I have recently purchased a 1985 Maxima in almost mint cond. I have a question on the shift patterns. When I am cruising down the highway and touch the brake pedal, the car immediately shifts down one gear and revs to about 3000. It seems to downshift similar to a manual transmission. It will eventually shift up again if I continue driving at highway speeds. Is this normal?

 

Interesting....I've never had that happen before...not sure why the car would do that. Someone with an auto here might be able to better answer this.

S

 

It sounds like it's downshifting back to 3rd. I know they will lockup/unlock the torque converter at highway speeds when you get on or off the gas, but the rpm difference is only about 500. What speeds/rpm's are all the upshifts/downshifts happening at during regular driving? It might be an incorrectly adjusted kickdown cable, which will make it rev higher before upshifting and also make it downshift kind of like a standard. I purposely set mine to do that, but if no one has been tinkering with it it shouldn't be.

 

It revs around 2000 at 100 kph (62mph). When it downshifts, I think it hits about 2800 - 2900. All downshifting seems to be done a bit soon, and upshifting a bit later than normal. I don't have the exact rpms just now. You can notice each downshift just like a manual tranny. The fluid looks and smells ok, so I really don't think there's anything wrong with the tranny.

I guess I was just wondering if this was an option on these cars because it performs much more like a manual. It sounds like it might be doing what yours is.