Transmission shifting program...?
 

I like everything about my 2005 X5 4.4 (Non-Sport) except the way the transmission shifting is programmed.

It does not hold a gear under normal driving for more the second..shift, shift, shift in an attempt at getting good gas mileage. It also grabs 4th or 5th gear when slowing down to make a turn (mild driving) and has to immediately downshift again (or bog).

The dealership put in the latest software yada, yada, but they all shift that way.

A friend told me that there is a programming device you can buy to set your own shift points and it also has some built in templates. Anyone here of this device? Where to buy it, or better yet a service place in SoCal that will re-program for a fee.

Also, does anyone out there have the Dinan transmission chip installed? Any comments, good, bad, ugly?

Thanks,
Mike
PS. when shifting manually, the transmission is just fine, however I should not have to always use the tiptronic for decent drivability on a $60K sav.

Try reseting the adaptive throttle before looking at software. Turn the key to position 2, wait ten seconds, and then turn it off. Then drive the car, flooring it and reaching higher shift points. This should help.

Did you try just Sport automatic mode? Also, drive more aggressively so the adaptive transmission can learn to shift up later.

This only works very temporarily - unless you can drive this way consistently, which is doubtful. As soon as you drive around slow neighborhoods, it's back to economy mode...

Sport mode is somewhat better but the aggressive engine braking gets very annoying after a while....