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Howdy,

Just moved from a 2000 Liberty RX2.5 manual to a 2008 Outback manual.

One annoying quirk with my 2008 Outback is that moving up through the gears; the engine RPMs will increase on a gear change.

For example:

1st gear
Accelerate to 2500RPM
Foot off accelerator
Depress clutch
Engine RPMs will increase to 2600-2700RPM
(RPMs increase on tacho and RPM increase can be heard).
Same for the rest of the gears.

The higher the RPMs before change, the higher the increase.

Anybody else experience this?

(Have just had it in for the 5000km service and the mechanic is doing some research as to why this might be occurring. He doesn't agree that it is as pronounced or consistent as I do, but it seems like a pretty big (and annoying) flaw to me. Will post up the result of his research.)

Cheers,
T.

It would be because of the fly by wire accelerator. It is the same thing I've experianced with most fly by wire jobs, being not as direct as a snap shutting wire type

Lightning_Silver_RX wrote:It would be because of the fly by wire accelerator. It is the same thing I've experianced with most fly by wire jobs, being not as direct as a snap shutting wire type

Thanks for the response LS-RX, yes the mechanic (are they still mechanics?) .. did mention that fly-by-wire could be the cause as not as responsive as "real" wire.

Major bummer if that is the case ... didn't expect to be taking a backwards step moving from 2000 to 2008.

It should be easy to adjust your driving technique to compensate, then after a while you won't even think about it. Just give it time.

It could also be part of the emisions control set up. I've been led to believe that the computer only allows the revs to come down slowly, as dramatic decrease causes unburnt fuel to be expelled through the exhaust and increase emision levels.

So you car isn't "reving up", it's just because the load has been diengaged from the engine, so for the throttle position you were at, with no load, will cause the revs to build slightly before coming down. Normally, by this time you would be in the next gear and accelerating.

Try this: drive along go through normal gear change routine, however before lifting foot off clutch just leave foot on there for a bit and don't touch accelerator - you'll notice after a short time the revs will slowly decrease.

Our XT Foz does this also. You get used to it quickly and actually learn how to manage it better.

Cheers,

As above, to do with Emissions, and to also protect the gearbox.

Wheels magazine referred to this as a "electronically induced flywheel effect... that benefits exhaust emissions" when testing the latest Forester in their May 08 issue.

Thanks for all the replies folks .. great forum this!

It all makes sense, guess I'll turn the radio up until my driving habits change to counter this.