OK I read on the TL board that alot of people have been told by there dealers when they picked up the car to drive in D4, if they are doing city driving (or alot of stop and go traffic), and using D5 only for HWY driving, or if they wanted to use sport shift.

Has anyone heard of this information, and if so/or not, why would this help out? I may start doing that, but will have to ween myself from using D5 all the time to only when I plan on getting on the freeway.

 

I usually always drive in D3 or D4 around town and D5 only on the highway.

 

The owners manual says to use D4 to keep the Tranny from cycling between fourth & fifth gears in stop & go driving.
I do it sometimes but only when I am in stop & go heavy traffic.
If the car is going over 35MPH it should be in D5 for better fuel economy.

 

I always drove my Slush Box car in D4 unless I was on the Highway.
That gave it a limited selection of gears to guess between.

NOW the Tranny only goes into the gear I tell it to.

Shawn S

 

In my stop-and-go, city driving, I dont think I could reach 5th.
And our 4th gear is a pretty tall one.

So I keep it in D5 all the time, because I don't see when I would be wavering often between 4th/5th.

It all depends on your driving habits and driving conditions.
Your mileage may vary.

 

The problem with D5 is that it shifts into 5th around 48 mph. Then then engine is doing about 1500 rpm with the torque converter locked. You slow down a little for traffic and the rpms go even lower. Then you need to accelerate and the car has NO BALLS. So it downshifts to 4th or maybe 3rd or 2nd depending on how hard to you hit it. Then right back to 5th ASAP and the cycle continues. 5th gear at anything less than 60mph+ cruising makes the car feel even heavier and more lethargic than the auto already does.

 

yah i am using d4 for city driving always....and d5 on freeway only...to gain more fuel efficiency....

 

i'm in d4 90% of the time.

 

I prefer D4 around town as the car is more responsive. I took my car in to get the brakes and rotors done last week. The service manager said one of the reasons for rotor warping is people riding the brakes becuase of the high gear ratio in D5. There is no motor braking so on a lot of the hills here in town people keep a foot on the brake. D4 may alleviate that problem some.

 

brakes are less expensive to replace than transmissions.....

 

Not True, Trannies are free to replace. Oh wait the brakes were free too, Man am I happy the two things I Beat the shit out of were factory problems.

 

When you drive in D4 there is a lot less "gear hunting"

 

My "Honda" mechanic recently serviced both my Accord coupe and CLS. He tells his customers, to drive these puppies in D3 in town or your tourque converter becomes evil to all the "stop and go" in town driving........He said in the CLS, 4th and 5th are the tourque converter gears ! And that is what is killing these transmissions. He said to "avoid" stop and go in the tourque converter gears.....does this make sense ?

 

Logic Grade Control prevents "GEAR HUNTING" in our transmissions !

 

my car is either in d5 or sportshift for passing. never in d4. no tranny problems. *knocking on wood*

 

Same here, NOVA. I never heard of this "D4" ish. WTF, over?

 

Why is using D4 such a strange idea? My last two cars were 5 speed manuals. 5th was a freeway-only gear. Why should I let the CL use 5th on the street and lug the engine? I mostly drive the CL in sportshift and never use 5th on the street. No need for it especially since 4th is so tall. I'm also going to go out on a limb and guess that the 6 speed drivers reserve 6th for the freeway. Top gear = freeway economy gear.

 

Why is it such a weird idea? Because the car is a five speed and most people just put it in drive (D5) and go. That's what the car is made for. Anything else might be better or worse but either way it is not the norm.

I'm intrigued about this "use D4" thing as I've never heard anyone say to do that, ever, in a 5speed car unless it's a stick or something.

We DO have two overdrive gears though, so I can see why it would be useful or whatever.


ps - maybe this is why I get such good gas mileage - I let the car choose what gear it wants to be in.

 

yup, i get good mileage as well may be cause it lives in d5. also I really don't like crusing at mid range rpm when it can easily be crusing at 2000. plus when I need to pass I just drop it in SS or floor it and downshifts for me.

has anyone else heard of LOGIC GRADE CONTROL???

 

The car is geared for economy on the EPA test. Who cares if it drives like shit on the street and shifts itself to death after the warranty runs out? More shifting = more heat, more wear = quicker death in an automatic. My Honda mechanic also recommends locking out the top gear in autos on the street. So D3 in 4 speed autos and D4 in 5 speeds. Remember that Honda engines are pretty much bullet proof. Their auto trannies are not. So you trade a little extra wear on a durable component for a lot less wear on a weak one.

 

Heck, I usually drive around midtown NYC in D3 or SS 1/2/3...

Driving speeds rarely exceed 45 and you never know when you'll need to stomp on it in the VTEC range to avoid a cab, raised manhole, giant pothole, bike mesenger or squeegee guy...

 

Isn't D5 just like D in other auto cars? What should you do so you don't destroy your tranny if you don't have the options? Like in the G35, if you don't want to use sport shift, or whatever they call it.

 

Interesting thread, makes sense to use D4 more often i think.

 

Interesting concept. I never heard of this before. It does sound plauseable, though. I'll have to do some research on this.