as many of you know, late model, automatic rangers feature something like adaptive shift technology, where the transmission 'learns' your driving habits and adjusts its shift points over time to better match your driving style.

my question is, lets say you use a bamatuner. does this adaptive shift technology still work after?

for example... say i program my truck with a 91 performance tune, which, in addition to other things, changes the shift schedule and shift firmness. then say i drive around like a grandma for the next few weeks. would the transmission adapt to the 'granny' driving, and soften shifts/lower shift points/etc, or are those values 'locked' into place once youve programmed the pcm?

if the transmission DOES still adapt after a tune, i'm assuming that simply reapplying the program to the pcm would reset the shift points back to the programmed levels, as if they'd never been screwed with by transmission's adaptive shift technology?

 

This is a very common misconception but incorrect nonetheless.

In late model 5-speed Ranger automatics, the adaptive strategy is used to adjust the line pressure for consistent shifting thoughout the life of the vehicle. There is no adaptive learning aimed at adjusting the shift points or shift feel based on driver habits.

On the basis of various inputs, the strategy calculates an actual shift time and compares it with a table of ideal shift times. The adaptive provides a kind of feedback loop that continually makes incremental pressure changes, pushing the real shift times toward the ideal.

Over time, as the different combinations of VSS, gear and TP are "experienced", the adaptive learning process will fully update Keep Alive Memory (KAM). It shouldn't matter if the vehicle has 100 miles or 100,000 miles or if the driver is aggressive or conservative. The end of adaptation should take the transmission shift times very close to the ideal.

Resetting the PCM erases the learned values in KAM and the transmission defaults to a base table in non-volatile memory. Then the Shift Adaptive/Pressure Control Strategy starts over again, learning the correct pressure for every combination. During the relearn, it is likely that shifting will feel different with shift events that may be harsher than normal or shift timing that may be early or delayed.

 

thanks for the info, bob!