Gear selector

[Roosterb]

Maybe just something else to go wrong. Sometimes best to stick with what works.

[Quacker]

Wasn’t the option just for the crystal glass gear knob as used in the hybrid? The gear selector on all 8 speed automatic Volvo’s is electronic as far as I know. The lever connects directly to an electronic switch box with a mechanism for providing the detects and feel for driver feedback as chosen by Volvo engineers to be appropriate.

I have a tiny fully electronic, very light to use switch/joystick that selects the transmission functions on my Honda. It could just as well be controlled by push buttons. It is nice. It is ‘different’. Is it ‘better’ though? Not really, in my opinion.

The one thing that annoys me about the Volvo setup is that when you push the lever sideways, it doesn’t activate Sport mode as most controllers do, including all rivals and my Honda [downward pull on this one]. It must be activated by the silly little control wheel which is fiddly and slow. Fair enough for alternative modes, but Sport mode should be immediately and sportingly available at the flick of a wrist.

This is in fact my greatest wish to change on the car.

[MOzS90]

Originally Posted by Quacker

Wasn’t the option just for the crystal glass gear knob as used in the hybrid? The gear selector on all 8 speed automatic Volvo’s is electronic as far as I know.

Mine is an 8 Speed auto and it has a mechanical gear selector. So does the V60.

I’d suggest that the vast minority of SPA cars have the electric selector and it’s far superior. The clunking and weight of the mechanical selector is embarrassing and Heath Robinson in this day and age.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by MOzS90

Mine is an 8 Speed auto and it has a mechanical gear selector. So does the V60.

I’d suggest that the vast minority of SPA cars have the electric selector and it’s far superior. The clunking and weight of the mechanical selector is embarrassing and Heath Robinson in this day and age.

I believe that you are very much mistaken. All SPA cars have an electronic selector mechanism and lever. All look like they are mechanical but actually work switches at the base of the lever, hidden from sight, as is the mechanism that gives the lever the mechanical feel.
As yet, only the XC40 differs from this with a more compact lever like my Honda's which is more obviously an electrically connected device.

You will be very rare today to find a mechanically controlled automatic transmission. They are all controlled through an ECU and linked to the engine ECU.

[MOzS90]

I’m amazed by that if true.

Clunking and thumping with lever movement but selection is electronically actuated. That is retarded.

[taylora]

I'd be quite surprised if it wasn't mechanical, the clunky feeling and obstructiveness coming out of park sometimes would be an act of genius in switch programming.

It certainly doesn't feel electrical like my previous BMW.

Try selecting park on an incline and switching off. The transmission parking pawl takes up some of the slack in delay while the parking break engages. Pulling it back out of park can be very clunky, I can't see how it's anything but mechanical when it behaves like that. The BMW never did.

[Quacker]

There is no getting away from the fact that the gearbox is electronically controlled and drive selection is through an electronic switch box linked to the base of the lever. What you feel as being mechanical is. It is the way Volvo decided to make it feel using a detent mechanism at the base of the lever, which is actually the switch. Believe it or not, that is how it is. Volvo could design the lever to work any way they like, because there is no mechanical linkage between the box and the lever.

[Milliner]

Hadn't given it any thought as I've only ever had a T8, but amazed that cars in the price bracket of XC60/90 wouldn't use an electronic selector (in the same vein as BMW's I mean, which is standard across 3 series onwards).

I assumed in the standard T and D models, the autos operated in the same way as the T8, with the only difference being that it's made from crystal in the hybrids.

My wife's 2 series has a very mechanical feeling auto-selector (be it actually mechanical or not - I don't know) with a long throw between modes and it feels poor in comparison, but then that car is considerably cheaper...

[taylora]

The 2-series has the same transmission as the V90 (non T8 models)....that also feels mechanical, how strange...?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWF8F35

[Quacker]

This is how it works

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/Ehgwf_C5zgY[/YOUTUBE]