Hill Hold Considered Dangerous

[bpeckham]

So I was leaving the SAN airport yesterday on the Laurel Street hill. If you live in San Diego and want to drive north on the 5 from the airport, you probably know this hill.

Anyway, I'm stopped in traffic waiting for a green light. There's a Volkswagen hatchback in front of me. The light turns green, and the Volkswagen starts to roll backwards at me. I start thinking, oh, a manual transmission. By the time I complete that thought, the car is still rolling at me, and now I start to get concerned. Is this guy going to crunch my bumper?

Good news. The Volkswagen gets control and pulls away. Now, I hadn't started moving yet because, well, there was a car rolling at me. But now it's clear, so I take my foot off the brake, start to let the clutch out, to pull away.

Then hill hold kicks in and prevents me from rolling backwards, so I give it more gas and continue to let the clutch out, but hill hold still has me locked in place. More gas, less clutch. Hill hold finally lets go and my wheels start to spin and the car's backend starts to swivel to the left.

Of course I feel this and let off the power. The wheels finally grip hill hold is finally gone, and we start going, but not until after a hair-raising few seconds.

I wish you could turn off hill hold. I know how to start an MT vehicle on a hill. My dad pounded this into my muscle memory when I was 16.

Fighting against hill hold to get going in this case created a more dangerous situation than if I'd rolled back a smidge.

Anyone know how to turn off hill hold?

 

[Fanatic]

Hopefully and maybe the dealer service department has some idea...

 

[Jah_Happy]

True story I've only stalled my Z a few times, and they were all from hill assist lol. I grew up learning how to take off on a slope with manuals so I find the hill assist just awkward and makes things harder in my opinion. Ive had it kick on with some slopes that were pretty minor too.

I would also like to turn it off.

 

[Mud]

meh works fine for me

I could see a problem, where the car in front is rolling back and you push in the clutch to roll back also and give them some room. But nothing happens right away.

 

[bpeckham]

meh works fine for me

I could see a problem, where the car in front is rolling back and you push in the clutch to roll back also and give them some room. But nothing happens right away.

Most of the time it works fine for me as well, but this time it didn't, and it made me think: I wish I could turn this off. If I could, I'd probably just leave it off and do some old school driving.

Where's my choice?

 

[Jacwee]

I personally haven't had any issues with hill assist, but I suppose I'm used to it from my previous e93 BMW that had it. I hadn't even considered the situation of hill assist locking me in place as someone rolls back into me though.

It would be nice to be able to control it's activation, more control is only a good thing

 

[CRYDR]

I didn't even know I had hill assist on my manual shift Z. Just another stupid feature for people who don't know how to drive. I put it with the auto braking assist.STUPID!! While it's an idea in the should be consideration of all things braking, should not have been implimented prior to the impact of the considerations that were not factored in. (car in front roll back, hill assist). (car following, auto braking) Let US PAY ATTENTION AND DRIVE!! FUCK A I and all it's behind the desk drivers ideas.

 

[Jughead]

I do consider the hill hold thing more of a nuisances than anything. I have stalled one time, and it was due to the hill assist. And the Z, to me, won't let you stall if you wanted to. Mine launches forward. My techs don't know of a way to turn it off. As far as the brake assist comment being stupid, wait till you need it.

 

[bruce_c]

All of my stalls have been due to hill assist

 

[bpeckham]

All of my stalls have been due to hill assist

As I found out, if you don't stall, the wheels might spin.

 

[Who.Am.Eye.2716]

There should be a way to hook it up to a computer, using Nissan software, and tap into the ECM and disable hill hold.

I found out the day I bought it about the hill hold stop assist, whatever its called. Its just stupid. I had someone get close, so I wanted to roll back a little to let them know to stay back off me. I have the clutch in, put it in 1st, let go of the brake and nothing. It was first for me to find out about hill hold. After a few seconds of keeping off the brake, the hill hold disengages and I start to roll back. I was prepared so I didnt roll back far as I am releasing the clutch and a little gas pedal to roll forward.

With people stopping inches from your bumper, it could be beneficial to not roll back into them. This feature is for novice beginners not knowing how to start on a hill.