stiwhip

I recently purchased my first JK and have been enjoying it as my daily driver and upgrade from previous 5 speed TJ. My only gripe is that the clutch and revs make the Jeep a chore to drive. In order to drive the Jeep smoothly, I must shift so slow and actually watch the tach till it drops to the desired RPM. I have owned only manual transmission cars, so I fancy myself a very good driver in terms of using a manual gear shift.

Initial observations:

1- When you free rev the Jeep (in neutral) lets say you rev it to 3,000 RPM, when you release the throttle it will hover at 3k for an additional second then very (almost obnoxiously) slowly begin to drop to idle. Honestly from 3k-->Idle is probably 5 seconds which is about 4 seconds longer than any normal vehicle.

1.5- The result of this is that while shifting, I have to conscientiously recognize the hanging of revs and shift very slowly and wait to release the clutch pedal to A-not jerk the car around and B-not kill the clutch.


The Jeep has an AEM intake, looks like a TB spacer and Gibson Exhaust (all installed by previous owner). Initially I thought maybe it was a vacuum leak but there are no check engine lights and the truck otherwise runs great. I youtube'd videos of people reving their jeeps but none seem to hang like this.

Is this normal? Is there anyway to reduce this?

Also in the 500 miles I have driven it, it has popped out of first twice, should i be concerned?

Thanks in advance

PG-JKU

Mine did this as well. I have heard theories from others regarding how the engineers programmed this in to try to minimize stress on the drive train during down shifting. My solution was to get a Superchips programmer. I can actually downshift now and it actually responds like you think it should.

Red Rubi 124

I know on my 2011 jkur 6 speed you can turn on ignition wait for lights on dash to go out and then program the throttle sensitivity by how fast you push the accelerator to the floor. Do it fast and it makes a big difference

stiwhip

So is this an isolated symptom or is every manual shift JK like this?

I would really like to get it to drive like a normal manual transmission.

Red Rubi 124

It's a function of the drive by wire throttle and fuel efficient factory programming. I hated the feel of it before I changed the programming. Did you try to adjust the throttle sensitivity like I mentioned? It will make a difference.

PG-JKU

I don't think you can change the throttle sensitivity on a 2007 in the way you described.

stiwhip

I have not. I will try it when I leave work later (anticipates disappointment).

SiliconTi

My '08 does it. I'd love to be able to turn it off, as off road it can keep the power on just a bit too long.

jk_sea

I figured they just had a really heavy flywheel which kept the engine spinning like that. My '09 did what the OP described and it definitely isn't a sporty feeling. It didn't change when I applied a mild tune (ProComp I think it was).

k0260

My 07 6spd did this too. Superchips flashpaq fixed it