"Clunky Drivetrain"??

All, loving my new 2015 RRE Prestige, but am a bit curious about the drivetrain behavior. I've previously owned an all wheel drive with intelligent all wheel drive and could watch the dash display as it slipped into and out of AWD. It was a seamless switching and drove nicely. With the RRE, it appears to engage/disengage in and out of AWD a bit harsher, and some times when I come to a quick stop there is a clunk and you can feel it just after the stop. Sot of like it's a bit behind in switching back into 2 wheel drive. Nothing feels wrong other than it's just a "clunky" drivetrain and part of owning a RRE...

Is this (or similar) what the rest of you are experiencing?

This could also be due in part to the 9 speed transmission which sometimes gets caught napping/thinking and it takes a while to find the right gear (generally always in a downshift situation). Personally I think 9 speeds is too many but fuel mileage rules all these days! I have 7 speeds in my C2S and it's plenty!

When the 9 speed auto was introduced for 2014MY the ECU was programmed to make the car pull away in 2nd or even 3rd gear - 1st was a crawler gear for pulling away when towing or off road when going downhill for engine braking. Your car is a 2105MY car and as such it should be in 4WD any speed BELOW 23mph, it should only become 2WD above that speed unless the road conditions are slippery or wheel slip is detected above 23mph. 9th gear is only engaged above about 60mph unless you paddle shift up when above 55-56mph. If you are getting driveline clunks then get the car into the dealership to be looked at because it shouldn't clunk. There have recently been 3 software (I hesitate to call them upgrades) reprogrammes for the ZF box and personally they have ruined my car's gear changes, slowing down isn't a problem, it is pulling away. At the last but one reprogram the gearbox started pulling away in first with revs screaming up to 3500/4000rpm if I was not very very careful and even 2 reprograms later it still revs to the sky on pulling away. That might be OK in a petrol engined car but it is unacceptable in the 2.2 diesel especially when it used to pull away very smoothly and with imperceptible gear changes in 2nd gear. This is the major reason why I have been so keen to sell the car on after only 12 months ownership - it is awful and Land Rover just don't seem to be interested in curing the problems, all I get is more re-programs that seem to do nothing. My problems will all end on Saturday and to be honest while the rest of the car is fantastic I wouldn't advise anybody to buy a 9 speed auto now. This has been my 2nd Evoque, my first one was delivered on launch day and had some small issues but its 6 speed auto was excellent even if it wasn't particularly economical, it was a mistake to have traded for the 9 speeder.

Tim, thanks for your candid feedback, seems the more gears we add to the transmissions and the more the ECU has to decide what gear under what conditions the vehicle needs to be in the more hesitant/clunk the driving experience becomes in some of these modern autos. I hear you on the "reprogramming" but I'm a bit reluctant to have it re-flashed (as in your case) sometimes the cure is worse than the problem. I can live with a bit of clunk now and then but I don't fault you at all for being upset with RR if your is just getting worse. Sorry to see you leave the Evoque and best success with your new ride!

(24-03-2015 08:09pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  When the 9 speed auto was introduced for 2014MY the ECU was programmed to make the car pull away in 2nd or even 3rd gear - 1st was a crawler gear for pulling away when towing or off road when going downhill for engine braking. Your car is a 2105MY car and as such it should be in 4WD any speed BELOW 23mph, it should only become 2WD above that speed unless the road conditions are slippery or wheel slip is detected above 23mph. 9th gear is only engaged above about 60mph unless you paddle shift up when above 55-56mph. If you are getting driveline clunks then get the car into the dealership to be looked at because it shouldn't clunk. There have recently been 3 software (I hesitate to call them upgrades) reprogrammes for the ZF box and personally they have ruined my car's gear changes, slowing down isn't a problem, it is pulling away. At the last but one reprogram the gearbox started pulling away in first with revs screaming up to 3500/4000rpm if I was not very very careful and even 2 reprograms later it still revs to the sky on pulling away. That might be OK in a petrol engined car but it is unacceptable in the 2.2 diesel especially when it used to pull away very smoothly and with imperceptible gear changes in 2nd gear. This is the major reason why I have been so keen to sell the car on after only 12 months ownership - it is awful and Land Rover just don't seem to be interested in curing the problems, all I get is more re-programs that seem to do nothing. My problems will all end on Saturday and to be honest while the rest of the car is fantastic I wouldn't advise anybody to buy a 9 speed auto now. This has been my 2nd Evoque, my first one was delivered on launch day and had some small issues but its 6 speed auto was excellent even if it wasn't particularly economical, it was a mistake to have traded for the 9 speeder.

I'm torn between feeling relieved that I'm not the only one with this issue and frustrated that it exists. The only redeeming part is that it is clearly a software issue, so I'm not super concerned with the reliability, but it is annoying as hell when it happens. Very light acceleration or very hard acceleration usually results in a very smooth shift. It's the normal, every-day acceleration where it happens most frequently, and that's the annoying part. I'd say 3200-4000 rpm is where it has the most difficulty shifting, it shifts very hard.

It's hit or miss, too...accelerating while making a turn from a stop usually shifts smoothly, having it in Dynamic mode makes a difference, and sometimes it just flat out shifts fine. So it's nice when it runs smoothly...I guess. I don't know yet if I want to take it in, or maybe just have them do a reset...

Count me as another person with horrible clunky AWD engagement when coming to a stop. I made a thread about it here http://babyrr.com/forum/Thread-Those-of-...ligent-4wd