Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I've never come across this anywhere else; maybe it's obvious to others, but it caused a little light bulb to go off in my head, so here it goes...

On the automatic L400/Pajero, there is a rocker switch on the dash/instruments labelled "A/T MODE".

When pressed up, an indicator light "PWR" illuminates on the instrument panel. This raises the shift points of the transmission, giving mo' power. Pretty obvious.

When pressed down, a different light "HOLD" illuminates on the instrument panel. Every reference I've found online talks about it being useful in snow, but functionally all it seems to do is to cause the vehicle to pull away from a stop in 2nd gear, rather than in 1st. Beyond that, the transmission functions normally (*maybe* lowered shift points, but not by much from what I can see).

I can see how this feature could reduce wheelspin in the snow from a stop, but why call it "HOLD"?

If the idea is to reduce problems from wheelspin/gear changes in the snow or similar conditions, I think the switch is only half of the package.

I now believe that the intent is for the driver to select second gear ("2") on the console/gear selector, **and** move the rocker switch into the "HOLD" position.

That way, when you pull away from a stop, the rocker switch starts the transmission out in 2nd gear, while the gear selection prevents the transmission from shifting any higher. Effectively "HOLD"ing the transmission in 2nd gear.

On my L400 this translates to a useful speed range of 0-60km/h as 0-3000rpm with effectively a one-speed transmission.

Anybody got any other input about the use of this feature?

It really just shuts off 1st gear. That is about all it does.

Remember these are Japanese vehicles, this function gives you "Hold" on the ground.

Fishtank wrote:Remember these are Japanese vehicles, this function gives you "Hold" on the ground.

therefore i can't roll my van while in 'HOLD' mode!

I think it not only bypasses first gear from a stop, but changes your TPS settings so it stays in OD longer before gearing down to 4th. I noticed this was really good on icy hwys where gearing down to 4th on an uphill would cause wheel spin/sliding, but forcing it to lug in OD kept your speed up and traction.

Hey guys, this is my first post here.

I can speak from my experimenting with my SpaceGear and with experience with Nissans, Toyotas, and Isuzus that all had a Hold button or switch option.

It is essentially a way to use your automatic as a manual of sorts. It does two things, hold the transmission in the gear selected while also increasing the resistance through the torque converter. This gives the ability to "gear down" on those long downhill stretches instead of burning out your brakes, as well as choose your start gear in slippery conditions to lower wheel torque and reduce slippage.

Jkrawler wrote:Hey guys, this is my first post here.

I can speak from my experimenting with my SpaceGear and with experience with Nissans, Toyotas, and Isuzus that all had a Hold button or switch option.

It is essentially a way to use your automatic as a manual of sorts. It does two things, hold the transmission in the gear selected while also increasing the resistance through the torque converter. This gives the ability to "gear down" on those long downhill stretches instead of burning out your brakes, as well as choose your start gear in slippery conditions to lower wheel torque and reduce slippage.

When I put my Deli in 1st gear it stays in 1st gear, am I missing something here?

By your question the only thing I think you may have missed is that yes you can shift into low and it will stay in low, but with Hold "on" the transmission RPM is slave to the engine RPM. Where as without it when you let off the gas you will coast along without slowing much, and forget about using the engine to slow you down when going down hill without it on either. Think about it like engaging the clutch on a manual transmission "holds" the engine output to the transmission input.

Does that clear things up?

Jkrawler wrote:By your question the only thing I think you may have missed is that yes you can shift into low and it will stay in low, but with Hold "on" the transmission RPM is slave to the engine RPM. Where as without it when you let off the gas you will coast along without slowing much, and forget about using the engine to slow you down when going down hill without it on either. Think about it like engaging the clutch on a manual transmission "holds" the engine output to the transmission input.

Does that clear things up?

Not really.

I gear down for my driveway, which is unusually long and steep. It exceeds 25 degrees of slope in one place.

I always go down in first gear, and I can assure you that the RPM is in sync with the transmission. I have not noticed any change on the way down with "Hold".

I just tested "hold" again while in first gear going down the (ridiculously long and steep driveway).

I noticed no change in RPM when enabling or disabling "hold" on the descent.

A quick google suggests hold wont do anything if the lever is put into 1st.

yojimbo wrote:A quick google suggests hold wont do anything if the lever is put into 1st.

I just tested it in drive, and it accelerated far too quickly down the slope. It is bad enough in first, but felt like it did two things. One, never went into first gear (as the Ozzies say it skips first) and second, it did not hold me back on the slope at all. My Delica accelerated to uncomfortable speeds down the slope as the engine was not staying down shifted. Exactly what I would expect if I were normally in drive.

It seems all it does is skip first gear in the shifting pattern.

The PWR and HOLD switch will only work if the gear selector is in Drive and the OverDrive is switched off.

Once you engage the OD switch, shift into 1, 2, N, R or P the function of the PWR and HOLD switch are not applicable.

Flibble, if you need 1st gear to hold you back going down a hill, use it. The HOLD function is for traction when starting out on a slippery surface not for holding you back during a hill decent.

Fishtank wrote:The PWR and HOLD switch will only work if the gear selector is in Drive and the OverDrive is switched off.

Once you engage the OD switch, shift into 1, 2, N, R or P the function of the PWR and HOLD switch are not applicable.

Flibble, if you need 1st gear to hold you back going down a hill, use it. The HOLD function is for traction when starting out on a slippery surface not for holding you back during a hill decent.

I agree. However, with my strangely long hill I can test these sort of things. My initial summation that "HOLD" disables 1st gear as the OZ site says seems to bear out.

When I turned OD off, and put the engine in "D" there was no coupling of the engine RPM to drive. It remained at idle for the entire descent and I had to use my brakes only.

"PWR" on the other hand, changes the shifting pattern to be much more aggressive. I use it on the way up the hill. I can see a definite shift pattern change. Enabling or disabling OD does not seem to have an effect on "PWR" or "HOLD", but I need to do more tests on "PWR" to be sure.

My tests seem to show though, it is as the Ozzies say. HOLD disables first, PWR uses a more aggressive (higher RPM) shifting pattern.

So the consensus seems to be that, instead of "Hold" referring to "Hold"ing in a particular gear; rather it is so labelled because someone at Mitsubishi decided to use that word instead of "Grip" or "Snow" or "Slippery".