R51 change one thing?

Any topics related to 2005-2012 R51

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Kestral
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Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:22 pm
Location: MA

R51 change one thing?

Postby Kestral » Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:51 am

This topic may have come up before but maybe it's time to revisit it. If you could change one thing you really hate about your R51 what would it be?

For me I really hate the shift points on my PF R51 V6 it's always trying to put me in top gear I understand it for fuel economy but I so often feel that my truck is bogging and will not downshift fast enough. At times it drives me nuts! On my way home every day there is a stretch of road that is 30 mph with a slight incline and twisty road and I just drop it to 3rd gear manually it seems to be the proper gear for the road and has less bog. Yes the economy shift points drive me nuts! Other then that I really like my 2012 and frankly I wish Nissan never went away from the body on frame truck concept. Yes a refresh was prob needed with more refinement but I feel Nissan should have kept this truck body on frame like the new Toyota 4Runner. Sorry for venting..


skinny2
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Location: BFE, Ohio

Postby skinny2 » Fri Sep 19, 2014 5:28 am

These transmissions learn your driving habits (as do most automatics since the 90's). I wonder if you just don't drive your PF hard enough so the transmission has "learned" your lazy ways? Then when you get into a place where you want more crisp shifting it's not going to happen without a lot of throttle input. I drive 60 miles a day mainly on two-lane state routes that are hilly/curvy. I run it pertty hard.....3-4 WOT passes per day, go into the curves hard on the brakes and out the other side hard on the go-pedal. My PF is one of the best shifting autos I've had. It downshifts easily, holds the gear through turns/hills, and even downshifts going into some turns quickly. I rarely use the manual shifting. Now my wife has an Acura MDX with a shit-ton more power and better handling, but that thing shifts so sloppily it feels slower than my PF on my commute. At least until the transmission learns my driving habits, but that seems to take a day or two. Then it's like a totally different vehicle.

I've never looked up how, but usually you can reset the ECM and this will put the transmission back to default mode which is usually a less lazy shift pattern (on other vehicles anyway). Might be worth a shot just to see if it shifts better for you for awhile anyway. If most of your drive is easy/highway it will probably quickly learn the old thrifty shift habits.

To answer the post question though....the auto HVAC system is my biggest complaint. I can't just leave it on a temp and forget it like most every other car. I constantly have to adjust it 10° to keep from freezing/roasting. I basically don't use auto mode anymore and just adjust what I can manually, but I still have to use the temp setting which fluctuates a lot. Been like that since it was new.


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