Stays in low gear sometimes

[METROMAN]

Drove the wife's 2013 the other day and noticed something really weird. I pulled away from a shopping center unto the highway, and heard the engine sounding a lot louder than normal. The "engine" was running at the time, and I immediately reached over to the gearshift, to put it in drive, all the while thinking I had mistakenly placed it in low. Wrong answer, it was already in drive, but wasn't upshifting or whatever. My wife then said, "I'm glad that happened to you". She then told me that it has happened to her several times before, and that she had done the same thing as me when it happened. Car has 53k miles. I recall my neighbor also had a 2013, and her trans went out at 80k. She ended up trading it in on a Fusion. Anybody else experienced this issue?

[plus 3 golfer]

More than likely it's related to the gear shifter, linkage, sensor, selector switch and so forth.  I'll look at the manual later to see what can be adjusted.

 

Edit: The cable can be adjusted from underneath the car.  It's a simple procedure.  There is also a selector sensor which is located internal to the transmission. There are several DTCs related to the sensor.

 

Also, how did get it out of low? Did you bump the shifter toward neutral? or shift to L and back to D?

Edited October 31, 2017 by Plus 3 Golfer

[METROMAN]

I bumped it into neutral and pulled it back into drive. It was fine after that.

I drive a 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage that has a CVT. If I don't lift up on the gas when accelerating, it takes forever to shift into high gear. This is a two speed CVT that you can actually feel shift, even tho it has the normal CVT variable pulley belt system. It reminds me of the old GM powerglide (slip and slide) transmissions. Some of you old farts like me will remember those. Lol

[plus 3 golfer]

I bumped it into neutral and pulled it back into drive. It was fine after that.

I drive a 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage that has a CVT. If I don't lift up on the gas when accelerating, it takes forever to shift into high gear. This is a two speed CVT that you can actually feel shift, even tho it has the normal CVT variable pulley belt system. It reminds me of the old GM powerglide (slip and slide) transmissions. Some of you old farts like me will remember those. Lol

So let's clarify so there is no confusion on the type of transmission the C-Max has.  The heart of the transmission is a planetary gear set with an electric motor (the generator) connected to the sun gear.  ICE is connected to the planet carrier.  The "effective gear ratio" is controlled by the generator.  When one shifts to low, a) ICE starts to spin resulting in engine braking which is the primary purpose of L (ICE can provide power if one provides more throttle but it makes no sense to drive in L) and b) the generator rpm is reduced simultaneously (and possibly reversed within constraints).  Thus, ICE rpm will increase simulating shifting to L in a conventional transmission.  ICE rpm - generator rpm yields wheel rpm.

 

So, when driving and shifting to L, one normally uses L to slow down rather than to run ICE.  IMO, something is indicating to the PCM / TCM, that your car wants to be driven in L.  The fact ( moving the transmission shift control cable to the neutral position and back to D corrected the issue) indicates that the sensor communicated the correct shifter positions to the control modules and the car operated normally.  I'd first simply adjust the cable and see if the problem returns. 

[METROMAN]

Thanks for the info.

[SnowStorm]

..... It reminds me of the old GM powerglide (slip and slide) transmissions. Some of you old farts like me will remember those. Lol

I remember that era but never had any exposure to those trannys as my dad was had core manual transmission (and no V8s!) and was always trying to get "good" gas mileage.  Back then, he was happy to break 20 MPG!  I still can hardly believe I now get 2.5 times that in similar driving.  I wonder what ones gas mileage was back then with a big ol' V8 (perhaps a flat head!) coupled to "slip and slide".