Unpredictable throttle response shifting between D/R

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fizzit

fizzit

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I've noticed some strange behavior in my SE and I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this. When quickly shifting from D/R and back, there seems to be some kind of delay where the throttle won't respond for a few seconds and the car acts like it's in neutral.

I first noticed it a few months ago when I needed to quickly pull out of a driveway onto a narrow street, so I shifted D->R->D quickly. I then tried to go forward but the car wouldn't accelerate. I had the gas pedal all the way on the floor but the car was rolling backwards in the street and almost hit the car behind me. I had to press the brake pedal and then get back on the throttle before the car would accelerate.

The second time was this weekend where I did the opposite, R->D->R, as I was pulling out of my driveway but realized there was an oncoming vehicle so I needed to reverse back into the driveway. I had the pedal all the way to the floor but my car wouldn't reverse. Luckily the oncoming vehicle had space to swerve around me. Eventually my car did start moving; I'm not sure if I had to press the brakes that time.

Since this has put me in a dangerous situation a couple times now I figured I'd contact MINI but I also wanted to check here to see if anyone has noticed an issue. Maybe I'm just doing something weird, but I never had this issue with my Spark EV.
 
Glad to hear I'm not just imagining it. I should be able to predict it but it always happens when I'm flustered and expect it to respond like a normal car. There seems to be some kind of delay where it ramps up the throttle response after shifting but it seems to take especially long when quickly shifting back and forth.
 
fizzit said:
Glad to hear I'm not just imagining it. I should be able to predict it but it always happens when I'm flustered and expect it to respond like a normal car. There seems to be some kind of delay where it ramps up the throttle response after shifting but it seems to take especially long when quickly shifting back and forth.
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You're right the transmission's confusion is dangerous (or at the very least, embarrassing) if you don't anticipate that you're going to be left momentarily powerless after shifting. I wonder if it has something to do with the car's anti-wheelspin system/programming?
 
I usually lurk on this forum but registered just to comment on this thread. This exact thing happened to me while parallel parking on a hill. Unfortunately for me, it resulted in me rolling backwards into the car I was parking in front of and now my rear bumper is scuffed.
 
alan2921 said:
I usually lurk on this forum but registered just to comment on this thread. This exact thing happened to me while parallel parking on a hill. Unfortunately for me, it resulted in me rolling backwards into the car I was parking in front of and now my rear bumper is scuffed.
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Jeez, I'm sorry to hear. Definitely seems like something worth contacting MINI about, I'll post here if I get a response. I figure I'll try emailing the dealership where I bought the car.
 
It's definitely a thing. I'd say it happens every time I shift out of Reverse. I'm accustomed to it so I pause before I make my getaway. I've assumed it has some design logic behind it...?
 
Had this happen today. I thought it was due to traction control. Like the OP there was another car coming.
 
GDOG said:
It's definitely a thing. I'd say it happens every time I shift out of Reverse. I'm accustomed to it so I pause before I make my getaway. I've assumed it has some design logic behind it...?
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I never have problems when shifting to drive after backing down my driveway (as in the impressive first 10 seconds of Harry Metcalfe's YouTube review). However, I have experienced a dangerous delay when trying to perform a quick Y-turn: shifting quickly from drive, to reverse, then back to drive. I nail the accelerator but the car just sits there as if it was on an ice patch. It would be nice to have the option of turning off the anti-wheel-slip feature to see if that's causing the problem.
 
I've noticed it after the second shift both going D->R->D as well as when going R->D->R. It might be over-active traction control, or it might just be dumb software that slowly ramps up the throttle response so you don't get jerked around after shifting. I just finally emailed the dealership about it, hopefully they'll be helpful.
 
This seems like something which could easily be addressed with a software update. I hope it gets addressed.
 
Is the wheel turned to a severe angle when this happens? My vote is the hyper aggressive traction control. That was the case for me, at least.
 
While we're complaining, I don't like having to touch the brake pedal to disengage the parking brake. If I am stopped at a light nose-downhill in Drive (and, therefore able to roll forward), I want to apply the parking brake to hold me. Then, when the light turns green, I should be able to deselect the parking brake with my hand and apply throttle with my foot to begin rolling and then drive forward. But, the SE requires I touch the brake with my foot to release the parking brake with my hand. Ugh.
 
Weird. Here's a pic of me, this morning. I'm in Drive, parking brake applied, and I just pushed down on the PB button to deselect it. I got the bong and "In addition: Press brake pedal" message on the cluster.
20210115_070914.webp
 
The joy of cars run by software. Would be interesting to know if you are running a different version from Puppethead.
 
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