Bmitchell373

Glad you back on the road, I'm pretty sure my car is fine. 2nd-3rd is only 1000 rpms so even 8k for a split second wouldn't kill it. But 3rd to 5th, you probably went well over 9k.

Thanks for the response.

Norm Peterson

Sorry to hear about the problem, good to hear it didn't expire immediately.

Most manual tranny drivers grab the wrong gear once in a while, just not at quite such a critical instant.

FWIW, I'd imagine that an intentional 5-4 downshift that accidentally went 5-2 instead would have done the same thing under much more normal driving.


No point? People have hated the computer-forced 1 - 4 manual tranny upshift ever since it was first introduced (by GM in the F-bodies, if memory serves). This would be more of the same, never mind the complaints if the maximum possible downshift speeds ended up being too low for any reason.

Time was, even reverse was not locked out. People dealt with it just fine, and this meant the vast majority of drivers on the roads (including those who didn't even like to drive).

Are the licensed drivers of today inherently that much less capable than their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents that this kind of "assistance" is at all necessary? My own great-grandfather, born in the 1860's (no, that's not a typo) and who I still remember being around, simply would not be able to grasp this concept of avoiding reliance on your own self.


No point? People these days are way too ready to have every little responsibility shifted to somebody else, or to have it "engineered away" from them having to deal with. I don't want that kind of car, nor should anybody else who considers themself a "driver". Not just another passenger who happens to be sitting behind the steering wheel, but a real driver.

There is a saying about no matter how extensively you "idiot-proof" something, there will always be a better idiot who manages to get past all of the preventive measures anyway. It's a losing bet to think you'll outsmart every single one of them.


The 1st gear synchro will make it extremely difficult, to the point where most people would probably never be able to make it happen. But it is not completely impossible, mechanically.


Norm

GTR21

Speaking of the 1-4 shift, I have a Camaro that does that. Luckily it's easy enough to disengage. It does however have a reverse lockout when the car is in forward motion which is pretty helpful

Bmitchell373

I just found out about the 1-4 shift lock out. My car says it on the dash but I've never been locked out. A guy I talk to out here with a 5.0 said the car will lock him out of 2nd when its displayed on the dash. Is it something you can take off? I know it can be tune out. But my car never locked me out. I just wonder if the previous owner disabled it?

GTR21

The previous owner probably did, I don't really know too much about Mustang lockouts, but on the Camaro it FORCED you to go from 1st to 4th unless you went higher in the rpms than casual driving. A guess possibly a way of being emissions friendly? It was disabled before I bought it, so I can't help ya much on that one

Norm Peterson

It's basically there to bump the fuel economy up just a tiny bit.

The penalties for missing mpg standards are taken at least down to the tenths of a mpg, times the $ amount per tenth, times the number of cars sold, and this can run into the $Millions. So for Ford, GM, Chrysler, etc., a tenth of a mpg here and another tenth there is a big deal.

Even if you were to meet the current year's mpg standards, I think there are carry-back and carry-forward allowances to let you "crutch" years that you might have come up just a tiny bit short of the goal. So you'd still want to pick off any easy tenths.


Norm

BigDinTexas

Yes, it is easy to bypass by physically unplugging the solenoid at top of the transmission on the passenger side. If you search for "disable skipshift" in the forum search tools, there is an extensive thread describing the process. It is relatively easy, and supposedly there are no problems associated with it. It will still display the message in the lcd info center, but the solenoid will not be active.

Don

4LiterSonic

See, if that had been me, I would've taken a video of me railing his mom and then sent the kid a copy of it along with a bill for new tires.

PNYXPRESS

Its not that you are locked out of the gears at higher speeds. Its more that the gear cluster is spinning way to fast for the syncros to line up so it cant. If you force it hard enough it will go into any gear at any speed.