Hi, when i still had my Civic (yeah... no mods tho) everyone told me manually shifting the auto trans would kill the transmission in no time.

However, after reading some posts here, i noticed a lot of you mention doing it. Is the Max's tranny that good? Won't i hurt the trans if i manually shift it myself? Also, does it still follow the manual tranny "theory" of shifting at 15mph intervals (or at redline)?

Lastly, say i'm on a highway and need to "very" quickly overtake someone else does it hurt to go down to 2nd from 3rd from 4th gear?

Thanks

 

I experienced some problems when I used to manually shift my auto 1990 Camry. I only did it for a week or two, and I definitely felt some difference with the transmission, and not in a good way. It felt weaker and less firm shifting on its own. I've yet to manually shift my Auto 2K SE, I really don't want to risk it. I'd love to fry my transmission, then swap it for a manual 5spd, but I can't have my car in the shop, need it for work.

 

I doubt it will do any serious harm if you do it once in a while... just don't abuse it that way.

 

So far so good. Like what UMD said, just don't do it too often.

 

I was doing for about two weeks and now my
s@!t hangs at red line between first and second and second and third.
I sure hope my trans isn't going casue I cant afford to get any work done here in London! They wanted 130 pounds for a oil change($160) I could only imagine what a trans job would cost!!!

 

Does anyone know what would cause the gears to hang between shifts? is this the problem with the selinoid? if I stay on the gas it will just keep reving at red line for what feels like forever(about five seconds) should I break down and use trans. fluid finnaly? anyone know who sells the mt100 or red line trans fluid? is that the same thing?

 

hmmm... 5 seconds between a shift


you should get that tranny checked out ASAP. It is slipping and eating away at the gears and stuff....

 

hmmm...i have been doing this with my moms car lately....i start off in overdrive and then downshif tinto 3rd and watch the rpms jump up a little...anyways once i pick up my 99 se-l i wont be doing this, then again if i do it once i have $, i will have an ecuse to get a new tranny, and also to do a 5 spd conversion while im at it

 

see...shoulda bought a 5 sp.

 

i couldnt pass this car up..even yo uknow that

 

Shifting an auto tranny by hand reminds of the story of the man who bought a chain saw on sale at Sears. It was guaranteed to cut down 10 trees in a day. He came back to Sears a week later, looking dirty, bloody and tired. “I want my money back, it took me a whole week to cut down 10 trees.”. The salesman offered to check it out. He pulled the cord and the saw instantly started up with a loud and steady Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The customer, looking bewildered , asked, “What’s that noise?”

 

Would you like to elaborate further on your metaphor?

 

Do you need me to explain the joke?

 

Sure. I appreciate a good joke.

 

Well, the point of the story was that the customer, by not turning on the chain saw motor, thereby cutting down trees with it by hand, did not use the device as intended, and laboriously made it hard on himself.

So couldn't the same be said for shifting an automatic transmission by hand when it's designed to do that for you?

 

Oh...I see. Well, I think the reason why people manually shift is because the auto upshifts before it hits redline and we have some decent high-end torque. By shifting manually, you're able to get a lot closer to redline and better utilize the power of our VQ30DE.

 

Sometimes I shift manually on my 2k se auto. So far no problems ( as far as I know).
On the highway I would not recommend to downshift to the 2nd gear.
What I do is turn OFF overdrive and in about a second you got high RPMs and much better car response and acceleration. Once you passed someone, you can turn on O/D again. Works for me. Though I try not to turn off O/D if I'm driving faster than 80mph. Once I accidentaly turned O/D off at about 100+mph and that screwed up my auto trany. I had to reset the ECU.

 

its ok if you race someone else but when you race me it will hurt your tranny

 

try to reset the ECU. Just unplug the car's battery for about two hours or so (maybe a bit more, don't know for sure).
It worked for me when my auto tranny went crazy on me.
good luck.

 

basically, all you are doing by shifting manually is telling th tranny when to shift. You are not physically engaging any gears. When you shift up, it simply is telling the tranny computer that it is now allowed to shift into the higher gear when needed. When you downshift, the tranny will only do so if you are going a safe speed for the gear you are downshifting into.

 

Have you actually tested that theory? I would be suprised if nissan actually spent the time and made something in the Auto tranny actually work like is suppose to.

Sorry for the bitterness.... it's just that I have an '86 caddy and a '71 olds both of which shift faster and more effectively than the POS in my $30k Max. And yes I know I should have gone with the Freakin' 5sp.