I was wondering if anyone has had the following happen to them...


I was climbing the Altamont pass, heading towards the bay area last night, and managed the uphill grade no problem. But when I reached the summit and started to level out, I noticed that my RPM's remained high at about 4800 or so, and even when I took my foot off the accelerator, the tranny would not shift into O/D for like 15 or 20 seconds. It was weird. The road was completely flat and I was only going about 60 MPH. The car just would not shift gears. It was like it was stuck?

Keep in mind, I only have 700 miles on my car, and it was it's first time climbing such a steep, prolonged grade.

jr

 

I run the baker grade into california about once a month. If I let the computer shift up and down, the memory stays the same, and the shift pattern remains the same.If I take out od manually, it will do what you described. Bill

 

I have noticed that problem, it will down shift going up the hill and not upshift at the top as quickly as I think it should. I think the computer needs to think about it a bit first, maybe to ensure you are not starting up another hill?. I'm not worried about it though.
ken

 

I wondered about this too, but read an article somewhere...or was it the owner's manual...that this is what the car is suppose to do. It's minimizing shifting automatically.

Override solution - Click your O/D button off, then back on. It takes care of it most of the time.

 

it's called a "smart transmission" and yes its normal.

 

scionaraxb is right, it is a "smart transmission". The next time you're going downhill tap the brakes and watch the transmission shift down one gear, it will hold this gear for about 10-15 seconds because the car "thinks" you"re going around a curve and need engine braking. Same thing going up hill if it downshifts because the rpm dropped it will hold the lower gear until a pre-determined set of parameters are met(throttle position,rpm,speed,engine vacuum) because it "knows" you're going uphill and needs a lower gear. Sometimes annoying but a compromise for an automatic instead of a manual transmission.

 

Ok, I feel better informed! Thanks for the heads up guys. Smart Transmission indeed.....

jr

 

so well explained... I drive up a hill once a day, and I notice is you get some good speed before you hit the hill (for me about 80 mph) and just go easy on the pedal, all the way through its a much easier climb.
But then again I have 22,000 miles on my car so it's been broken in to my style of driving...

 

As others have said, it's normal. If you've driven an older O/D transmission in the same terrain you've probably noticed that the transmission will sometimes "hunt" between 4th and 3rd gears, which can be very annoying. The newer transmissions build in a longer time delay to allow you to momentarily lift off of the throttle without upshifting.

George

 

don"t know if the auto trannys are similar to the 03 Echo, which I bought for my daughter 6000 miles ago. About once every 2 weeks the tranny will not shift up into 5th/overdrive, at 60 mph, on the interstate. 3 times when getting on I95 comming up to sprrd, once after shifting down to go up anincline and not going back into OD after leveling out. Takes between 15-60 seconds to shift back up on these 4 occasions. Otherwise it shifts from 4th to OD very smoothly as you might expect. This happened when I first bought the car and the check engine lite came on. The code showed trouble with the auto trenny locking solenoid which was malfunctioning occasionally and holding the car in fourth gear after 60 mph. Solenoid wsa replaced and a few weeks later he light came on again. Transmission was replaced. I can never get the problem to happen to me. Once every 3 weeks for about 30 seconds, then all's well. Perhaps there's a TSB on this issue. I'm keeping a log of where, when, and how long and plan have it cheched when the first service comes due. This has happened only when the car hav been warfmed up and driven at aooprating temperature. Hope this helps. Mark S

 

look at the topic "auto tranny 4th to OD" in teh troubleshooting forum of echofans.net. probably the same issue and a possible fix

 

hey it is called SMART TRANSMISSION it is totally normal! haahahahah sorry i had to do it.

 

how wierd this just happened to me yesterday but wasn't sure if i should ask.good to know that this is normal :D