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The "L" gear.....

31K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  Halo 
#1 ·
Has anyone noticed how fast the murano can go from stand-still til whenever you have to shift it?? At 1st I tried and it was about 60 mph. than the other day I was drivin alone side a Z(cute chic griving it tho) so he took off and passed a car, so i was doin about 40-45....than i dropped it in "L" to go catch her...next thing I know iam doing 80 in "L".....I have air intake on my murano...I dont know if you guys notice, but the murano is VERY fast on a roll when in "L" gear!! I have found you get a burst when you drop in the "L" WHILE flooring it at the SAME time.
 
#2 ·
I believe in any gear, you can take the car to top speed. The RPM's the CVT will try to hold will be higher the lower gear you choose, thats all.

Yeah I love the CVT for passing - you get the perfect passing gear, instantly.
 
#3 ·
The RPMs will be high in any position, it's just that S and L will get you into the high RPMs faster.

They're just software selections, you're not changing anything physically, except for the switch, er, I mean shifter position.
 
#4 ·
so howd you fair against the Z? I need to get my wife to race me hehe.
 
#6 ·
I read somewhere that the "L" mode was for additional engine breaking, and not really for accelerating. If you are in "L" mode, you can stomp the pedal, but if you were in "D" and you dropped to "L" that was not recommended.

Am I wrong?

I also remember a post where someone said to enter the highway on a ramp on "L", and once you get up to speed, shift to "D" and you get an extra boost of speed.....
 
#7 ·
Ds and L just modulate how the transmission varies the drive ratio.

It simulates keeping a car in a lower gear, but I have noticed it doesnt have the ill side effect of limiting the car... it will adjust the ratio up as needed to achieve more speed.

Pretty friggin cool if you ask me.

I wouldnt do it often, as I would imaigine the torque stresses the belt some, but if you are towing, or trying to crawl out of a sticky spot (mud or snow) or need a quick boost of acceleration, L is ideal for that.
 
#8 ·
I often use Ds for "down shifting" when I need to slow but don't want to use brakes. It works well.

My only compliant about the CVT is that sometimes I feel the RPMs are too sensitive to gas pedal input. I think we need one more mode on the CVT prior to D... G... for grandma mode. In this mode RPMS stay around 2000 about 90% of the time unless you completely floor it.

Hmmm I think I'll write Nissan about my great idea! :4:
 
#9 ·
What you 'feel' as a quick boost of acceleration is just that, a 'feeling'. The L position does not make the MO any faster accelerating (from a roll or stop) than simply flooring the gas in any of the other gear selections. Under full throttle in any 'gear', the ECU will keep the RPMs in the powerband to the best of the engine's ability. L is pretty useful for e-braking on steep descents though. It will not result in better time to speed or time to distance despite the 'feeling' of the car lurching as you switch to L.

How does the 4,000 lb CVT-equipped MO fare against the Z? Well, it holds more stuff :D
 
#10 ·
Halo said:
What you 'feel' as a quick boost of acceleration is just that, a 'feeling'. The L position does not make the MO any faster accelerating (from a roll or stop) than simply flooring the gas in any of the other gear selections. Under full throttle in any 'gear', the ECU will keep the RPMs in the powerband to the best of the engine's ability. L is pretty useful for e-braking on steep descents though. It will not result in better time to speed or time to distance despite the 'feeling' of the car lurching as you switch to L.

How does the 4,000 lb CVT-equipped MO fare against the Z? Well, it holds more stuff :D
You have a supercharged S2000? How much fun is THAT!!
 
#11 ·
Halo said:
What you 'feel' as a quick boost of acceleration is just that, a 'feeling'. The L position does not make the MO any faster accelerating (from a roll or stop) than simply flooring the gas in any of the other gear selections. Under full throttle in any 'gear', the ECU will keep the RPMs in the powerband to the best of the engine's ability. L is pretty useful for e-braking on steep descents though. It will not result in better time to speed or time to distance despite the 'feeling' of the car lurching as you switch to L.

How does the 4,000 lb CVT-equipped MO fare against the Z? Well, it holds more stuff :D
The murano is faster in "L" than in "D"....to say the murano is not faster from a roll than it is from a stop is crazy....its like a total different car. well atlest it is when you got intake.....it feels alot faster than a stock one.....:2:
 
#12 ·
wait the minute...

Has anyone noticed how fast the murano can go from stand-still til whenever you have to shift it?? At 1st I tried and it was about 60 mph. than the other day I was drivin alone side a Z(cute chic griving it tho) so he took off and passed a car, so i was doin about 40-45....than i dropped it in "L" to go catch her...next thing I know iam doing 80 in "L".....I have air intake on my murano...I dont know if you guys notice, but the murano is VERY fast on a roll when in "L" gear!! I have found you get a burst when you drop in the "L" WHILE flooring it at the SAME time
You have not finish your story rite?
Did you get her phone number or at least catch up with her Z and giveher a devilish smile :22:
 
#13 ·
nismomurano said:


The murano is faster in "L" than in "D"....to say the murano is not faster from a roll than it is from a stop is crazy....its like a total different car. well atlest it is when you got intake.....it feels alot faster than a stock one.....:2:
If you actually read what I wrote, I stated that the car is no faster from a stop or a roll regardless of the 'gear' you select as long as you keep the small pedal floored. Nowhere did I say that it is not faster from a roll compared to a stop.

