decending from a mountain

[TheNewbie]

A few weeks ago I was on a vacation in france, we rented peugeot 307, in one of the days we visited some mountains, the car managed the climbing fine. But when going downhill the transmission was just going crazy shifting all over the place, eventually I engaged the tiptronic control, and had a smooth ride. But I was wondering if there's anyone here who used to go downhill with other cars as well, if it was just that car, or most cars auto transmission tend to freak out on downhill?

 

[iamwiz82]

I usually drop it in a lower gear when I am coasting downhill in an automatic.

 

[Gibson486]

I never had that problem....

 

[Zenmervolt]

If it's steep, I'll throw the automatic into second and let the car engine-brake down the mountain. Automatics are programmed to go into the highest gear when coasting, to save fuel. Unfortunately this also means there's little engine braking, which can overload the brakes on a downhill section that's steep enough.

ZV

 

[thomsbrain]

I have no idea if this describes the behavior you experienced, but:

The 5-speed automatic in my Accord will drop down a gear by itself if you are braking while going downhill, and then hold the gear until you get back on the throttle. It is often enough engine braking that you can take your foot off the brake entirely and let the engine maintain your speed. After getting used to it, I love and anticipate the feature (nearly 60,000 miles on the car, and the brake pads look practically new), but I will admit it was disconcerting the first time it happened. The transmission will also preferentially hold shorter gears if you have been driving really hard in the last few minutes.