Driving a Honda Civic FD2 in Paddle Shift Mode

One of the reasons I chose the 2.0 version of the 8th Gen Honda Civic over the 1.8, in spite of the longer waiting period, was the fact that it came with the Steering wheel paddle shifts (that seems like a good idea at the time). Apart from the fact that it came with leather seats, HID headlamps, turn signals on the side door mirrors and had a 2.0 liter engine capacity, but that’s straying off topic already… Now, the marketing material states that these paddles allow for the driver to manually select the gears, much like an F1 car.

Paddles are definitely more appealing than buttons on the steering (have them in the FD2, but they control the radio and cruise control). In principle, you pull back on the left paddle to shift down and pull back on the right paddle to shift up. This way, you can run through all the 5 gears of the automatic gearbox. The gearbox is a standard 5 speed automatic with lock up torque converter. It’s not a clutchless manual transmission like the DSG or even the AMT system (found on the Proton Savvy). There is no discernable different in the speed of gear changes, when using the car in paddle shift mode. In a 0-100kph dash, the paddle shifting appeared to have a 0.2 second improvement compared to “S” mode, but this may be due to coincidence and time keeper error rather than genuinely making a difference.

There are some rules to this though. First, you have to put the car in “S”. In normal drive mode “D”, the paddles are disabled. In “S” mode, the auto gearbox will only shift among gears 1, 2, and 3. Once you pull back on either paddle, it will enter manual mode (a number will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the futuristic Civic dashboard. The car knows what gear it should engage, so you won’t go into gear 1 if you’re traveling at 90kph once paddle shift mode is engaged. Now, if you pull back on the left paddle, the car will engage 1 gear lower, which is usually the one you will use for overtaking. It will not allow for over-revving the engine. If you pull back on the right paddle, the car will engage the existing auto gear, and there will be no jerking or jumping of revs. I use this for smooth transition to paddle shift mode. If you shift to “S” when you are moving at a rather high speed, the car will only engage gear 3 highest – so there will be a jerk. To do this smoothly is to shift the gearbox into “S”, then immediately start pulling back a couple of times on the right paddle. The car will end up in either gear 4 or 5, without the shock on your gearbox.

Now, the only way to shift out of paddle shift mode is to put the car back in “D” gear. So, make up your mind about which mode you’d like to drive in, so you don’t end up rocking the gear stick back and forth. Note that the torque converter does not seem to lock up when you are in paddle shift mode, so for best fuel economy on gear 5, drive in “D” mode. While in paddle shift mode, the gear will not change up if the revs get too high. If you do step all the way to redline, the needle will just bounce off the rev-limiter, wasting your time and making you sound like an idiot from the outside (I sometimes forget that I am in paddle shift mode at the traffic lights, hence the “idiot” effect). When accelerating from a standstill, you can engage gear 1 or gear 2, for a slower but more sedated launch (useful when there’s snow or sand on the road, to prevent skidding). The car will, however, downshift it the speed gets too low. If you come to a stop, the gear will shift back to 1. If your speed is too low, you will not be allowed to engage the higher gears (which will undoubtedly strain the engine), so you can keep pulling back on the right paddle safely. Nor will the car allow you to downshift such that you will over-rev and blow your engine. The gear number will just blink in the dashboard, but no shifting will occur.

Before I talk about using the paddle shift mode, I’d like to point out that for tights turns or when the parking lot, it’s not so convenient to use. This is because; the paddles are mounted on the steering wheel, which you turn to make your car corner. Now, in a tight turn, your steering wheel can get turned until it’s upside down. If you were to attempt a gear change now, the left paddle now upshifts and the right paddle downshifts (since they are now inverted). So, unless you know what you are doing, better to stick to D or normal S mode when negotiating tight turns (like in a car park).

So, the question now is, when do you use paddle shift mode? The short version is:- 1. To pre-select a lower gear for overtaking 2. For engine braking effect when descending slopes 3. To select and hold gears entering and exiting corners 4. To prevent automatic oscillation between gears when going up slopes 5. To avoid sudden downshifts to allow for a smoother ride For the long version, read on…. Firstly, I use it if I need to pre-select a lower gear prior to overtaking. A little flashback to the good old days where everyone drives with a manual transmission. In order to get the best acceleration for the overtaking maneuver, you need to step the clutch, drop a gear, step on the accelerator (bringing up the revs to match the speed of the lower gear) and release the clutch. Done correctly, your car will not jerk because you raised the revs exactly as required. Now, when this is done, your revs will be high (not yet at redline) and in the power band (remember, in those days before VTEC, most of the power comes only in the high RPM region). So, when you floor the accelerator, your car will accelerate faster than if you had been in a higher gear. Now, back to the present.

