Do you manually shift your automatic?
07-13-2007, 12:36 AM
#21
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location:
Posts: 538
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
ORIGINAL: Audioi
BTW this is one weird transmission, it freewheels more than any other I have had and the plastic shifter is positievly the worst thing I have ever had in a car. Hopefully B&M will make a decent one soon for this car.
BTW this is one weird transmission, it freewheels more than any other I have had and the plastic shifter is positievly the worst thing I have ever had in a car. Hopefully B&M will make a decent one soon for this car.
I read a year-old thread somewhere in the Mustang universe that was supposed to be inside info that one manufacturer was within days of announcing such a device. Where is it today? Right.
Is it impossible, or is it just not likely to be a financial feather in someone's bonnet?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Where is our better shifter, eh?
07-13-2007, 12:42 AM
#22
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: leduc,alberta
Posts: 272
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
I did manual shifts up to the point I install the stall and then i left it drive for racing. that maybe what caused my input shat to twist. i hope the new lentech is better. the level 10 tran is ok but still uses same input shaft and can not take the horsepower.
07-13-2007, 01:23 AM
#23
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location:
Posts: 538
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
If you define "traffic" as ordinary travel on city streets, shifting might be appropriate; I let the car do all that. If (and this is what I mean) "traffic" is bumper-to-bumper on the freeway, 35 to 15 to 30 to 5 to 45, etc., etc., etc., then
Defining what you mean by "shifting your automatic" as moving the lever from one notch to another every time a gear change is required, Nope.
If "shifting your automatic" means choosing an appropriate gear in unusual situations, Yup.
Shifting in traffic makes sense to me because:
1- it relieves the machine's little electronic mind of the responsibility to make all those critical decisions
2- it relieves the whirring things inside from making so many energy-wasting and cranium-jarring shifts
3- it keeps at least one of my hands busy; who know what projects the devil has in mind for an idle hand
4- it gives me practice at pretending to be in charge of what my car is doing, even though I know it knows best
5- (and this is serious) you got to figure your car has enough torque to start from a dead stop in third gear, you don't need a high rate of acceleration in traffic, the less often your transmission shifts, the less it wears.
6- so, yes, I shift into 2nd or 3rd in traffic, and into Dth when it opens up.
7- Sometimes I shift into a lower gear going down a steep hill, even though I know the same amount of energy has to be dissipated as heat, either by way of the transmission fluid/cooler to air ( ! ) or from the brake disks/calipers to air, and that brake pads are way less expensive than transmissions.
8- there probably isn't enough difference between shifting for yourself in traffic and letting the car-brain do it to worry about -- except it is either a waste of your energy to do it, or the transmission's limited life when it does it, and you know it
9- I remember reading that manual transmissions are designed, materially and functionally, so that the top gear will wear out at x miles, next-to-top after x/4 miles, and so on to bottom gear that is expected to last only a few hundred miles, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
10- an important European manufacturer did a study showing MPG depended most on RPMs, that "brisk" acceleration to cruising speed yielded fractionally more MPG than did longer-lasting periods of leisurely acceleration in lower gears at higher RPM, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
11- In traffic I shift once into an intermediate gear when it becomes a definite traffic condition, and once into top gear when the traffic clears
12- otherwise, let the little brain in the car do what it is getting paid for.
07-13-2007, 07:20 AM
#24
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Saginaw, Texas
Posts: 38
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
Please do not take this the wrong way. For those of you that are manually shifting your automatics, us manual tranny folks can tell the difference. Now hold on there! I'm not saying that having an automatic makes it any less of a muscle car. All of my 'Stangs havebeen manual shift. I guess I just enjoy having total control over the powertrain.
07-13-2007, 09:45 AM
#25
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location:
Posts: 445
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
My stang is manual, but my other cars are auto, I dont see the point of manual shifting an auto while in traffic, they were disigned for that. However I live sorrounded by mountains and when driving down the hill I do downshift manually I rather messup the transmission and save the brakes, also in some twisty roads it is convenient to lock the transmission in 2nd or 3rd to keep the car whithin the power band.I have never had an auto transmission problem.
07-14-2007, 03:06 PM
#27
4th Gear Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Utah
Posts: 1,249
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
ORIGINAL: FyouGitive
If you define "traffic" as ordinary travel on city streets, shifting might be appropriate; I let the car do all that. If (and this is what I mean) "traffic" is bumper-to-bumper on the freeway, 35 to 15 to 30 to 5 to 45, etc., etc., etc., then
Defining what you mean by "shifting your automatic" as moving the lever from one notch to another every time a gear change is required, Nope.
