An embarrassing complaint about the palm style shifter.

[cncBilly]

I was going to select the "Friendly" rating, but it was too funny! Sorry. I love candid "confessions". They make me feel better about myself.

I have a GT1 and this will never happen to me. But just this afternoon, I started up, turned the wheel to pull out of where I was parallel parked and pushed the gas pedal and got revs and no forward motion. I hadn't taken it out of "P" yet. Heh!? No hassle, no pressure, just a brain fart, plain and simple.

I'm with ya Merlin, twice now working with my Stinger Winger while backing onto the ramps I press lightly on the gas to just hear the engine rev. I then stick my head out the open door and say "perhaps I'll try it in gear". Both times my second effort worked like a charm. Amazing how well they work in gear.

 

[Manchuz]

Can I suggest to anyone experiencing this issue that if despite your best efforts to always select gears in a controlled manner should you continue to find the transmission unexpectedly ending up in neutral that you try this test as per my video here.

This problem always seems to be blaming either a poor selector design with the shift by wire system or operator error. However I can confirm that in some instances it is simply down to a faulty selector which this test can verify as it dispels the common suggestions that the gears are either being selected too quickly / the lever is being allowed to quickly "snap" or flick back into position or the vehicle is not stationary when shifting between drive and reverse.

So starting with the car in park and keeping your foot on the brake at all times to ensure the vehicle always remains completely stationary repeatedly select drive. Although this may seem nonsensical at first as there would never be a need to do this under normal driving conditions it will verify that some selectors are faulty and that sometimes when you select drive in a controlled manner and with the vehicle completely stationary that the transmission moves to neutral which you will see with the behaviour of my faulty selector in the video. Immediately after this test in my car we repeated the same test in the dealers vehicle and no matter how many times we selected drive this time the transmission always remained in drive.

Based on this comparison test with the dealers car they agreed that I have a legitimate fault and contacted Kia corporate who have asked them to replace certain parts in the selector. I am waiting on the parts to be received and can advise forum members of the outcome in due course.

My vehicle is an early production MY18 build and it has been suggested elsewhere on this forum that the problem is isolated to this model year so I would be interested to hear of any MY19 owners who can verify the same fault using my test method here:

Interesting. I'll have to give that a try after work. But agree that based on your video, it should not just snap back to neutral. You never shifted up nor did you press the shift knob button.

 

[MrSmoofy]

Interesting. I'll have to give that a try after work. But agree that based on your video, it should not just snap back to neutral. You never shifted up nor did you press the shift knob button.

While it shouldn't do that I can tell you that you can shift into neutral without using the shift button/knob as far as I know all cars are like this at least all the ones I've had could shift from drive to neutral without using a button.

 

[MerlintheMad]

While it shouldn't do that I can tell you that you can shift into neutral without using the shift button/knob as far as I know all cars are like this at least all the ones I've had could shit from drive to neutral without using a button.

Careful, there, Smoofy. Editing is a skill set. And don't be in so much of a hurry.

 

[MrSmoofy]

Careful, there, Smoofy. Editing is a skill set. And don't be in so much of a hurry.

Trying to get my post count up so I can run with the big dogs

 

[Tazztattoo]

While it shouldn't do that I can tell you that you can shift into neutral without using the shift button/knob as far as I know all cars are like this at least all the ones I've had could shift from drive to neutral without using a button.

correct, although Kia instructions state the button needs to be pressed when changing into drive you dont actually need to do this. And in the case of my video test here I am not trying to change the transmission from reverse or park into drive but rather just keep it in drive at all times to demonstrate how it sometimes selects neutral by itself.

 

[Manchuz]

So mine doesn't revert to N as shown in Tazztattoo's video when doing that same motion. MrSmoofy is correct that you can upshift to N without having to press the button.

 

[Devin]

I think this thread is hilarious. Mainly because I've done nearly the same thing in my '89 Land Cruiser. It doesn't spring into neutral, but there is a huge amount of slop in the shifter and combined with me being a doofus I've revved it in neutral completely convinced I was in drive.

It's not quite like stepping off an invisible stair, but it's close!

 

[MerlintheMad]

Vis-à-vis pushing into "N". All of my automatics allowed this, period. A simple nudge of the shift lever and it drops instantly into "N". It's a safety thing, to instantly take power from the wheels in the event of a loss of gription, e.g. on black ice. It's the automatic equivalent of pushing in the clutch pedal with a standard trans.

That said, after over fifteen months in the Stinger, I have yet to put the trans into "N" when driving, or even sitting for that matter. I've not used "N" for anything.

 

[DrPattyCakes]

Can I suggest to anyone experiencing this issue that if despite your best efforts to always select gears in a controlled manner should you continue to find the transmission unexpectedly ending up in neutral that you try this test as per my video here.

