Engine Puts Out More Power Than The Gearbox Can Handle!

Hi Everyone

I have a 14 plate 2.2 Mondeo hatchback diesel Titanium X - it is almost awesome - apart from the fact that the gearbox appears to struggle to keep up with the power that the engine puts out.

In normal automatic it runs well and does what it should - however, I recently discovered "S" mode - OMG it behaves like a different car and certainly raises eyebrows with the hot hatch brigade.

The problem that I would your help on is this - S mode appears to have two levels S mode auto and S mode manual, but i can't work out how to stay in S mode auto and get the most performance.

In S mode, if you push the accelerator gently but with some force it changes gear automatically and rockets forward - hence my thinking that this is the S mode auto level. If however you floor it, it revs it's nuts off and doesn't change gear. I have tried flicking the gear lever, but it thinks about it for too long as though I have missed the slot and I have to ease off the accelerator for it to behave again. Once I have manually changed gear once it stays in manual and I have to move the gear lever back to normal automatic and then back to S mode to get it to change automatically.

Am I missing something,or is it a common fault?

Any help gratefully received!!