I recently drove a 99 TL, and when in sport shift mode it does NOT automatically shift like our 5AT's do. I really dislike the auto shift as when you are accelerating moderately (not WOT) it shifts up far too early. The only way to make it shift down to 1 if to floor it.

I am assuming that this is an "improvement" that came with our pathetic 5AT's (The TL was a 4 speed auto).

Has anyone found a way around this. It would be great to have full control over the 1-2 shift.

 

Gate shift

 

someone on the thread i posted about my "rsx rental" said that if u let the car go down to about 20mph, u can downshift into first and go, but somehow i dont believe that and i have heard anyone else attest to that.

my rsx rental lets me manual shift from 1-2 and i really with our cl's did as well.

gate shift i guess is the way to go, but would be annoying if your just doing that while driving and not at the track.

 

Forgive me for my newbness, what is gate shifting? Is that shifting from D1-D5?

 

 

That is my understanding... manually shifting from D1....D5. This is fine for the 1-2 shift, but pretty tricky after that especially if you are going to redline and want to shift quick. It is easy to go too far... and there is nothing to stop you from going into neutral.

I was really wondering if the 1-2 shift is controlled by the ECU or if it is solenoid controlled by the transmission. If it is transmission controlled there may be a way to prevent it from auto shift up (before redline).