Gen3 Automatic

Can someone explain the settings on the Gen3 automatic: 3-D, 2 and L. Also, how do these slot in with the button activated 4-H and 4-L fwd settings?
Thanks in anticipation..

It's all in the owner's manual, and much clearer than I could explain it.

Simply the selector limits which gear the box can use. It allows you to have engine braking on down hill sections on or off road. 4x4 high operates in the same way 4x4 low removes 4th even in D. Also 4th is over driven to help fuel economy and at cruise speed also locks the torque converter again to improve efficiency.

Each position determines the highest gear the transmission will shift up into. overdrive or 4th gear. Push the stick left to limit it to 3rd. Back to 2nd and back again to L for 1st gear. If you put it in L then go for a drive it will all make sense.

You just put it in D when you want to go forwards, and forget about it.
If you are towing on undulating roads, you can press the "overdrive off" button on the selector to stop it hunting between 4th (overdrive) and 3rd. This also provides a bit more engine braking on downhills if you live in the mountains.

If you are off road, and want to drive down a slope so steep you could never walk up it, put it in 1 and go down on tickover with the engine holding it back.

(I don't know what 2 is for. I know what it does, but can't think of a situation where it would be used. On a Borg-Warner it would start off in 2 for slippery surfaces and stay in it, but the JATCO always starts in 1st)

My 2012 gen3 auto doesn't have "overdrive off".  You can push the selector sideways for 3.

My mistake , I thought it was the same as the Gen 4.

Moving the shifter sideways to 3 is the same as pressing "overdrive off". I bet there is a microswitch in the shifter.


They all blur into one now after 40 years of autos, but all the 4 speeds are pretty much the same. In 40 years I've only moved out of D once when driving forwards, in the Rangerover to creep down a long slope I wouldn't have been able to stand up on.



 

There's a few different good hills round here that you would be ill advised to do just on the brake pedal and just snicking the selector left is no hardship.

Driving with Danes in Norway I was surprised to smell their cars after doing some downhills. They thought something was seriously wrong with their car and had never experienced hot and smelly brakes before.

I guess that is how it is when you live in a flat country and go to the extremes here in Norway where 10% hills or steeper is common.

Low Gear, brake hard intermittently, and never hold the brake pedal halfway in for more than a short time span.

I get scared driving behind modern cars seing the brake lights on for the duration of the hills, but I guess the EV on regen is charging all the way down and not on the brakes.

That said, many brakes are used too little and get rust on the discs. Best for the service life to really use them.

Yep, but I am atm in South Africa and the manual is in the manual Jimny in the UK at a specialist repair shop!!

Thanks all - I am looking at buying a second Jimny here in SA and want to buy an automatic for the family to use. Never driven one, never even sat in one but it will suite the driving style of the family here! You shake any tree here and they just fall out, I have never seen so many Jimnys of all models, including the 5 door, anywhere. Even Perth came nowhere near this.

I plan to fly back in a month or two and fetch one from the centre of the country where it is so dry nothing ever rusts.

Facade "You just put it in D when you want to go forwards, and forget about it." matches 100% how they will drive it!

Thanks for the comments!

JAG