Observations
So the day that I got my tune completed, I have not reset the fourth trip computer, so I can record how many miles I have been driving since. I hit about 17 hours and 675 miles today. I was traveling for 8 days inside that window, so it's not a whole lot of experience yet. However, I have noticed a couple things.
First of all, Jtran never drove the car after the tune - he had me do it. I think I need to have him drive so he can feel the shifts, how the car responds to the gas pedal, and how the engine moves through it's rpms during normal driving conditions.
During moderate acceleration (not WOT, but agressive) between 2 and 3 gear, the car seems to try to shift and fail three times. It manifests in the sound of the engine and feel in the drivetrain. Like a "rrra, rrra, rrra". Small, jerky thrusts with each during this event - like I'm stuck between gears for a moment before it "catches". Hope I'm describing it well enough. As soon as it does get into gear, it's fine and feels normal again. This has happened a few times - not consistently, but in certain situations. I feel like I could recreate the problem any time if I wanted to.
The other characteristic has to do with throttle control. When I press the accelerator say, 1/4 of the way down, the car continues to accelerate way past where it would have before my tune. It's almost as if the car thinks I have continued to slowly press the pedal. I don't really like this because I have to back off the pedal just to maintain a lower speed. To describe this another way, it's almost as if a tiny adjustment on the pedal translates to a much larger command for speed - but it takes forever to get there. Example - I press the pedal lightly in a residential area, say in a 35mph. If I didn't move my foot, the car would accelerate up to 75mph, but it would take 10-15 seconds to get to 75mph. Instead, now I have to take my foot off the pedal to maintain 35mph, feathering the pedal to maintain speed. Before my tune, I could find a pedal position that "equaled" the speed I wanted and just stay there. Can't seem to do that anymore.
In manual mode - DAMN. The car is so responsive! I get up to higher rpms very quickly and it's pretty fun to drive this way! I really feel like command is much more snappy in manual mode - there are fewer and shorter lags in the shifting. I can really feel my transmission a lot more and feel much more in step with the car as compared to the automatic mode. Guess this is because I'm controlling my shift points, instead of letting the computer "smooth" them out.
I'm wondering if doing another dyno tune and manipulating maps could take care of these anomalies. Might be smart to have Jtran actually drive my car to feel what I'm describing. I'd like to make some changes.
