Downshifting

[SLASH]

My 2010 journey downshifts while going down hill when on cruise. the engine gets up to 5500 rpms on large hills. It seems to be trying to slow itself down. Anyone else have this problem.

[Deckster]

Mine does the same, I usually just "cancel" the cruise when that happens and "resume" at the bottom of the hill.

[SLASH]

Mine does the same, I usually just "cancel" the cruise when that happens and "resume" at the bottom of the hill.

Even if cancelled I have to slow down by applying breaks before it shifts back up.

[BUGS]

The cruise control is trying to keep to the speed that you set it to. To do so the CC does not have the option to brake so it uses engine compression to slow it and this requires a downshift sometimes.

[jaymista]

There might be a difference too depending on the size of your engine. The 3.5 will go up hills a bit better than the 2.4.

[Elwood011]

That is interesting; I live in flat country so I haven't seen this yet. I wouldn't necessarily call this a problem, though. Downshifting while going down steep hills is better than riding your brakes. If you are talking mountain driving, it probably would be best not to use cruise control at all.

Maybe the transmission is more sensitive to noticing when the momentum of the car is pushing faster than the engine, and therefore it should downshift. This is also the first 6-speed auto I have ever owned, so maybe they are a bit different as well. I don't know.

[micaxe]

I've got an SXT 2.7,V6, 6sp auto, it's the cruise trying to keep speed down by downshifting, sometimes I will manually select 5th to save transmission "hunting" between 5th+6th, also helps with keeping speed downhill, by changeing down before hill. 6th seems to be good for dead flat running, soon as you accelerate a bit, it unlocks + revs the same as locked 5th anyway.

Hope this helps.