loop).
2) When going from 1st to R, it may go into N instead... that's just because of resistance felt. This time, you have to click the paddle again to go into the correct gear. This is normal too as the action of it going into N, then going into R would reset the syncros allowing for smoother engagement on the next attempt to go into 1st.
3) Finally but not specified here is when it will go to 2nd from N if it feels resistance going into 1st. This is part of some other tech spec I read and indeed does do it after a few additional seconds. I've put about 4k on my car 4 years and I'd say this has happened about 4 times after coming to a stop and going into N.
PS, all these (esp #2) would align with scenario 2 that you mentioned of only getting into 1st after going into R first. Doesn't mean anything is wrong and this is exactly how a manual car "feels" sometimes. It just won't slip into 1st easily, so you have to change gear, go into N, go into 2nd or 4th or whatever, just move it a little more forward or backward, then it goes into R or 1st just fine. Doesn't happen often, but on my other gated cars, does happen every blue moon (BMWs, Porsches, etc).
EDIT: oh, it also explains here when the egear might go into N (in the box on the lower right).
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Some other tidbits of the egear system:
1) When starting out on even a slight incline, it will "hold" the brakes for a second or two... to give your foot enough time to go from the brake to the accelerator without rolling backwards. So there is basically no need to keep pressing the brakes while trying to accelerate uphill, if you do that and overlap it for even a fraction of a second, things can get weird.
2) That also means when you press the accelerator, there might be a fraction of a second where if feels like it's not moving forward (cue panicking!!!) but it's really just releasing the brake pedal first, then accelerating, you might also hear the brakes or car make a gentle popping sound as the brakes are released.
3) When in SPORT mode and above 4k rpm, if you initiate a downshift, it will double clutch for you, so you have some nice rev matching and what feels like a throttle blip and smoother engagement.
1) When starting out on even a slight incline, it will "hold" the brakes for a second or two... to give your foot enough time to go from the brake to the accelerator without rolling backwards. So there is basically no need to keep pressing the brakes while trying to accelerate uphill, if you do that and overlap it for even a fraction of a second, things can get weird.
2) That also means when you press the accelerator, there might be a fraction of a second where if feels like it's not moving forward (cue panicking!!!) but it's really just releasing the brake pedal first, then accelerating, you might also hear the brakes or car make a gentle popping sound as the brakes are released.
3) When in SPORT mode and above 4k rpm, if you initiate a downshift, it will double clutch for you, so you have some nice rev matching and what feels like a throttle blip and smoother engagement.
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