Coming from 2 manuals to first time DCT - currently a love hate

[quikM2]

I did a quick search and found a number of threads complaining about the DCT but nothing around holding gears too long but I'm sure there is so sorry for the new thread but I got lazy. I've only ever had manuals, my M2 and my 340i so now with my new m3 comp the dct is new to me and I will be honest I am really liking it. it behaves like a manual in some aspects and the shifts feel so quick and strong. it's a great transmission but my only complaint is how long it holds on to gears. it's very weird as I have it in sport mode setting not even sports plus and it will hold third gear to red line with pretty mild throttle input. I mean nothing aggressive and even throttling back it is still stuck in third gear. this is annoying when the car is cold for one as I don't want to take it to redline and also there is only 200 km's on the car so its still 'breaking' in which i am not a huge believer in but still despite myself find myself following the 'rules' and trying not to be too hard on it for the first 1000 and at least not when cold. It did it a number of times to be today. holding third is the worst but it did it in second and fourth as well. anyone else fight with their dct in auto mode? What settings do you prefer for your daily setup?

[Habber]

Manual ghosts are getting back at you.

[pikkagtr]

just drive it like you would a MT and problem solved
I can count on one hand the number of miles I've driven the M3 in auto mode
and this is my 2nd F80

[E46M3forRay]

It’s almost a year for me since I hopped into a DCT and there had been multiple times i catch myself attempting to push the clutch and wiggle the shifter into neutral to start the car. Sometimes in traffic too

Been a 3rd pedal guy for over 2 decades and the one thing I hate about the DCT on S3 mode is it makes you look like a complete novice driver Learning how to drive a manual with all that jerk motion when rolling from a stop.

[mjposner]

"I can count on one hand the number of miles I've driven the M3 in auto mode"

Me too, about 20 miles.

My suggestion is to set up an M button for sport plus suspension and throttle, sport for steering, s3 for dct, and turn this on and only shift manually and it will a different experience.

P.S. "will hold third gear to red line with pretty mild throttle input." This is also what happens in a manual, unless you shift into 4th so why is this an issue?

[ellipsis212]

As a person who loves manuals, the correct way to drive the DCT is with paddles.

If you have to use Auto I find that it expects you drive it hard unless you're in the D1 setting of drivelogic in which case it generally behaves like you'd expect an automatic to behave. So when to use D2/3? Refer to my first statement 🤣

[swagon]

Originally Posted by quikM2

this is annoying when the car is cold for one as I don't want to take it to redline and also there is only 200 km's on the car so its still 'breaking' in which i am not a huge believer in but still despite myself find myself following the 'rules' and trying not to be too hard on it for the first 1000 and at least not when cold.

Put it in manual mode and shift yourself. Problem solved.

[quikM2]

Thank you for all the replies about just driving with paddles lol ... so while I agree yes this a solution it doesn't address the odd issue of sport holding shifts to redline when the car isn't up to temp nevermind the oil. Its a Dct and should be smarter than that is all I was saying and let's be honest driving paddles is not like driving a stick. I am actually surprised at the comments above of guys who only drive this dct in 'manual' mode as I don't really get much from paddle shifting. i miss my 6 speed but I am glad I tried this and it's totally liveable, I was just curious as the to the personality of the dct. I would like to more reaction and responsiveness to the throttle inputs rather than just a blanket response when in sport or sports plus that it will hold and pull to redline. the porsche pdk doesn't do this and there is a dramatic difference between their modes.

[gatorfast]

"Sport" will adjust the throttle sensitivity but shouldn't affect the shift setting as that is related to the drivelogic/transmission setting (ie D1, D2, D3). Do you know which drivelogic setting you are using? The higher the setting the longer it will hold gears.

You mentioned the Porsche PDK but the DCT is different. In the Porsche, sport and sport+ impact transmission shift setting (as well as throttle response and other things). In the bmw, these functions are controlled separately with efficient/sport/sport+ being throttle response settings and the D (or S) 1,2,3 being the transmission settings. This offers much more customization as you could have super crisp shift of D3 paired with gentle throttle of efficient mode and anything in between.

[CanAutM3]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

"Sport" will adjust the throttle sensitivity but shouldn't affect the shift setting as that is related to the drivelogic/transmission setting (ie D1, D2, D3). Do you know which drivelogic setting you are using? The higher the setting the longer it will hold gears.

I was reading through the thread and no one was giving to OP the right answer, until gatorfast did

[gatorfast]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

I was reading through the thread and no one was giving to OP the right answer, until gatorfast did

Just edited my post to include some more tidbits since OP also compared it with his PDK experience.

[SD ///M4]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

"Sport" will adjust the throttle sensitivity but shouldn't affect the shift setting as that is related to the Drivelogic transmission setting (ie D1, D2, D3). Do you know which Drivelogic setting you are using? The higher the setting the longer it will hold gears.

Edited it to give it the proper name. The Drivelogic button is the button immediately to the rear or below the gear selector. Pressing it toggles between S1/S2/S3 in Sequential mode (manual) or D1/D2/D3 in Drive mode (automatic).

Reference: https://www.bmw-m.com/en/topics/maga...o-use-dct.html

[HyeM3]

Originally Posted by quikM2

I am actually surprised at the comments above of guys who only drive this dct in 'manual' mode as I don't really get much from paddle shifting

Ya I know what you mean. Have you experimented with using the shift knob to change gears instead of the paddles? This gives me a little different sensation while driving as compared to using the paddles. I like doing this and pretending I'm using a sequential trans lol (a guys allowed to have fun right?)