That said, have you put two MOs side by side, one in L and one in D and run them full throttle? Not butt-dyno, I mean a realworld test? I have. And they are neck-and-neck. Because the other MO in question was an SL and mine is an SE we did various combinations of L,S and D between the two and each time the result was the same: As long as you kept your foot all the way to the floor, the car would rev to close to the VQ's peak hp and stay there. L and S clearly does let the engine rev higher under less than full throttle. If you consider how fast it accelerates at half throttle then I'll agree that L and S might be faster... but who would test at half throttle?

You have a supercharged S2000? How much fun is THAT!!
Pretty fun :D It feels even more like a sportbike than in stock form. Very good on a medium sized track. It's actually slower in AutoX because it's very hard to keep it from breaking loose all over the place.
 
#14 ·
Re: wait the minute...

SugarRushMurano said:


You have not finish your story rite?
Did you get her phone number or at least catch up with her Z and giveher a devilish smile :22:


man.....i can keep up with any car(unless its a ferrari).....but yes i caught back up....and no i didnt get her number.....she wasnt that cute lol......i got couple of girls number earlier they were in a accord coupe tho.
 
#15 ·
Halo, sorry, wrong on two counts:

At WOT, D, S and L do behave differently. Put the car in D and floor it and the motor will jump up to the mid range and then slowly climb as your MPH does. If you push it over into S, then the RPMs will leap up towards redline much faster giving maximum acceleration sooner. L goes even further, giving you maximum acceleration and engine breaking without any lag for pulley ratio shifting. I would not recommend driving in L for long, it's not really healthy to peg your motor at near redline for such a long period of time, but it's absolutely brilliant on a cloverleaf freeway interchange when you want to balance the car on the edge of traction and then get maximum power from WOT to launch out of the corner without any lag at all.

Now then, on the subject of the "kick" you get from shifting from L or S into D at high RPMs. That is the tranny shifting ratios as you lift off the throttle, which means as a consequence it's trying to slow the engine down, which means you get a huge dump of rotational inertia from the motor into the drive wheels. You don't actually need to do the shift at all, you can floor it in D, wait a bit for the RPMs to climb up to redline, then lift %90 off the throttle and feel the car surge an extre few MPH faster. Kinda disconcerting at first until you get used to it, but then it's kinda fun :4: .
 
#16 ·
And the cool thing about S or L is that quick response with the perfect ratio immediately there, gives you a jump on others with conventional transmissions or standards.

It's like the Murano "leaps" while the other vehicles are getting ready to...

I don't know if I could ever have another vehicle with a conventional transmission.

Well, unless it was a 'Cuda with a Hemi.... But that would be the toy car!
 
#17 ·
ZBoy said:
Ds and L just modulate how the transmission varies the drive ratio.

It simulates keeping a car in a lower gear, but I have noticed it doesnt have the ill side effect of limiting the car... it will adjust the ratio up as needed to achieve more speed.

Pretty friggin cool if you ask me.

I wouldnt do it often, as I would imaigine the torque stresses the belt some, but if you are towing, or trying to crawl out of a sticky spot (mud or snow) or need a quick boost of acceleration, L is ideal for that.
The lower gearing should result in less forces on the belt than the higher gearing. It takes more torque to move the car in the higher gears which is the reason transmissions shift to the lower gears when going up inclines. Try riding a ten speed bicycle up a hill in high gear vs a lower gear. The lower gear is much easier (torque) but you pedal much faster (rpms)
 
#18 ·
Halo said:


Pretty fun :D It feels even more like a sportbike than in stock form. Very good on a medium sized track. It's actually slower in AutoX because it's very hard to keep it from breaking loose all over the place.
What does it dyno and I assume you have tested the quarter? No doubt its easy to break that rear loose on turns.
 
#19 ·
Under ideal conditions... 300 @ the wheels. That is a bit misleading, of course, because most of the usable power really doesn't come on until after 5,000 rpm.. very peaky. On the dyno below, red is stock, blue is with SC, Comptech exhaust and tune.

Best 1/4 was 13.7@106 with a 60' of 2.4. I refuse to do crazy 7,000 rpm clutch drops but people with similar setups who are willing to burn their diff/clutch are able to get into the low 13s with similar setups. Never really worried about the ET anyway. But the trap is 8 mph faster than stock (best was 14.2@98), and that translates into real pull in straights. No matter how you slice it, this is not a quarter mile car, no big surprise there.


I'll stop raining on the L/S parade. If you want to believe the MO will pull on a Murcielago in L, hey why not? :D
 

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