RattlerGolf

So my friend told me this trick and I tried it out.

I have an automatic. Put it into 1st, accelerated until the RPMS were around 4.5, switched it into 2nd, waited until the RPMS were 4.5, then put it into drive. The engine made a great noise and accelerated so quickley. Does this do anything bad to the car?

THANKS GUYS!

Trampus

At first I thought you were going to say you were doing neutral drops. I was glad to read on that you were.

Your friend is right, it's not hurting anything by shifting like that.

RattlerGolf

yay my mom thinks she knows everything! i was worried tho that she was right lol she usually is

acadian

Listen to your mother. It can hurt your tranny overtime doing that. Nothing against you, Trampus... but unless you rebuild transmissions for a living, you can't say that manually shifting an auto won't hurt it. And RattlerGolf... you are going to trust a complete stranger over your own mother? There have been numerous threads regarding this subject (I even started one a while back) and the conculsion was that over time, you may ruin your tranny by doing this, especially if you do it all the time. Not too long ago, a guy started up a thread because he had recently started manually shifting his auto, and was now hearing a loud clunking noise coming from the transmission. The automatic transmission was not made to shift this way on a daily basis. Sure, do it every now and then if you need to stay in first or second gear, or if you just want to have a little fun shifting the car. But, don't do this all the time. At the very least, you are going to be confusing the heck out of the computer because it learns your shift habits and programs the computer to shift better to get you better gas mileage and improved acceleration. If you are shifting yourself, it will never be able to learn the shifting pattern. The computer will shift the tranny at the right times, and won't allow you to over-rev or do anything else to hurt the transmission.

We can argue back and forth all day about whether or not manually shifting an auto is good or bad. In other threads, some said that they did this constantly for years with previous cars with no damage. Others said that they ruined their transmission after a short time. So, basically the risk is there. Why take the risk though? Especially when I know for a fact (because I tested this numerous times) that manually shifting actually gets you worse times than letting the tranny do what it was meant to do. Not to mention the added gas mileage you will get.

RattlerGolf

wow acadian...great post! yeah i was just trying it out one time. it was really interesting what you said about the computer learning your habits! i didnt know that...


one more question tho about something my mom said...is getting the RPMS really high bad? whats considered high?

Donna

Yep Ian you posted that while I was looking for this:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index....opic=18663&hl=

I remembered reading this some time back.

ponyboy66

When you hit the rev limiter.
About 6k.
The puter knows when your going too high and it will shut down the fuel to the engine until it reaches safe RPM's and it will then let fuel back in.

05GT-O.C.D.

Mine revs past 6k!

In auto cars that I've owned, the tranny shifted faster on it's own, but when I tried to do it manually, there was always a delay. Is the tranny on these auto's different?

nyyankee

You are not! doing neutral drops and you should of bought a stick.

NYtoDCStang

What a mom... that knows about trannies and probably a good cook also!!

Trampus

I guess I should have clarified that I'm not any type of transmission expert but it's been my experience that shifting that way every now and then won't cause a problem. I've done it with several of my cars and never had any type of transmission problems.

I wouldn't want to shift like that all the time but if you want to do it occasionally, I wouldn't worry about it.

V10

The Lincoln LS uses the same 5R55S trannie.
The Sport model of the LS has what they call an SST shifter, Select Shift Transmission. The SST allows you to put it in a semi manual mode where you flick the shift lever forward to upshift a gear and flick it back to downshift a gear. It is advertised as a "semi-manual" shifting feature, so Ford doesn't seem to have a problem with people manually shifing the 5R55S.

Amongst the Lincoln LS owner's club, there doesn't appear to be any significant number of people who have harmed their 5R55N or 5R55S trannies by using the SST "manual" shift mode.

As a side note, a number of the Lincoln LS owners club members have taken their LSs to 1/4 mile tracks. Everyone that I am aware of posted their best 1/4 mile times by leaving the trannie in full auto mode and NOT "manually" shifting the trannie.

Ripstang

I worked in a tranny shop for 3 years when I was younger (many a year ago ) and when I first started I asked the same question (I was doing the same thing ) .
From what I was told over a period of time this will wreck the tranny and I was told they would build up the tranny more to what I wanted so I went that way .When the tranny came out of the car I had done this to It was only a month or two away from compleate failure ,I had cracked the inside of the case from the load on the unit and it was on its way to splitting in 1/2 .
The case was thrown out ,torque converter was no good,and drum packs (1st 2nd & 3rd gear )were not bad but worn.
If you wish to have the Mustang hold at higher revs before shifting the cheap build is what they call a shift kit or towing package shift kit ,Ford might have this for the mustang ...check to see if this would void warranty .
Stage 2 shift kit is more aggressive and stage 3 is for raceing both I belive would require minor to major trans mods .