2011 question
 

I understand from new Camaro owners that GM decided to help them shift their MT cars by forcing gear changes at certain speeds; the driver has no ability to override this "help". Most horrific is the force from first gear to fourth gear. Since that's enough to move me (a very long standing Chevy guy) away from a great independent suspension to a solid axel. I thought I would check with you guys to see if Ford has done something equall stupid ??
THANKS, John N.

No....I hate the skip shift feature. If you have a Camaro you should be able to remove the skip shift feature.....I had the same issues in a 94 Vette and a 96 Z28 a solenoid corrects the problem. The new camaro may need to have the tune modified or a solenoid? Buy a Mustang!!

My car came with it.......... so, on my '11 GT/CS, I simply went to the upper right rear corner of the transmission and unplugged the skip shift solenoid. Then I taped over the open plugs and zip tied the pigtail to another harness. Still get the light inside but no action forcing me to shift different.

A tune will take it out, which is pretty much a necessary upgrade for all Mustang owners.

So as you can tell from the responses...Yes, the new Mustang has it. But Yes, it is easily defeated. Maybe you can take the same technical approach (unplugging it) on your Camaro, or maybe it may throw a code? From what I read on Forums from guys who just unplugged it...it throws NO code on the Mustang. Or, if you're gonna tune it, a tuner eliminates it as well.

When my car was brand new, my SkipS*** wold give me a pronounced feedback when it lit up. However, after awhile of forceing the stick into second and third anyway, the forced feedback from my SkipS*** finally disappeared. The SkipS*** light would still appear, but no feed back at all.

I think what happened is the ECU's adaptive learning learned my driving style and the ECU disabled the forced feedback.

But then, I purchased tunes, and I required that all of them have SkipS*** disabled. So not, I do not even get the stupid SkipS*** light anymore.

2011 Question
 

Many thanks everyone........appreciate the info........ John N.

....huh?

Our 'Stangs, and most other modern cars, all have what is called adaptive learning. That is where the car basically learns and and "tunes" itself to match your driving style. For example, if you drive like a grandma, the car will adjust itself and rely only on the low RPM end tune tables for steady gradual accelerations and slow speeds. Where as if you drive like a hormone crazed teen speed freak, the car will adjust itself to rely on the high RPM tune tables and for the much faster and harder shift points.

I do not know how adaptive learning works, but I will not be surprised if the ECU creates some sort of "meta-tables" based on the stock tune tables and your driving habits to create a "meta-tune" to best adapt to the conditions you put your car through.

Skip shift will be eliminated with a tune, being 99% of Mustang owner atleast do a CAI and tune that takes care of that annoyance.