a/m button???

[Kal]

what does the a/m button do

i have a 94 318...auto....

i wanna know what the a/m button is for

according to what i've been told....the m button is for manual....so basically u can drive ur car kinda like it was standard...from gear 1..gear 2 .. gear 3 and then i guess it goes into D.....

if what i'm sayin is correct..isn't that bad for ur tranni? i mean shifting like that in an auto car...?

kal

[djcontra]

Basically how I understand it is
if you're in [M]anual mode, it stops the tranny from down shifting or up shifting to another gear. Basically it'll stay in the gear you have it in and wont change until you change it. It's good for winter time and going up steep inclines. In winter I like to drive from stop to go in 2nd gear instead of first so i dont get any wheel spin, and I use the [M] mode alot for that because i dont want it to downshift back to first.

[Gamite]

its pretty much useless if you ask me.. I never use it.

[thinair]

it's good if you're towing a trailer too (gasp) it allows you to engine brake instead of dragging the brake. But then again, you can do that with any auto tranny now that I think of it...

It also locks out the torque converter at certain rpm's for better throttle response.

[330DTM]

Yup, I had it on my 328i.
It's used to leave the gear without forcing it to shift automatically when you're on M mode.

Though, I did abuse it at times. When I was approaching corners and exiting them quickly, I often used the M Mode. Say i'm in 3rd, as I approach a quick corner, I brake and right while i'm braking, my heel will tap on the gas as I downshift the gear to 2nd to rev match. It really does sound like a heel toe downshift and no jerking at all, as opposed to if you downshift and don't gas it.
That's why i call it the Fakey Heel Toe Downshift.