Lurching upon acceleration?

[inuvik]

I live in the suburbs of a decent sized city and all of the major roads around me are four and six lane divided boulevards with the traffic light every half a mile. Traffic is thick and it wants to take off like a rocket. I try to keep up in my little mirage but it lurches like a stumbling drunk and gets overtaken by everyone. Pretty intimidating. When I'm driving in quieter parts of town, I don't feel pressured to accelerate so hard in the car accelerates very smoothly in comparison. Surprised to hear it lurches with the manual transmission too. At least that helps me understand it has something to do with the engine and not my CVT. It really shouldn't be doing this though, should it? I've owned some pretty underpowered cars , but none of them have lurched like this Mirage.

Just curious, do you ever use "B" to accelerate?

[MightyMirageMpg]

you guys are misunderstanding eachother i think

manual with a/c on - - surges while moving. takes a lot of power to run the a/c compressor which is on an electric clutch. when it engages, it "surges" because it's a big hit of power too loose. the surge is normal, don't bring your car in to dealer (2of9)


automatic stop put in neutral vs in gear - - an automatic transmission has a hydraulic pump that runs over a hydraulic relief valve, the relief valve "builds heat" and releases it into fluid. this heat is removed via the cooler (radiator) in the gril, but since the car isnt moving, the l radiator isn't cooling. in neutral the pump doesn't run so there is no heat building in the system

[tlstreak]

when im in traffic ill turn the ac down and not leave it on auto which seems to blow full blast all the time. let the car cool a little and then manually turn the fan speed down to about 2 on a hot day.

[CESARG]

What works best for me when taking off a light/stop is to start to accelerate real gently and then punch it a little harder as it goes on..
If I floor it from the beginning it feels like the CVT starts to slip and the engine rpm reps up without the car moving as much as.
It may be just my car....

[palebeachbum]

What works best for me when taking off a light/stop is to start to accelerate real gently and then punch it a little harder as it goes on..
If I floor it from the beginning it feels like the CVT starts to slip and the engine rpm reps up without the car moving as much as.
It may be just my car....

Interesting you say that works for you with the surging issue upon acceleration. I find the opposite is true for me. I generally accelerate with a light foot (it's how I roll), but find the car is more prone to surging if i initiate acceleration with a light foot and gradually increase throttle input. If I lay into the throttle hard, much harder than I'm comfortable pushing the car, it tends to wind the engine up without any surging issue. I really hope when Mitsu redesigns the Mirage they work on the transmission behavior. It's just too clunky and unrefined compared to their other CVTs. My mom has a 2015 Outlander Sport and the CVT in it is silky smooth at all times. No clunks. No jerks. No surging. The Mirage is especially prone to the surging issue with the AC on I've noticed.

[CESARG]

Interesting you say that works for you with the surging issue upon acceleration. I find the opposite is true for me. I generally accelerate with a light foot (it's how I roll), but find the car is more prone to surging if i initiate acceleration with a light foot and gradually increase throttle input. If I lay into the throttle hard, much harder than I'm comfortable pushing the car, it tends to wind the engine up without any surging issue. I really hope when Mitsu redesigns the Mirage they work on the transmission behavior. It's just too clunky and unrefined compared to their other CVTs. My mom has a 2015 Outlander Sport and the CVT in it is silky smooth at all times. No clunks. No jerks. No surging. The Mirage is especially prone to the surging issue with the AC on I've noticed.

Maybe I didn't know how to explain it but the same thing happens to me. In order for the car to be "quicker/smoother" off the line I have to take off with a light foot and then accelerate gradually so it doesn't feel like it's dragging.

[palebeachbum]

No you understood correctly. I was saying gentle acceleration makes it WORSE in my case. Hard acceleration eliminates the jerking. When I say hard, i mean like half throttle or more on takeoff... way too hard on my Kermit. I don't recommend this, but tinkering around I discovered if I launch with the car in the "B" mode and slip the shifter into drive there is no jerking sensation.

[Eggman]

From what I understand, this sounds like normal operation for the two-speed CVT in these cars.

[inuvik]

No you understood correctly. I was saying gentle acceleration makes it WORSE in my case. Hard acceleration eliminates the jerking. When I say hard, i mean like half throttle or more on takeoff... way too hard on my Kermit. I don't recommend this, but tinkering around I discovered if I launch with the car in the "B" mode and slip the shifter into drive there is no jerking sensation.

I do this quite often also and manually up shift into "D"