How bad is it for the car if you manualy shift gears with an automatic transmission?

 

not bad, but you're doing an awful lot of legwork, when you could put it in D and let it do its thing. just leave it alone, or get a 5spd

 

Don't do it, it's bad for your tranny.

 

my auto tranny lets me control when it shifts sometimes, but that is because it is on its way out. poor transmission

 

Honestly, shifting gears in an automatic for daily-driving is a waste of effort. You're not really gaining anything from it. But if you're shifting the gears during say.. a race, then there's some good in it. When I go to the track, I always put it in "1" at launch. If I happen to lose traction, I may feather the gas and will stay in gear. Usually what our transmissions like to do (if in "D" or "3") is upshift when you feather or release the gas, which then makes you bog and waste time. After the launch, I take it up to "3" and let the transmission take care of the rest.

It can also work the same for highway runs (Illegal street racing is bad!) Say you're at a 40MPH roll and in "3" or "D." The time it takes your foot to reach the firewall, the throttle to reach WOT (drive-by-wire, gotta love it) and the transmission to downshift is enough for your opponent to get a good lead on you. At around 40MPH and in "2", you should be at around 3,000-3,500RPM's which is RIGHT in your powerband, and all you have to do is slam the gas and there you go. No waiting for downshifts, no wasted time.

 

downshifting it is bad and still you are just messing with the computer. i just keep it in a given gear when in traffic to prevent it from cycling 3 gears 2000 times in a mile. keeps the wear down.

 

i shift mine on a daily basis. if i dont then i cannot really take advantage of having my powervalve removed. i run a tranny cooler and M1 tranny oil and have had no issues as of yet. 72k miles so far.

 

Frequent shifting is bad for it regardless if it's down or up shifting. Though I use it sometimes when launching to keep it as close to red zone as possible. Most of the time, if flooring it, the car will shift at red line so no worries there... Also when going downhill I would occassionally turn O/D off to slow down rather than breaking all the way down a lot...

 

I was told that turning o/d off to slow down is completely safe compared to say if our car showed 1-2-3-d instead of 1-2-d w/ o/d since the using that button lets the computer understand exactly what's going on compared to droping it into 2nd to slow even more, i heard that isn't the smartest thing to do often, i myself have done it only once in a while when i really need to slow down and would rather not kick in abs.

Not to change topic, but has anyone experienced keeping o/d off at WOT getting onto the highway and by the time you're at about 80 where you're now in 3rd and the engine sounds "low" as if it's not putting out enough power compared!...to when i then turn o/d back on and it seems like there is more power, it's very weird. If you have no idea what i'm talking about, next time you're on the highway punch it with o/d off and turn it back on once you're in 3rd for a couple seconds to compare.

 

DOWNSHIFTING, OR UPSHIFTING MANUALLY IS NOT BAD!!! Damn for the umptheenth time it's been asked over and over again, and the conclusion is NO it is NOT bad. The computer controls your shift! When you shift from 1 to 2 it DOES not go into 2 that exact second it shifts maybe .3-.5 seconds after it's in 2. Staying in each gear manually, only allows you to 1.) Redline to 6550 RPMS, 2.) Stay in that one gear without the comp. upshifting or downshifting.

 

the highest my tcm will let it shift in drive is 6100.

 

i had a friend blow his tranny shifting manually on his auto maxima

 

just convert to manual once u blow ur auto tranny

 

nah, my auto keeps with the 3.5 in 6spd form from a 40 roll so i will keep what i have for now.

 

I have a question about O/D should it be on or off what I mean is should I see it on the dash board thingy saying O/D off or should I not see it?

 

When the O/D light is OFF you'll run through all 4 gears, but if the O/D light is ON, you'll only reach 3rd gear. One of the main ideas to keep O/D OFF (light on the dashboard) is for example driving back roads where you plan on hitting a bunch of stop signs or even a straight road with many traffic lights where your car would jump into 4th at the last second right before you begin to brake..once again, so having O/D off lets you roll in 3rd and use it for some engine braking, instead of jumping into 4th when you don't need to be in that gear really. but naturally you'd keep O/D on for the highway.

 

What 6MT might that be?

 

lol right a 3.0 auto keeps up with a 3.5 6spd

 

His is no ordinary auto though.

 

Thank you.

 

i'm speaking from personal experience, and i've been flamed for this numerous time so i'm not gonna fight back:

i've been manually shifting my max for 3 years+ and put about 80,000mi on original tranny and it still shifting strong. still on original tranny. nissan design automatic with "O/D, 2, and 1" for a reason. if it's bad shifting manually on an auto, they won't even design "O/D,2,and 1" on the car. so it's there for a purpose. i shift my auto proper at correct RPMs and match up with whatever speed i'm at to control my car better.

i'm just speaking from personal experience that's all... if my tranny goes out i will definetly let u guys know.

 

i can get a video if you have any doubt. mods were catback and PAB for him.

 

yea..i don't believe it too. show us a video please...

 

no problem. i will attempt one this weekend. the member is on the boards if you want to ask. you could also ask SR20DEN and Blu as they were both present.