This problem always seems to be blaming either a poor selector design with the shift by wire system or operator error. However I can confirm that in some instances it is simply down to a faulty selector which this test can verify as it dispels the common suggestions that the gears are either being selected too quickly / the lever is being allowed to quickly "snap" or flick back into position or the vehicle is not stationary when shifting between drive and reverse.

So starting with the car in park and keeping your foot on the brake at all times to ensure the vehicle always remains completely stationary repeatedly select drive. Although this may seem nonsensical at first as there would never be a need to do this under normal driving conditions it will verify that some selectors are faulty and that sometimes when you select drive in a controlled manner and with the vehicle completely stationary that the transmission moves to neutral which you will see with the behaviour of my faulty selector in the video. Immediately after this test in my car we repeated the same test in the dealers vehicle and no matter how many times we selected drive this time the transmission always remained in drive.

Based on this comparison test with the dealers car they agreed that I have a legitimate fault and contacted Kia corporate who have asked them to replace certain parts in the selector. I am waiting on the parts to be received and can advise forum members of the outcome in due course.

My vehicle is an early production MY18 build and it has been suggested elsewhere on this forum that the problem is isolated to this model year so I would be interested to hear of any MY19 owners who can verify the same fault using my test method here:

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for what your results are.
Let me know when you do pls. Mine seems to be a bit TOO sensitive. My shifter would switch 10 times out of 10 if I did that test.

 

[Dr_jitsu]

This is a potentially very dangerous problem. I was in drive the other day trying to launch into traffic doing 55 mph. Just bumping the shift knob lightly put the car into neutral and nearly caused an accident. This is my first major problem with this car, and it is significant.

The knob should stay in drive unless I press the shift button.

 

[turboAWD]

I've actually done it twice in my GT1 due to force of habit. With my Legacy GT, I ALWAYS drove in "sport" mode, which was similar to the manual setup on the GT1. Except that it would be in "sport auto" until you shifted, then you were in sport manual until you shifted back to "normal auto" - no "hold for 3 seconds" or anything. I got good at that - flip the lever over to the right just enough to disengage the "sport sensor" and then let it snap back.

Anyway - I got used to always being able to push up/down (forwards/backwards) to shift a gear. Well, in the Stinger, you can get be in "temporary manual" mode just by clicking the paddle in "normal drive" mode, without being in the manual mode. So, a couple of times, I've clicked the paddle to start in 1 (in normal auto), and when it felt like it wasn't going to shift (probably with ESC/traction control off) in a turn, I've hit the shift lever "up" to shift to 2nd (thinking I was in manual mode), and actually knocked it into neutral and revved it up but good. Doh!

Over time, I'm sure this will happen less and less..

 

[MerlintheMad]

I've actually done it twice in my GT1 due to force of habit. With my Legacy GT, I ALWAYS drove in "sport" mode, which was similar to the manual setup on the GT1. Except that it would be in "sport auto" until you shifted, then you were in sport manual until you shifted back to "normal auto" - no "hold for 3 seconds" or anything. I got good at that - flip the lever over to the right just enough to disengage the "sport sensor" and then let it snap back.

Anyway - I got used to always being able to push up/down (forwards/backwards) to shift a gear. Well, in the Stinger, you can get be in "temporary manual" mode just by clicking the paddle in "normal drive" mode, without being in the manual mode. So, a couple of times, I've clicked the paddle to start in 1 (in normal auto), and when it felt like it wasn't going to shift (probably with ESC/traction control off) in a turn, I've hit the shift lever "up" to shift to 2nd (thinking I was in manual mode), and actually knocked it into neutral and revved it up but good. Doh!

Over time, I'm sure this will happen less and less..

Interesting. I've used the manual gate 99% of the time. But on those occasions when the shifter is in "D", I have yet to push on it to upshift and had it flop into "N". There is a first time for everything, so the saying goes; but it hasn't happened to me yet. Probably it hasn't happened, because I don't bump or tug on the shifter that much: I use the paddles 99% of the time and only bump the shifter to upshift when it is obviously the best way to upshift with the steering wheel out of position, and my right hand is preoccupied with a water bottle or food or similar.

 

[turboAWD]

Interesting. I've used the manual gate 99% of the time. But on those occasions when the shifter is in "D", I have yet to push on it to upshift and had it flop into "N". There is a first time for everything, so the saying goes; but it hasn't happened to me yet. Probably it hasn't happened, because I don't bump or tug on the shifter that much: I use the paddles 99% of the time and only bump the shifter to upshift when it is obviously the best way to upshift with the steering wheel out of position, and my right hand is preoccupied with a water bottle or food or similar.

True - that was the case - wheel was turned to make a left turn, and needed to upshift (1st to 2nd). Thankfully I'd jumped out so fast in 1st that there was a huge gap and I didn't slow traffic down while figuring out what happened, waiting for revs to drop and putting it back in D