So I have an '05 Cooper S that I bought 9 months ago; After driving it for so long, my passengers tell me it feels as smooth as an automatic when I'm shifting. However, I can't figure out for the life of me how to shift quickly and smoothly out of first gear when trying to accelerate hard. The only way to get it smooth is waiting for the revs to drop, which seems to take a very long time shifting from first to second gear, so it's a slow, long shift. If I try and do it quickly it lurches forward. Is it possible to do this shift quickly at all? For now, when I want to be smooth while merging onto a freeway, I just short shift into second and accelerate hard, and then it's easy to be smooth. Is there any way to actually make use of first gear in this car though other than acceleration pulls and climbing up driveways?

 

I found the car. It's just a jerky car. I thought I was sucking at driving but just drove my buddies turbo civic and i drove it just how i drive my mini and it seemed WAY SMOOTHER. Then I learned that the mini yoyo thing os the fault of my driving ,lol for a few days I thought I just was sucking at driving
With my mini I find the best "feeling " shifts when shifted at 2900 and when you clutch you wait ever so slightly for the rpm to drop and ease off the clutch . Now I think about it I for sure had to ease off my clutch in my mini much more than I did the civic . But honestly , I found the shifting feel and throw to be much nicer in my mini . A lot of these newer cars shifters are way too stiff and way to notchy. The only thing I wish I had in my mini was a gear select light though letting me know what gear I'm in..because 6 is a lot to remember 😉..
ps..shifting fast does not equal smooth. When your going fast you wanna just throw the baby in gear and get on and off the clutch asap. Lol when I run mine hard and I hit 2nd it barks the tires pretty loud and will dip my front end pretty good. Lol then I know I just hit that gear good .

 

Haha, I had a similar experience with a friend's new Civic Si, it felt a lot easier to drive smoothly. I thought I sucked also because it took me so long to get smooth with the car, but it just seems that's how the r53s are. Yeah when I'm to the floor I don't really care about smoothness, I chirp second pretty often, but it looks like while driving normally then you can't really accelerate much in first gear. Oh well, the rest of the car makes up for it

 

The drive-by-wire accelerator does not allow the revs to decrease as quickly as a cable. That means your revs stay higher between shifts. You might try a short-shifter. It will shorten the throw front-to-back but not side-to-side.

 

I actually like the stock shifter length . Imo it's short enough . It allows for good accurate throws into gear . I do find it's easier to drive with my throttle controller too. The touchier more responsive pedal helps too because it gets rid of the dead spots..

 

I have noticed the dbw lag; It's pretty bad and annoys the hell out of me. Is there any way to get rid of it? I think I'm actually okay with how the shifter feels right now, the throws are a little long but not long enough for it to bother me.

 

I have noticed the dbw lag; It's pretty bad and annoys the hell out of me. Is there any way to get rid of it? I think I'm actually okay with how the shifter feels right now, the throws are a little long but not long enough for it to bother me.

 

absolutely. I'm using a throttle controller. You can have it taken care of by a tune too but a perfer a controller because it let's you set it and adjust it to your liking . Some are 300$ and the one I got and has been running perfect with it was 80$ off Ebay . Here's my post about it

https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/r50-r53-hatch-talk-2002-2006/345681-bought-and-tested-ebay-throttle-controller.html

 

One of the problems I've noticed with the R53 is the Fly-by-Wire accelerator , which sux..... I am having trouble understanding your problem coming out of 1st gear, it should be a smooth process. When I'm accelerating hard or just cruising shifting up from 1st is not a problem, never a lurching problem. I just purchased another manual car for my 19yo son, he crashed the first car; I was driving with him the other day, he was making a turn into a parking lot and he down shifted into 1st gear on the turn from about 20-25 miles an hour, that was a lurch with my head going forward. I NEVER down shift to 1st gear, which I expressed to him. Is that what you are experiencing?

 

It sounds like he was describing the yoyo these cars suffer from..lol my cars HATES to cruise at 5mph or under. It will rock back n forth sometimes no matter what you do.

 

No, coming out of first gear for me can be smooth as long as I'm doing it slowly. It takes forever when I'm shifting from first to second for the revs to fall so I can go into second gear without lurching forward. If I try letting the clutch out immediately after shifting into second, the car lurches forward as the revs are still too high; this is my frustration lol, and also the fact that the throttle is very sensitive in first gear and jerks around a lot if I'm not careful with it. Like you, I never shift down into first gear unless I'm slowing down to below 7-8 mph or need to accelerate really hard, in which case I rev match down shift and it's fairly smooth.

 

YES, I hate driving in the parking lot in first gear because the car just constantly jerks back and forth at low speeds, I guess it's a common characteristic with these cars?

 

yes...

 

It's the dreaded rev hang. Mine has it too. MiniMan mentions a throttle controller, but I'm not familiar with that. But a tune will fix it. The computer moves the throttle body (well, the rotating disk inside the throttle body moves) more slowly than your foot moves the pedal. I've read this is done to help optimize emissions. A tune will fix it such that when your foot backs off the pedal, the throttle rotates immediately to closed instead of moving slowly. Same thing goes on pushing the pedal down...a tune will make the response much better.

Note to self: get a tune soon!

 

The revs hang from the heavy weight of the flywheel. Low capacity engines use them to keep interia up

 

Maybe it's a combination because I've read articles like this several times:

"The cause of rev hang can be put down to the war on emissions. Recently, manufacturers have been intentionally implementing rev hang within ECU programming to save themselves from a potential emissions scandal. When the throttle is released and the clutch is dipped, an ECU with rev hang is programmed to leave the throttle slightly more open than usual.This strategy is used because it was found that suddenly closing the throttle produced a sudden spike in gas pressure within the crankcase which emphasised the rate of oil vaporisation, thus adding to emissions from the engine. Also, when the throttle is suddenly shut, the fuel mixture suddenly becomes lean which creates NOx (oxides of Nitrogen) which also contributes to emissions."

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/rev...heads-hate-it/

 

I am sure this wasnt even a thought when the DME was being coded.