pfactionbrett

So I find myself changing through the gears myself...1...2...drive so on...Is this bad for the auto transmission to do this a lot? I find quicker acceleration by doing this and I know the gas mileage is worse since I get higher RPM's but is it bad to toy it like this?

DC52NV

YES it is bad. if you wanted to toy around w/ gears you should have gotten a manual tranny.

pfactionbrett

also, way before i started doing this..a week ago or so....but way before that somehting happened at two occurences. I was sitting at a red light in drive with my foot on the brake and the car stalled..just shut off. Anyone had thins happen?

What can messing aorund with these gears result in? I wont do it anymore then if it's bad.

jerm

iTrader: (1)

I remember I had a friend that I carpooled with. He used to change his gears manually with his automatic transmission. Mind you this was NOT Tiptronics/Shiftlink/etc, just a standard automatic. I used to laugh every time.

It is not good for your car btw. A few times may not hurt it, but continual operation like that will result in overheating and a new out-of-pocket transmission for you.

silverSS

yea you WILL have to buy a new transmission

HotSauce

I agree with the rest, its not a good idea. Even my friend in his BMW with the 'tiptronic' blew his tranny because he ALWAYS shifted it

RaineMan

changin the gears like that in an auto isn't exactly a wise thing to do all the time.... they're not like the push-button autos of old... now you can do it some... say when racing or what not... get her to shift a little faster... but for every day driving it's not cool. It will definately kill your mileage and will wear a lot harder on the tranny.

silverSS

so well agree: BAD IDEA lol

bowtiess

what kinda shifting do u mean, like down shifting, or just pretty much like manual w/o a cluth? in my iroc z and benz i would use manual shifting just for getting the most out of that gear, but to hit a lower gear when ur already at a good speed is a no no on a auto, just let the down switch take care of it. also dont do a tranny drop plz, true u might lauch good for a few times but not for long it will tear up ur drivetrain BAD.

Brian MP5T

AUTOMATIC.. as in Automatically Shifts For You... As In Dont Shift The tranny That Shifts For You Automatically..

WadaSty51

ok i got a question then. i live in upstate ny i the traction control is a p.o.s. i usually end up putting it in first to get outta the slick **** then popping it back into drvie since we cant turn off our traction. how bad is this?

bowtiess

my iroc doesnt shift at its good points, it pretty much goes into the blah part of the range, so if u know when the most most powerful points r in ur rpms u should manully shift it around 500 rpms before ur next gear, cuz it takes a while for the ecu to read it, ive had good street runs that way

Brian MP5T

Ok, For racing and whathaveyou. But for normal daily driving..

Woodio

If you leave it in 1 won't it upshift automatically still?

97cavie24ls

ive got over 100,000 on my cav , and no problems , i shift more than someone with a 5spd


and ive got the weaker version of the trans in the cobalts , mine is a 4t40e and yours should be the 4t45e


its a myth about it being bad to shift it


if it was bad , all auto transmissions would only have PARK , REVERSE , FOWARD

they give you the shifter so you can use it , also its to help slow you down going down hill , via engine braking when gearing down

i should also mention a trans cooler is a very good idea , as well as a trans temp gauge

Malaclypse

iTrader: (1)

I agree. I've manually shifted my Monte over the past 80k of its life. Still on the stock transmission. Granted I didn't do it all the time, just when engine braking and racing mainly.

A trans cooler is a very good idea for any automatic. I have a trans temp gauge on the MC and even with a 24,000 lb GVW cooler the fluid temp still got up to 210 on hot days.

tio

Not being sarcastic, please tell me how manual shifting will ruin an automatic transmission .
If you could also tell me what part of the transmission gets "blown " from doing this, I would also appreciate it.

Thanks.

celicacobalt

the manual for my car says its ok to shift thru the gears but i have an ss which has different things on it than an ls does

Malaclypse

iTrader: (1)

Its the same for ALL automatic transmissions.

Kritter

For one thing, the clutch. When you drive an auto normally, you'll notice a slight pause in your acceleration when the car shifts, that would be the clutch engaging. If you try to shift through the numbers without allowing the engine to pause, you'll burn the clutch out. Secondly, unless you know the precise shift point of your tranny, you run the risk of burning the gears out, and even on the assumption you did know, you're human, there is no way you would hit that precise point every time. As insignificant as that sounds, add all those minute differences up over the life of a car, and you'll find the resulting wear and tear quite substantial. Just my hypothesis.

tio

Clutch,precise shift points, I appreciate the attempt but this really sounds like a stretch.

wesmanw02

Not having an understand of how an automatic trans works is one thing, but just going and makin things up when you have no idea what you are talking about is another. Please don't do that, all it does it create false rumors and confuse people.

First of all, automatics don't have a clutch. They have a torque converter and "clutch packs" that allow the planetary gearsets inside the transmission to change ratios. There is not even a direct connection from the engine to the wheels until the torque converter's clutch (TCC) locks in the higher gears, which is to improve fuel economy.

As for shifting an automatic manually: It really makes no difference, and no, it will not destroy your transmission, contrary to the popular believe of many of the individuals on this site. Abusing the transmission (such as forcing downshifts at too high an RPM or driving around in a low gear for extended periods) will damage the transmission, but shifting through the gate pattern, downshifting to maintain speed, or holding gears for passing will no have any adverse affects on an automatic transmission. As someone else mentioned, if it was bad for the trans to be put in anything other than "Drive", the manufacturer obviously wouldn't bother putting the other positions on the shift pattern in the first place

DC52NV

the reason there are other gears besides P, R, N & D is because the lower gears come in handy on different slopes. for example, 2 or 1 are meant to be engaged when you are going downhill or when needed for a lil extra torque. to just be shifting inbetween gears while normal driving conditions is asinine. these are the same people that put their auto's in neutral at a light or while driving to rev at someone.

Kritter

just going off of a little bit that I was told...I'm just now starting to get into studying transmissions...so I apologize for what was obviously a faulty guess, and stand corrected.

wesmanw02

No problem, sorry if I came off as being rude

Hope that helped you some, a great place to learn about cars in general (including auto transmissions) is www.howstuffworks.com. They present information in a format that easy to understand and often have color coded animations and photographs to compliment the articles.