My BMW e46 is seeming a little resistant to downshift when I press the accelerator.
It’s only really noticeable at freeway speeds when going up hills. In the past, if the RPMs started to drop I wouldn’t have to press the gas much (or at all) for the car to realize it needed more torque and shift down. But now they continue to drop or stay the same even if I give it a fair bit more throttle.
If I give it a boot-full (not full-kick down) it will eventually do it and I can force it to shift in manual mode, but it’s just annoying to see RPMs dropping even though I’m putting more power through it.
Any thought of what the issue could be would be greatly appreciated.
05 will be electronic throttle, it’s worth having the throttle pedal read out of the DME ( engine control unit) that’s the thing that they’ll the DmE to get the gearbox control unit to kick down. They don’t always put an check light on
No BMW experience, but I’ll offer up a couple of guesses, might help. Throttle valve position, intake manifold vacuum, engine rpm, and vehicle speed are key downshift-decision inputs. Advice above to verify throttle pedal position sensor output is accurate seems like a pretty good place to start. If no satisfaction on the inputs, next on the list, the problem could be a transmission electronic-shift actuator; i.e. there’s no problem determining when to downshift, but drive-train computer is unable to effect the downshift b/c of transmission-related problem. Checking for diagnostic codes makes sense too.