Shift light on an AT7?

Guard Dad

wstar is correct. First and second fly by in the 7AT so a shift light would be a real aid.

To clarify I'm not talking about drag racing, I am talking about road, auto-x and track applications where the traffic and corners preclude staring at the tach to time your next shift.

Again, I'm not trying to pick a fight with the 6MT folks but it bears pointing out that the 7AT in the Z is not your father's Powerglide. The 7AT provides some interesting challenges and some interesting opportunities and I'm trying to make the most of what it has to offer. Why did I buy it? because it rev-matches better and shifts faster than I can and when the pinched nerve in my lower back is acting up operating a clutch becomes a real problem. So it is what it is.

Red__Zed

For most AutoX, you won't need to shift. I've only ever run one course that required changing more than that 1-2 shift at the start.


For everything else, my thought would be to go by feel. I don't use the shift light in my 6mt. I know when I need to change gears, and I do it. It shouldn't take much practice to be at that point.

Proshop01

So I finally found it listed in the owners manual...page 295.

Upshift Indicator.jpg

Dark Sarcasm

my shift light on my 7AT is just und the word "REV" on the tach and is adjustable from like 6000 rpm to redline. I have mine set at like 6500 i think.

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wax

wstar

So two 2011 guys are reporting the rev light works on the 7AT. Either they fixed it in software in the later models, or the other option is that since I never knew it was there, I've just never paid attention to look for it and mine in fact works, which would be a neat surprise. I'll have to dig in the info center and see if there's even a setting for it, will report back later today

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js1

Let us know how it goes. If it's not there maybe it could be installed with a update

b1adesofcha0s

From doing a bit of experimenting at the drag strip, I have seen that it is a bit faster in manual mode than in D mode.

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js1

Does anyone know if it is a software issue to have the shift indicator for the 370z automatics?

wstar

Yeah my little info display doesn't seem to have a rev limiter setting anywhere I can find. In some sense it's probably a minor software update, but I don't think it would be trivial to swap a 2011 ECU into a 2009 car. They probably made other subtle, incompatible changes to harnesses or sensor voltages or whatever.

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js1

Does any dealerships on the forum know if a software update will install the upshift indicator? I went to the dealership by me this morning and could not get a answer

wilsonp

Considering how computer controlled these cars are, I really wish Nissan would update older firmware with pure software features like this... seems like they (finally) figured out there was no reason to remove it.

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js1

I agree. I asked the dealership this morning and didn't get a answer

js1

is there any nissan techs on here that can confirm if the upshift indicator can be installed via software update or any parts that have to be installed

dangen1980

has anyone had this done? is it just a software update to make shift indictaor come on

wstar

It's unlikely there's any simple fix (esp from the dealer) to give you a 7AT upshift indicator on the stock dashboard. Probably your best bet would be to ask UpRev to include the feature in their custom rom (seems within reason of what they can do, sorta), but even that might be a stretch to get enough interest. It would be far easier to just install an aftermarket shift-light solution.

On that topic, I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately, and I'd really like a more advanced shift light to really help on the track. I'm thinking more like an RPM gauge layout with colored regions to help make both up- and down- shift decisions.

For example (totally made up numbers here): Suppose your best power band, where you want to be, is from 3.5K to 7K. Based on gearing, if you're in 3rd you don't want to upshift to 4th before 6.3K or you'll fall too low, and you don't want to downshift to 2nd when you're any higher than 5K or you'll be too high in the range to have any useful room left. Those numbers (6.3K and 5K) will vary by what gear you're in. If you had some software looking at OBD-II data, it could look at RPM + speed, and with gear ratio settings from you, inferred current gear, and knows whether you're currently accelerating or decelerating based on rising/falling RPMs.

Based on that, you could make an intelligent widget that gave you an RPM gauge that gave much more insightful indicators for when you're in useful upshift and downshift ranges as appropriate...

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