[quikM2]

Originally Posted by gatorfast

"Sport" will adjust the throttle sensitivity but shouldn't affect the shift setting as that is related to the drivelogic/transmission setting (ie D1, D2, D3). Do you know which drivelogic setting you are using? The higher the setting the longer it will hold gears.

You mentioned the Porsche PDK but the DCT is different. In the Porsche, sport and sport+ impact transmission shift setting (as well as throttle response and other things). In the bmw, these functions are controlled separately with efficient/sport/sport+ being throttle response settings and the D (or S) 1,2,3 being the transmission settings. This offers much more customization as you could have super crisp shift of D3 paired with gentle throttle of efficient mode and anything in between.

Thanks for your reply - it was more spot on to address my concern. I was driving in D3 paired with Sport across the board hence why it was holding the gears longer as you said. I would think though this 'should' be a little better correlated to the throttle input as with a mild input (~20-25% of WOT) it shifts 1,2,3 quite quickly and with the same pedal modulation in routine traffic it will just ride out that 3rd gear to 6k and its that specific programming that I find disappointing. I did try D2 for a little while but didn't like the slight delay. i will play around a bit more and I readily agree no system is perfect and this is very very good but what do we come on forums for other than to natter on about the minutia

While I agree with your comments on the pdk above in principal that the BMW does offer more customization in terms of options I in my limited amount of seat time do find a lot of them redundant and offering very similar experiences. anyone who has driven a pdk in their version of 'sport and then sports plus' knows there is an incredible difference and variation between them.

Don't even get me started on my issues with the DSC and MDM, I'll save that for another thread

[Humdizzle]

Originally Posted by quikM2

Thanks for your reply - it was more spot on to address my concern. I was driving in D3 paired with Sport across the board hence why it was holding the gears longer as you said. I would think though this 'should' be a little better correlated to the throttle input as with a mild input (~20-25% of WOT) it shifts 1,2,3 quite quickly and with the same pedal modulation in routine traffic it will just ride out that 3rd gear to 6k and its that specific programming that I find disappointing. I did try D2 for a little while but didn't like the slight delay. i will play around a bit more and I readily agree no system is perfect and this is very very good but what do we come on forums for other than to natter on about the minutia

While I agree with your comments on the pdk above in principal that the BMW does offer more customization in terms of options I in my limited amount of seat time do find a lot of them redundant and offering very similar experiences. anyone who has driven a pdk in their version of 'sport and then sports plus' knows there is an incredible difference and variation between them.

Don't even get me started on my issues with the DSC and MDM, I'll save that for another thread

have you considered coding the car to euro MDM and doing the GTS steering/diff/transmission tunes? Might help a little

But yeah when it comes to all the DCT cars I've had... I only drive them with paddles. The computers are dumb, always try to get into the highest gear possible, and frequently changing to a gear I don't want and then I have to adjust my pedal input. Maybe its just because I came from manuals like you and want to maintain complete control over the rpms.

[quikM2]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

have you considered coding the car to euro MDM and doing the GTS steering/diff/transmission tunes? Might help a little

But yeah when it comes to all the DCT cars I've had... I only drive them with paddles. The computers are dumb, always try to get into the highest gear possible, and frequently changing to a gear I don't want and then I have to adjust my pedal input. Maybe its just because I came from manuals like you and want to maintain complete control over the rpms.

Actually i've read quite a bit about the euro mdm and the GTS steering/trans tune... How does that affect the warranty? I am assuming it shows up when they scan the car that you've done it.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by pikkagtr

just drive it like you would a MT and problem solved
I can count on one hand the number of miles I've driven the M3 in auto mode
and this is my 2nd F80

that's the way to do it... if not you spend your life fighting the tranny

I even drive my X5 on manual mode all the time...

[Redacre]

Flashing my F82 DCT to the GTS coding completely transformed the experience in a good way. My buddy's 718 PDK was hands-down better in every way than the M4 DCT until I flashed it. Car shifts much quicker and more intelligently in auto mode. In manual mode, the slingshot effect is gone. I no longer feel like I got a dollar-store version of the PDK

*worth editing to note that this is on a non-comp 2015 model so my experience may have been more dramatic than those with later models or competition packages.

[rborane]

Originally Posted by Redacre

Flashing my F82 DCT to the GTS coding completely transformed the experience in a good way. My buddy's 718 PDK was hands-down better in every way than the M4 DCT until I flashed it. Car shifts much quicker and more intelligently in auto mode. In manual mode, the slingshot effect is gone. I no longer feel like I got a dollar-store version of the PDK

What did you use to code the GTS DCT? I have it via bootmod3 and not to impressed. IMO PDK is way better than any DCT

[Redacre]

Originally Posted by rborane

What did you use to code the GTS DCT? I have it via bootmod3 and not to impressed. IMO PDK is way better than any DCT

I also used BM3. I still agree that PDK is better, but after flashing I feel like the DCT is at least in the same league now. I have absolutely no data or metrics, just feels.

I'm also now wondering if Porsche tunes their PDKs differently across models like BMW has done. Would a 718S have a noticeably better transmission tune than a base 718?

[BigKutta]

I think as many have said, the DCT is to be treated like a manual. if you dont pay attention, it aint gonna be fun.

If you are driving it in auto mode, then set the drivelogic to a lower setting so you dont get jerked around, although I have yet to have it shift at redline unless I am in kickdown mode. Drivelogic 3 can be a bit rough. Otherwise shift on your own which I do with my M2C so you control the shift points

[six75LT]

Originally Posted by pikkagtr

just drive it like you would a MT and problem solved
I can count on one hand the number of miles I've driven the M3 in auto mode
and this is my 2nd F80

this. was unaware people got a car like an m4 and drove it in auto mode