Kaeden

I've had my S5 for around 9 months now and I'm almost embarrassed to say I still haven't used my paddle shifters. Main reason - had an S4 back in the day and I used to use the shifters until I had a couple of bad experiences where I accidentally down shifted at a fast speed and the car braked fast, almost caused an accident from the guy behind me, etc. It was a bit scary, and since then I've only used automatic. This feels a bit silly to me with a car of this caliber. Anyone else have similar experiences and any advice for easing back into shifters?

Thanks in advance

belzebutt

Not sure how you were able to decelerate so fast, I guess you were in very high revs and kept down-shifting and hit the rev-limiter? Do it one gear at a time and keep the gas partly pressed. Just play with it, start by shifting at the same points as the auto would.

heymoe

Did the car apply the brakes or was it engine braking that slowed you down when you downshifted? I'm assuming it was engine braking which means the car did what you told it to do. I don't think the transmission will let your downshift if the resulting RPM would be red line or above or at at least I hope it won't let you do that.

belzebutt

Must have been engine braking.

njspeedfreak

The S4 with the dual clutch transmission was capable of delivering a lot more engine braking, however, since it's still a sequential transmission, it's not something that should have come on suddenly. You usually have to downshift at least twice to achieve that level of deceleration.

The B9 S5 has a torque converter instead of a (dual) clutch, and by their nature, torque converters can "overrun" which limits how much wheel power can be transmitted back to the engine. End result is much less deceleration when you downshift.

audibonkers

Take it out on a good road with nothing behind you and get your mojo back

belzebutt

All you need to do is just downshift one at a time and not when you're at more than 4000 rpm or whatever would get you past redline... I mean, it's not rocket science, if you can keep the car between the lines when you're driving, you can keep the tach under red line when you're shifting.

luder888

Only time I ever used it is if i'm going down a sleep hill. Other than that, not a fan of these fake manual transmission for everyday driving.

Kaeden

Thanks for all the feedback, it was years ago..I think I may have hit down once on accident, felt the jerk and may have hit it again which through me into a hard brake and panic... no bueno. It was a 2004 V8 S4 I believe

Like you said, time to get my mojo back.. I'm sure they're fun on open roads

Islandinthesky

I’m in manual/S using the paddles 95% of the time... The only time I’m ever in auto is on a long road trip or cruising on the freeway for a very extended period of time... can’t imagine not having precise control of my gear... never ever had a problem or scare. The closest thing to an issue is if I’m in like 6th coming to a rapid stop on a freeway off ramp, by holding the downshift paddle it will shift to the lowest gear acceptable by the rev range, which can sometimes pop you up to redline... but the solution to that is simple: just never do that. Anyway, the 8 Speed ZF and the paddle control system on this car is brilliant and extremely fast. Highly recommend you just ignore your fears and just slide that control stalk to the right 😎