If "shifting your automatic" means choosing an appropriate gear in unusual situations, Yup.
Shifting in traffic makes sense to me because:
1- it relieves the machine's little electronic mind of the responsibility to make all those critical decisions
2- it relieves the whirring things inside from making so many energy-wasting and cranium-jarring shifts
3- it keeps at least one of my hands busy; who know what projects the devil has in mind for an idle hand
4- it gives me practice at pretending to be in charge of what my car is doing, even though I know it knows best
5- (and this is serious) you got to figure your car has enough torque to start from a dead stop in third gear, you don't need a high rate of acceleration in traffic, the less often your transmission shifts, the less it wears.
6- so, yes, I shift into 2nd or 3rd in traffic, and into Dth when it opens up.
7- Sometimes I shift into a lower gear going down a steep hill, even though I know the same amount of energy has to be dissipated as heat, either by way of the transmission fluid/cooler to air ( ! ) or from the brake disks/calipers to air, and that brake pads are way less expensive than transmissions.
8- there probably isn't enough difference between shifting for yourself in traffic and letting the car-brain do it to worry about -- except it is either a waste of your energy to do it, or the transmission's limited life when it does it, and you know it
9- I remember reading that manual transmissions are designed, materially and functionally, so that the top gear will wear out at x miles, next-to-top after x/4 miles, and so on to bottom gear that is expected to last only a few hundred miles, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
10- an important European manufacturer did a study showing MPG depended most on RPMs, that "brisk" acceleration to cruising speed yielded fractionally more MPG than did longer-lasting periods of leisurely acceleration in lower gears at higher RPM, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
11- In traffic I shift once into an intermediate gear when it becomes a definite traffic condition, and once into top gear when the traffic clears
12- otherwise, let the little brain in the car do what it is getting paid for.
If you define "traffic" as ordinary travel on city streets, shifting might be appropriate; I let the car do all that. If (and this is what I mean) "traffic" is bumper-to-bumper on the freeway, 35 to 15 to 30 to 5 to 45, etc., etc., etc., then
Defining what you mean by "shifting your automatic" as moving the lever from one notch to another every time a gear change is required, Nope.
If "shifting your automatic" means choosing an appropriate gear in unusual situations, Yup.
Shifting in traffic makes sense to me because:
1- it relieves the machine's little electronic mind of the responsibility to make all those critical decisions
2- it relieves the whirring things inside from making so many energy-wasting and cranium-jarring shifts
3- it keeps at least one of my hands busy; who know what projects the devil has in mind for an idle hand
4- it gives me practice at pretending to be in charge of what my car is doing, even though I know it knows best
5- (and this is serious) you got to figure your car has enough torque to start from a dead stop in third gear, you don't need a high rate of acceleration in traffic, the less often your transmission shifts, the less it wears.
6- so, yes, I shift into 2nd or 3rd in traffic, and into Dth when it opens up.
7- Sometimes I shift into a lower gear going down a steep hill, even though I know the same amount of energy has to be dissipated as heat, either by way of the transmission fluid/cooler to air ( ! ) or from the brake disks/calipers to air, and that brake pads are way less expensive than transmissions.
8- there probably isn't enough difference between shifting for yourself in traffic and letting the car-brain do it to worry about -- except it is either a waste of your energy to do it, or the transmission's limited life when it does it, and you know it
9- I remember reading that manual transmissions are designed, materially and functionally, so that the top gear will wear out at x miles, next-to-top after x/4 miles, and so on to bottom gear that is expected to last only a few hundred miles, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
10- an important European manufacturer did a study showing MPG depended most on RPMs, that "brisk" acceleration to cruising speed yielded fractionally more MPG than did longer-lasting periods of leisurely acceleration in lower gears at higher RPM, so get into top gear as soon as practicable
11- In traffic I shift once into an intermediate gear when it becomes a definite traffic condition, and once into top gear when the traffic clears
12- otherwise, let the little brain in the car do what it is getting paid for.
your act together.
07-14-2007, 05:31 PM
#30
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NorCal
Posts: 146
RE: Do you manually shift your automatic?
ORIGINAL: wmtheflash
The only manually shifting I do is turning the overdrive on and off occassionally. Generally, it's a good idea in really heavy traffic or in the mountains.
Otherwise, I don't unless I'm decending a really steep grade.
The only manually shifting I do is turning the overdrive on and off occassionally. Generally, it's a good idea in really heavy traffic or in the mountains.
Otherwise, I don't unless I'm decending a really steep grade.