In our Auto FD, there is no clutch, and no need to match the revs when changing gears. It’s all done automatically. Let’s take a typical overtaking scenario in “D” mode. When the time is right, you just step harder on the accelerator paddle. Depending on how hard and fast you mash the throttle, the artificial intelligence in the car figures out that “hey, this guy needs to accelerate” and then only initiates the down shift. In experience, the car appears to pause briefly to see if the accelerator is really stepped on continuously, or if it’s just a stab or spike. The throttle body of the FD is controlled by wire (ironically, that wire is not directly connected to the accelerator peddle, but is opened or closed depending on the position and changes in the peddle position). While this may allow for a smoother and more economical ride by ironing out the “spikes” in our right foot, there’s an unfortunate additional effect of throttle lag. You can practically stomp on the throttle and your rpm would not fluctuate (don’t try this when something is in front of your car, you have to do it really fast, though). So, all that delay will mean that you have to “advance” your right foot timing BEFORE you want to actually shoot forward. So much for a responsive drive….

Enter the paddle shift. It’s actually nothing more than a mechanism to allow the driver to engage and maintain a specific gear. In a 4 speed auto usually found in other cars, you can have the same effect by turning off OD (hence, dropping to gear 3) or shifting the gear stick to “2” or “L” (pre-selecting gear 2 or 1 respectively). However, that will involve taking your hand off the steering wheel, and is not linear (1 to 2 to 3 push stick forward and back, 3 to 4 push OD button on and off). You can also forget and push 3 to neutral by mistake (and shifting in and out of N in a moving car is really bad for the transmission). Anyway, by pre-selecting the gear prior to the overtaking maneuver, the car will be in the correct gear (with correspondingly high RPM) when the throttle is floored. I notice that the rev needle will travel all the way to the 6.8K mark when in fully auto mode, so once the car gets going, paddle shifting can never beat the auto – only match it (if you’re as consistent as a computer yourself). Now, you also select lower gears when you need to employ engine braking (not so wise in an auto, as the fluids in the torque converter will get heated up by this). It’s either your brakes or the transmission – though 4 brake pads are way cheaper than 1 new gearbox. Selecting lower gears as you enter a high speed corner, will allow you to power your way through and out of the turn (without worrying that the gearbox will suddenly have a mind of its own and either shift up or down).

Note that you don’t have a clutch to allow for safe heel and toe technique (since you want to brake, and at the same time keep the revs up so you can slowly transfer power to the wheels by releasing the “clutch”). For automatics, we have to stick to braking while accelerating, and this as I’ve mentioned, is not good for the torque converter. For more practical driving, you can engage and stick to a lower gear while traveling up hill. A typical auto gearbox may decide to change to a higher gear while going up hill, since the revs are so high (necessary to overcome the force of gravity on the car as it goes up the slope). But when that happens, the car is strained to maintain the forward motion against larger gear ratios. So, the car shifts down again. Effect is a jerky drive with oscillating revs and gears, long run will overheat transmission. This is why for towing heavy loads and prolonged spirited driving, the installation of an ATF cooler is mandatory to avoid the premature death of the transmission.

Lastly, you can use this to prevent the car from downshifting under full acceleration. Done correctly, this will prevent sudden jerks as the auto transmission kicks down if you step just slightly too hard, leading to a perceived smoother ride. In all, the paddle shift seems to be more hype, as, under the skin, we are just looking at a standard auto transmission. Performance-wise, it’s no better than a regular auto, and certainly cannot challenge a manual gearbox. Notice that all Honda performance marques like the S2000 and Type R are all with a manual shifter…? Still, the ability to pre-select gears without taking your hands off the steering wheel may be useful in spirited driving which demand precise control of gears, and in this case, where the normal automatic will be found lagging, paddle shifting will put control back into the hands of the driver….