 

Not bad at all. I shift often, but I do it correctly. If you're going to shift down, make sure you're going the proper speed. If you're going to shift down, make sure you do it with the OD Off (light on dash ON), that way the car downshifts two gears, and not three. When you're going to shift down, make sure your foot isn't planted too hard on the throttle and only very lightly -- otherwise the shift will jerk the car hard and that's when you damage it. Floor it when the lever is already in the gear you want, not before it gets to the gear.

 

I don't think the 6 speed owner is willing to sacrifice himself again for the world to see.

The deed was done, but not by much.

 

I ain't skeerd!! No excuses for me, sloppy does have a fast auto. Probably will run over most of you here. I'm up for the vid, I'd just like to do a dig also.

I'm pretty stock and no tune, which is fine for now. No advance, no tuning, just pab and cattback as sloppy said, plus I'm missing a few ponies somewhere that I've got to get back. He pulled on the high, and would have kept pulling with a higher rev limiter.

Don't only look at what's in front of you. Some people here need to recognize.

 

Further proof that anything is possible out on the road. Need I remind this forum that I ran a 2003 w/ Cattman Ypipe, Intake + Timing Adv +2 and he couldn't pull on me? And I had a passenger in my car.

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...0&postcount=14

My mods are minimal:

1/4 tank of gas, BTDC@17*, Berk w/Apexi, Falkens (hey, 4lbs lighter than Deathtenzas) and empty trunk (which was negated by a passenger recording).

 

Ya its not there for you to shift like a manual. It's there for you to hold gears for extra grip in poor driving conditions. I agree though that its probably not really that bad for the trans, as long as it is a well maintained trans.

And btw if it was bad to shift there wouldn't be any tiptronics/manumatics/skiptronics in the world.

 

Had to correct you here on a few things.

1.) OD being on or off will not affect your downshift. For example if you are at 30 miles per hour, you downshift your lever to 1, it will go into first gear. Trust me.

2.) If you leave it in Drive, and floor it and it kicks down say to second, you can then move the lever to second this way you can redline at 6550-6600. Trust me again. You don't need to move the lever into second initially to go into second, you can floor it in "D" it will automatically d/shift and you can then move the lever to 2 to get the most out of that gear.

 

Don't understand why people have hard time believing that an auto can hang out with a 6-sp from a roll Granted that off the line 6-sp may take it, but from a roll auto is a monster too... I had my share of shaming some 4 and 5/5.5 gen stick-riders ...

 

hopefully i will have a video of a dig this weekend. my car is stronger from a roll but i should be able to jump a car and stay there.

 

Anyone with an extended rev limiter via ECU in their auto must shift manually if they want to take each gear to 7k+ or whatever their ECU is reprogrammed for.

If manually shifting your auto was so bad for your transmission, I don't think as many people as there are would be doing so in this context.

 

Try doing it and we'll talk again a few K later

 

I don't do it...my friend has a brand new Toyota Corrola type S and was being an idiot cuz he likes the sound of his exhaust so he shifts gears on his auto....16000 miles and blew his tranny(of course it was covered by warrenty but still)....everyone knows how reliable and strong Toyota's are but I guess that tells you not to shift gears in an auto

 

Manually upshifting is alright ASFAIC. It's the manual downshifting that is bad.

 

For the love of God, TRUST ME.

Go 70 MPH, drop your shifter to 1 tell me what happens? If you don't I'll tell you, NOTHING, until the car slows down to 40-50 MPH perhaps 30 MPH your computer will not allow your tranny to downshift. Even if you manually downshift at ANY speed it will not at that very moment instaneously downshift, it will be atleast 2-3 seconds, and even longer if it takes a while to get to the right speed.

Flooring your car at 40 MPH in 4th gear, is the same as manually downshifting to first. If it was not computer controlled I can understand how it could be harmful, but whether it's shifting manually, or automatically it is STILL controlled by the computer, all your doing is staying in your selected gear... the gear that you selected manually.

Even triptronics, manumatics etc, will not let you downshift to 1st or 2nd when you're going 75+MPH. Again this is ALL computer controlled.

 

Either they couldn't shift or your car had more HP due to upgrades.
An auto has more driveline loss than a manual.
Look at any 0-60 or 1/4 mile time for any manual vs. auto. The auto is always slower, as a manual can simply put more power to the ground. I don't doubt your claim, it certainly is possible, but an auto is not the monster of anything unless it's highly upgraded and you are drag racing.

How is this a debate? Every once in a while wouldn't hurt, but pretending you drive a stick and shifting manually every day is stupid. Aside from how gay you look actually doing it, the OEM transmission wasn't designed for that. That is great if peoples have survived so far, but shifting yourself isn't helping anything. Redlining your car in first then shifting into 2nd undoubtedly gives some wear and tear, regardless of transmission type. You can't just get a new clutch for an auto though... Also, why downshift manually when your transmission will do it for you if you floor it? Makes no sense to me, when the computer pretty much ends up controlling if it even goes into the gear you select or not anyway.

 

Because sometimes the computer will downshift into 3rd instead of 2nd, and when you manually shift you can shift at redline.

 

I don't think you read the entire thread, we are saying that from a roll an auto has a good chance against a manual, not a 1/4 mile or from a dead stop... Hopefully our friend will post a video here and put this to rest for you disbelievers and auto-haterz