After your car has gone up the hill, allow the transmission to downshift. This will happen automatically when the engine isn't required to work as hard. Downshifting You can also force your automatic transmission to downshift into a lower gear. Here's how to do it: As you approach a situation where you'd like to downshift, ease off the gas pedal. Allow the transmission to shift to a lower gear. Keep your speed constant to maintain this gear as long as you would like. To shift into a low gear, do one of the following methods : If you are in "D," let your foot off the gas or brake until you slow to around mph, then resume a steady speed.
Switch to "2. Follow the same process to go to "1. A simpler way to shift into low gear is as follows : Wait until you've come to a stop at a traffic light or stop sign. Switch to "2" while maintaining a steady speed. While in "2," as the RPMs reach 3,, switch to "D. When to Use Low Gears There are circumstances when you'll need to use the lower gears labeled "1," "2," or "L. Towing Heavy Loads If you are pulling a large boat or you have a truck and the flatbed is loaded down with heavy equipment or supplies, you could damage your transmission if you don't drive in "low gear.
Climbing a Steep Incline If you are in a situation where you're driving up a very steep hill, like taking a tourist drive up on mountain toll road, the automatic transmission can be affected in the same way as if you were towing a heavy load.
Riding Down a Steep Hill Another technique that not everyone is aware of is using a low gear when driving down a long, steep hill in order to save your brakes. You can manually change to some gears while driving an automatic car.
Other gears you should never switch to unless you are completely stopped as it can severely damage your engine. Automatic cars all have varying shifters and gears that you can use. It is very important to know the limitations of shifting with your specific car. If you do it wrong, it can cost you a lot of money and even more stress later on. You just have to know when those situations are. The transmission is no different than any other part of your car.
You want to use it properly, and not wear it out any faster than you have to. Depending on your car, the shifter may have a button of some sort on it that you need to press to move the shifter. If this is true for your car, then press the button before shifting. Then you simply have to move the shifter to the desired gear. You may want to let off the gas while doing this. Your car should also, thankfully, restrict which gears you can do this with while driving. This can differ depending on the gear modes that are available in your car.
Usually, cars will have a sport mode or economy mode, or some variations of those. It will accelerate the wear on the transmission bands that run between the drum gears. Eventually the bands will fall out of adjustment or wear out. Worse yet, shifts that are highly aggressive will tend to exert torque on the entire engine and transmission mounting system, putting extra stress on a flex plate that Chrysler uses between the engine and the torque converter to dampen shock in normal driving.
Ralph Vartabedian is a former national correspondent at the Los Angeles Times and became a special contributor in April He joined the newspaper in and has covered many technical subjects, including aerospace, auto safety, nuclear weapons and high speed rail.
He has won two Loeb awards and was a Pulitzer finalist, among many other career recognitions. All Sections. About Us. It balances ease of use with maximum performance, and so it is a very popular transmission in racing. So, now that we know the differences between each transmission, is it a bad thing to treat an automatic like a manual?
The answer is usually no, because most automatics will even have a built-in option for the driver to use the gear selector like a manual stick. This is intended to give the driver a bit more control in adverse conditions , such as on hilly terrain. However, the transmission is built to be better than the driver , and the gear changes should take place at the optimum times.
Thus, there really should be no need to shift the gears manually. However, many drivers simply enjoy the feel of changing gears manually and like to be able to do it while driving on hills or around corners for example. Although not inherently a bad thing, if the driver was to use this as their shifting method all the time the transmission may be susceptible to some damage.
This is simply because it is designed to work as an automatic, and so not using it in this way for extended periods of time could put the transmission under unnecessary stress. Plus, if the driver is using the transmission manually in a low gear for example, in order to provide engine braking when going down a hill, it is almost guaranteed to cause excess wear to the internals of the car and could damage it.
The same thing applies if the driver tries to push the car in low gears, by accelerating aggressively above speeds of 30mph. This will definitely cause excessive wear on the transmission bands between the internal gears and can thus result in some very expensive damage. Aggressive shifts at any speed can cause some damage to the transmission, and so it is definitely best to minimize the amount of manual shifting done in an automatic car, even if you think you are perfectly good at shifting.
When it comes to transmissions, there are various different types, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
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