My buddy has a ford focus that he drives thats an auto and he most of the time shifts it from 1 to 2 to drive, is this healthy? and Is it doable in the xb?

 

Yes it is doable... What the long term effects will be on the tranny...who knows... I wouldnt do it unless it was called for..

 

his car has 80k on it, no problem yet, hius father says its better for the engine but im not so sure

 

Has he done it daily for all 80k... I'd like further explination on why it is better for the engine and if it is better for the engine..then what kind of stress is the tranny seeing when he does this.

 

he got the car around 35k, yes he has shifted daily since he got it. He does ity because he gets a little more pep from manually shifting it.

 

Hmmm... well I still wouldnt personally do it unless it was a race situation.... I put enough stress on my tranny as it is, I dont want to take it any further than I already do..

 

well, im getting an auto because ive had a manual for 2 years, I was just wondering if the need be =) I could do that for a little bit more pep. I won't be doing it much or else I would get another manual lol

 

Believe it or not, using the shifter to go from 1st to 2nd to D on an auto, actually takes some stress off the tranny. It shifts higher and makes the engine work more instead of going into the next gear too early and bogging down the tranny and stressing it that way. My dad has an olds 88 and it is SLOOOWWWW!!! He HAS to columb shift through the gears to get it on the highway or it will start making noises in the tranny.

<<Standard driver for life!!

 

^^ But yeah, like you said, its pretty much stupid and pointless if you're just driving normal. I would say its only for fast acceleration purposes. And with the quality of some of todays cars. I think it is becoming pretty useless to manually shift an auto.

The only advantage of doing this in a car today, is in bad weather, it helps keeping your car slow in snow without using the breaks...
And up very steep hills it keeps your tranny in a low gear as to not burn up the tranny

 

i can actually almost "pop" my car into 2nd and i have an auto.. say im at a stop light and i floor it as it turns green (you perty much have to) and when it gets to like 6k rpm i let off and floor it again and if you do it just right it will actuall "pop" into gear i have actually barked the tires before ('') ('')

 

Probably no harm other than possibly wearing the gear selector linkage. It could be kind've dangerous since you can overshoot drive and pop into neutral. So you're there trying to merge on the highway then suddenly go to a coast...

The only times I've used the lower gear selections in an automatic were:

 

the car will keep you out of OD until it reaches a certain temp anyways. unless you mean until you think its completely 'warmed up', then you might be onto something...

 

Actually, by "warm up" I meant me! I've got a short commute and I'll keep the revs a little so the car warms up and the heat kicks in sooner. I have a manual xB and I'll usually be a gear lower than where I'd normally drive until the blue light goes out.

 

i do it at least half the time i am driving and shes ticking arouond 45k without issue. at times i will also do the same for my 97 blazer now featuring over 200k with no ill effect. so i guess what i am sayin is fugettaboutit

 

i got a q aboot overdrive; does it slow the auto down or anything? or should i just leave it on? i got an idea on what it does but im not sure, clarify if you would! ty

 

you can shift it manually if you install a manual valve body in the transmission whats more fun to do if you got a reverse manual valve body

 

been a while for me but if i recall when you switch to the manual valve body its manual only after that but yeah getting a rerverse vavle body and a good ratchet shifter is tons of fun.

as for the other question if you are standinig on it youre standing on it and itll usually shift at or near the redline so in a word no. in an auto trans its job is to get into the next gear as soon as practical in order to save fuel but will allow for you to select via shifter or gas pedal

 

I wouldn't manually shift an automatic transmission. It's not good in the long run. Just leave it in D & go. The only time you manually shift is if you're stuck in mud or going down a hill to conrol speed with the engine. There's a reason that it's called an "automatic" transmission. ( 'o') !!

 

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, got my licence when I was 16. I drove my mom's car and it was an automatic. I used ot shift it manually just to impress my freinds at school. But one day I decided to to more "tricks". Like shifting it to neuttral, reving my engine than slam it to Drive! Man I did a long burn out, but then like after doing this for a while the tranny gave up. What a lesson I learned.

Anyway, shifting the Auto manually won't do any harm. However if you do what I did, REving the shifting to drive constantly, expect a burned tourque converter.

 

^^^^^good point on the neutral drop great way to bust any tranny including a manual. at any rate most newer autos contain software that keeps torque values in the preffered range thus not allowing a neutral drop still need to treat the trans with care unless you like long unexpected walks