I finally got my xb in May 07, and I love it. One thing I've noticed is that on the first drive of the day, or when its sat all day at work, it does not shift from 2nd to 3rd till almost 3500 rpm. After that it's nice and smooth as it should be. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? I understand that as long as the blue light is on, it will not shift into overdrive, but the book doesn't say anything about other gears.

 

and at what rpms does it upshift into other gears?

 

This is normal - they all do that with a cold engine. It scared me at first too. But after that initial high upshift it'll start shifting normally. Or if you let the engine warm up a bit, it should shift sooner even on that initial upshift.

There should be other threads on this subject.

 

There should be a stickied "Blue Light" post.

But yea, that's normal. I just keep it under 3k until the light switches off.

 

Yep, that's what I had drilled into me as well. Cannot believe they didn't tell him about the little blue light.

 

Yeah, it's your xB's way of telling you that you should have gotten a stick!

 

Thanks for the info. I probably would've gotten a stick, but when I got mine in May, there weren't many in the area to choose from.

 

You know how a stick xB tells you that you should have gotten an auto???
The clutch goes out before you hit 30K.

 

Tha's just RUDE!

No, not you; I meant the stick . . . and I hope MINE doesn't do that!!

 

I think that you're confusing the Torque Converter Clutch lockup with the 2nd - 3rd gear shift at (the highter than normal) 3500rpms.

You don't have to wait until the blue (engine cool) light to go out for the 2nd-3rd shift to behave normally. It just needs the engine to be slightly warmed up. And even with the engine cold, once you go over that 3500rpm shift point it will shift into 3rd gear. Then (even with the engine still cold) next time it needs to shift up to 3rd gear it will do it at lower rpms.

But the TCC lockup will not occur at all until the blue light goes out (which is over 160 deg. F).

Those are two different things.

 

You know, although I'm aware of this, it has always got me wondering.

I often shift quite early (never over 2500 RPMs) in my tC when the engine is cold in the mornings, and accelerate very gently as well. I do this until the engine has achieved proper operating temperature.

So, isn't it harmful to the engine and other components of the drivetrain (which also haven't warmed up yet) to be revving to like 3500 RPMs? I know this feature is there to heat up the emissions system so that it starts working properly sooner... but still.

 

I don't think that a short burst of 3500rpms will harm a cold engine. It is not like you're red-lining it for 5 minutes at 7000rpms. 3500 is not all that high.