I just recently purchased a 2003 330xi with what I believe is the ZHP package (3 spoke steering wheel). It has an automatic transmission, but if I move the shifter to the left, it can go into a sequential manual transmission mode. Now how exactly do I operate this without burning up my tranny? Like at what RPM do I shift into 2nd, 3rd, etc, and also do I need to let my foot off the accelerator when I am shifting either up or down?

You cant harm the engine with a steptronic, read the manual that comes with the car. The step will automatically shift if the RPMS are too high.

You do not have ZHP, it's a sport pkg since xis do not have zhp pkg.

Again, read the owners manual.

I bought the car used and it didn't come with an owner's manual.

So how does the sport package compare to ZHP?

Push down to upshift, up to downshift

why dont you do yourself a favor, read the post titled "Everything you wanted to know about a ZHP" at the top of the forum

If you need a PDF of the manual, sign up here : http://www.bmwusa.com/OwnersCircle/

Push down to upshift, up to downshift

why dont you do yourself a favor, read the post titled "Everything you wanted to know about a ZHP" at the top of the forum

If you need a PDF of the manual, sign up here : http://www.bmwusa.com/OwnersCircle/

Don't even bother posting if your just gonna bash him... Thats 10 minutes of your own time wasted now.
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Anyways back to your question, theres no need to lift your foot off the acc, unless bmw's differ from Lexus. My 01 IS 300 has tiptronic which is the same. Can manual/auto blah blah blah. Just drive like you normally would. And shif at appropriate RPM's, of course if you shift at redline or near it evertime it will mess your tranny. and if you dont shift by redline it will do it for you automatically.

Don't even bother posting if your just gonna bash him... Thats 10 minutes of your own time wasted now.
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Anyways back to your question, theres no need to lift your foot off the acc, unless bmw's differ from Lexus. My 01 IS 300 has tiptronic which is the same. Can manual/auto blah blah blah. Just drive like you normally would. And shif at appropriate RPM's, of course if you shift at redline or near it evertime it will mess your tranny. and if you dont shift by redline it will do it for you automatically.

Since when did i bash him???

I pointed him to all of his answers, what did you do? Why repeat information already available?

Since when did i bash him???

I pointed him to all of his answers, what did you do? Why repeat information already available?

All you did was point him to the manual... i don't think he'd be asking on here if he had the manual or was going to look in it..

I think in 03 they changed the controls, if it is anything like our 04 automatic, you push UP to downshift and DOWN to upshift. Still seems wierd to me.

When you move it over a light will show that you are in S or something similar. Try pushing it down and see what happens. Do this at a light. Push it down twice, if the numbers go up you have the new steptronic, which is supposed to be better. Congrats, I guess. If you want to drive it like this, start pushing up until you get to 1.

Drive it like a manual. Easy driving in a manual is shifting at about 3,000 rpms. This will be best for the auto too since there is a bit of a lag, so you wont' actually be shifting until 3,200 or 3,300 rpms. After you get used to the whole shifting thing, go a head and romp it (make sure your car is warmed up, ie 15 or so minutes of driving, longer on a cold day) Again, there is LAG in the transmission, so DON"T take it up to 6,000 or 6,5000 rpms and shift. Shift at about 5,500 and it turns out perfect.

As for downshifting. There has been controversy about this causing harm to the engine. What downshifting does is put you in a lower gear. The RPMs raise, it'll pull you a little bit while it does that. This isn't very good for the engine, because you are using it to slow down, and putting it at an RPM it might not want to be. In a manual, you do something called rev matching to lessen this strain. If you plan on having the car for a long time, I would advise against downshifting for the most part. Keep upshifting, and when you get to a light, downshift all at once back to first. The new transmissions will struggle in a high gear at low speed. So if you do slow down, you might have no choice but to downshift, or put it back into drive.

Hope this helps.

If you don't to shift it just leave it in sport mode when you would like to hold the gears a little longer for some extra oooph.

Riaz

I think in 03 they changed the controls, if it is anything like our 04 automatic, you push UP to downshift and DOWN to upshift. Still seems wierd to me.

When you move it over a light will show that you are in S or something similar. Try pushing it down and see what happens. Do this at a light. Push it down twice, if the numbers go up you have the new steptronic, which is supposed to be better. Congrats, I guess. If you want to drive it like this, start pushing up until you get to 1.

Drive it like a manual. Easy driving in a manual is shifting at about 3,000 rpms. This will be best for the auto too since there is a bit of a lag, so you wont' actually be shifting until 3,200 or 3,300 rpms. After you get used to the whole shifting thing, go a head and romp it (make sure your car is warmed up, ie 15 or so minutes of driving, longer on a cold day) Again, there is LAG in the transmission, so DON"T take it up to 6,000 or 6,5000 rpms and shift. Shift at about 5,500 and it turns out perfect.

As for downshifting. There has been controversy about this causing harm to the engine. What downshifting does is put you in a lower gear. The RPMs raise, it'll pull you a little bit while it does that. This isn't very good for the engine, because you are using it to slow down, and putting it at an RPM it might not want to be. In a manual, you do something called rev matching to lessen this strain. If you plan on having the car for a long time, I would advise against downshifting for the most part. Keep upshifting, and when you get to a light, downshift all at once back to first. The new transmissions will struggle in a high gear at low speed. So if you do slow down, you might have no choice but to downshift, or put it back into drive.

Hope this helps.
Thank you! that answered my question exactly.

If you don't to shift it just leave it in sport mode when you would like to hold the gears a little longer for some extra oooph.

Riaz
ahh so thats what that is. I always wondered what sport mode meant.

btw, when I shift up, do I let off the gas?

btw, when I shift up, do I let off the gas?

Nope :)

Riaz