I've been manually shifting my automatic when I'm in heavy traffic so I can use engine deceleration. Anyone else doing this?

BTW, a question for you transmission experts - it won't hurt the transmission will it?

 

Im not an expert. But my understanding is you need to give it some throttle before downshifting and then let off after the shift. Downshifting where the trans takes the force of the deceleration during the shift is what causes the issues (or so I have been told)

 

I manually shift, but not ALL the time. Whoever voted that manually shifting will hurt the tranny is wrong.
Unless of course you downshift into 1st when you're doing over 50mph. I've actually found that these
trannys won't even let you downshift into a lower gear unless you're in a acceptable RPM range. A
tune may change that. These trannys are a little smarter thatthe old turbo 400's. I can tell you this,
speed-shifting your manualcauses much more wear 'n tear on the clutch than manually shifting an
auto would do to it's internals.

 

Although I have a manual, if I had an automatic I wouldn't. I can't imagine its good for the transmission to do it.

 

I voted that, because there is no option just for no. So i imaigne most others did too.

 

I do and manually downshifting the tranny will NOT hurt it unless you do something like grampa_stang said and drop it into first while on the freeway. I do it all the time when i am on the twisty roads.

B&M should have a Racthet shifter out in a few months just for doing this.

Richard

 

ill do it occasionally but as far as which is faster i would imagine just leaving it in drive would be the fastest.

 

those are some stupid choices in your poll. Manually shifting doesn't hurt anything.
My Level10 tranny shifts really tight that way compared to stock.

 

Plus, What about a place to vote for "Sometimes". I dought anyone shifts theirauto trans manually all the time.

 

You hit it right on the head... while you might think you are directly shifting your tranny, what you are really doing is telling the computer that you would like to shift... it then decides if it's safe to shift... like you said, the computer won't shift the car into 1st if your doing 50 MPH! It also won't let you do a "neutral slam" LOL!

That being said... I spend a 1/2 day with Lidio over at Alternative Auto.. we spent it customizing the tranny portion of my tune... My car now actually downshifts when I start to slow down (unlike stock where you have to be at about a complete stop before the car would downshift!). So now when I slow down to make a tight turn or I'm coasting down to a stop light, my car is most likely in the right gear in case I want to take off in a "hurry" LOL!

He also got rid of that HUGE hesitation when you put the pedal to the floor and the computer things for a second before it realize you want the car to downshift! WOOHOO!