I have no idea why an orange light called POWER comes on when I (ahem!!) accelerate a little hard coming out of roundabouts. It also is connected to the switch near my auto box changer with A/T written on it and HOLD and POWER. What the "%^"$%! does it all mean? Is it some sort of light to warn you you're about to see your arse?

Hold is for bad weather etc, it dont change down so quickly and locks it to 2nd when pulling away, power is like sports mode and will come on when you boot it :D

power light comes on all the time...hehe..... :dance:

'power' is an annoying little gimmick that has no use as you will prob find out :-)

coz when you hit the pedal hard it comes on anway, so why bother with a switch, and just like HICAS a gimmick not needed

Power light indicates that your gear box will hold the revs out much longer,up to the red line in each gear. :p

Had a power switch on my old auto Skyline, What a load of crap it was too.

It does have its use - IF you use Power to override the box it will hold off changing gear for longer, even if you arnt flooring it. IT wont rev any higher than the normal redline, but it avoids the box changing gear for longer - otherwise you can find that if you back off the gas a bit in normal mode, the box changes up, then when you want to carry on accelerating, it has to kick down, the power mode will keep the gear until it gets fed up and then changes. If you are having a race against someone - override the box with the switch.

this is something thats always confused me - i find that the O/drive button (set to off) has the same effect - drops you down a gear if your low/mid-revs, and holds to a higher rev until changing up. maybe my wiring's wrong!!! power switch doesnt seem to make nay difference.

this is something thats always confused me - i find that the O/drive button (set to off) has the same effect - drops you down a gear if your low/mid-revs, and holds to a higher rev until changing up. maybe my wiring's wrong!!! power switch doesnt seem to make nay difference.

 

dave thts cos with OD off uv only got 3 gears to play with so th speed range is spread over th three gears, which means higher revs befor shifting.

 

yaseen

ah cheers burb, i mean ya5 :D ;) :) i've read the manual twice now but it just seems like a load of lines and squares. maybe its the jappo version...

 

and so its true then, the power switch doesnt do anything at all... maybe they put in a 3-point rocker switch by mistake and had to think of something fancy to put at the top

ah cheers burb, i mean ya5 :D ;) :) i've read the manual twice now but it just seems like a load of lines and squares. maybe its the jappo version...

 

and so its true then, the power switch doesnt do anything at all... maybe they put in a 3-point rocker switch by mistake and had to think of something fancy to put at the top

 

th power swithc does work, thers no real use for it but it does make a differnce:

 

with th power off th car shifts up ALOT earlier than if u have th power switch on, th power switch on will make th car redline befor upshifting even if you on half throttle, maybe less.

 

th automatic power only kicks in when u floor it and then switches off as soon as u let off th gas

but if it takes it to a higher rev surely thats past its peak torque and BHP, which means you accel slower than a manual when you can change gears at the correct point

lol who cares!

 

my cars fast with or without th power button!

 

zeds rule

...For normally aspirated Zs...peak power (bhp) is higher up the rev range - say 5500 rpm. So if your car is a TT, peak power (for you guys thats torque) is most likly at about 3500 rpm so then who needs the power button as you don't need to rev it as much. If it's NA then you do need to rev it and the power button certainly does make a difference...

 

Please excuse low-tech use of bhp and torque.

OK - if you notice a drop off in acceleration as you approach 7,200rpm then change up, and get your engine checked as well! Mine revs like a possessed thing up to 7200 and only changes because its programmed to and would explode otherwise - Most cars will peak out at 5,500 rpm - the zx just keeps going - amazing engine.

When I wanna have some fun - OD button off, POWER mode on. and grin!

...thats the way to do it... You put it so eloquently. Well done. Keep up the good work...

Please excuse low-tech use of bhp and torque.

 

Not excused. :tongue:

 

Ideal shift point on most Zs of either flavour is high 6ks - slightly higher on an auto because the ratios are wider and so the penalty for changing up is greater.

 

Yes, peak torque FROM THE ENGINE is around 4 ish - but don't forget that the transmission multiplies the torque arriving AT THE WHEELS. If you are in a lower gear you have a better multiple. Therefore the correct point to change up is a tradeoff - torque delivered by the engine falling off versus better torque multiplier from staying in the lower gear.

 

Changing up loses you 25% or so of torque at the wheels - therefore don't change up until torque from the engine has fallen off 25% or so.

 

Power / BHP is totally, completely, and utterly nothing to do and not relevant to this conversation, and only serves to confuse.

 

AIUI the "power" button on autos means the box is less likely to change gear unless strictly necessary - under full welly that means later shifting, but it also means if you're cornering on neutral throttle it's less likely to change down in the mistaken assumption you backed off to cruise. The box goes into "power" mode at WOT anyway - but there's more to hard driving than just using WOT all the time, hence requirement for the button to override.

''Please excuse low-tech use of bhp and torque'' - and I thought I'd got away with it... So thats why those guys at Santa Pod the other weekend were changing into 4th whilst crossing the finish line...

''Please excuse low-tech use of bhp and torque'' - and I thought I'd got away with it... So thats why those guys at Santa Pod the other weekend were changing into 4th whilst crossing the finish line...

 

Will depend on your terminal velocity... if you -just- get to a ton you may as well stay in 3rd, but if you're quite a few mph into theoretical 4th territory it might be worth it.

 

Unless you're implying that everything I wrote is *****cks because you've seen people doing otherwise at Santa Pod and they must know best - having seen RWYB competitors elsewhere I'm quite prepared to argue that's not so. :D

...no worries - I surrender to your superior knowledge... and you are right about their terminal velocity, but some were definately at their rev limits...

 

cheerz

 

Jack

I am glad I have got a manual, that way if I dont achieve what I set out to do on the drag strip then I can sinply just put it down to my own Human Error.

'power' is an annoying little gimmick that has no use as you will prob find out :-)

 

BTW this my 1st time here so "Hi" to all

 

No I don't agree the power button has no use. Its meant and work for prolonging the shift of you gear so you get alittle bit more boost in for each gear.

 

To Test, put the button in Power mode and accellerate from stop and see how long it take for the RPM to reach it pick per gear.

 

I use this whenever I want to pulloff some guys that thinks their cars can out gun me at stop light.