my friend was telling me that his dealer told him that when he drives local, he should always drive on d4. you guys hear of that before? and if so how come?

 

nope, maybe the dealer wanted him to spend more money on gas. It actaually say it in the manual book. "always put on the highest gear"

 

i drive on d5 all the time and 90% of my driving is local.

 

the dealer i bought it from told me the same thing... but considering they know absolutely nothing, i put it in D5 if im cruising

 

If you do an old old search on this topic you might find some info.
I can't remember what we talked about but D4 does use more gas. I think D4 keeps the car from hunting gears at certain speeds when . I will put mine in D4 in stop & go city or highway driving sometime but it sure burns more gas. The car sometimes hunts for the correct gear in the D5 mode at ceartain lower speeds but when in D4 it does not do this.

 

I notice with my car in D5 during city driving the RPMs stay VERY low for a given cruise speed (obviously once the car gets up enough speed to be in 5th). The problem being that during most city driving around here I wont sustain a "5th gear-able" speed, and the car ends up downshifting a lot back to 4th. So I just leave in in D4..........may cost me some gas, but our trannies are so fragile Id rather have them do less work.

-Chris

 

took the words right out of my mouth

 

does it make a difference if you're in SS mode or not? when i'm in the city, and using SS mode, i am usually in 4th gear (cruising speed about 40-60mph). but if i'm using regular automatic mode, i'm in 5th gear at those speeds.

 

Well, since you control what gear you are in when in SS mode, if you stay in 4 during normal city driving why not be in D4 during normal city driving (when SS is not in use)? 60 mph might be a tad high for D4, but you probably dont do much sustained 60 mph during city driving anyway.

The TL is my wife's car, and she fully understands why to be in D4 in the city (she works downtown in a large city) and shift to D5 during highway driving. Im battling with a possible tranny issue on my 2K Accord (AGAIN!!!), so she knows that minimizing the tranny shifts is sorta important.

I wish Honda would go thru with the plan that rumored to be a couple years ago.........they were going to team up with GM to get trannies, and share engines with GM.

 

I have the same issue. It always feels like the tranny wants to find a different gear when I am around town in D5. I have absolutely no problmes in D4 but always feels weird in D5. I thought my tranny was on its way out but it doesn't seem to be doing what everyone says happens to theirs prior to failure. Has never slipped. Just feels like its bogging down for a second kind of hesitation because it shifts too high and idle drops low.

A question about the tranny though:

I bought my car used w/ 25,000 miles an 01 - how can I find out if the tranny has already been replaced? When I took my interior apart the center console showed signs of being takin out before. I'm sure they would need to take this out for the tranny shift lever part. Is there any way to know? Just wondering if my Tranny has been replaced with one of the fixed ones.

 

I am not sure about that question but I would think a dealer could pull up service history on the car. I am not sure they would wan't to do this.

 

The console does NOT have to come out for a tranny replacement. The tranny shift is all done by wire. There is no linkages to disconnect from the tranny to the shifter.

 

Tha answer is very simple... You are all correct that the programming of the TL tranny kept forcing the car into the highest gear (probably to gain a higher EPA fuel rating) but that causes engine lugging and of course downshift lag time. Those of us that had tranny replacements done after Oct. 2002 also had the ECU changed out as part of the warrany repair. I noticed immediately afterwards that the tranny will not shift onto 5th as often during low speed sriving in town. Prior to the ECU replacement, I did always keep the car in 4th around town.

 

I find it sluggish when using D5 in the city. I use D4, as recommened by the dealer, to reduce shifting and to have better acceleration. Hmmm... maybe that does use more gas!

 

I feel much better now that this D% sluggish thing is somewhat normal still sux though. I want a new tranny and ecu...

 

funny how my dealer told me to put it in d3 while driving in the city when i bought my accord back in '93.

 

I remember the sales guy at my former HONDA Dealer telling me the same thing when I test drove the 1998 ACCORD when it was new. Before I got the TL I always had 5 speed manual HONDA cars. He said to put the car in D3 when drivng in town.

 

I always leave mine in D-4, It stops the hunting, expecialy when it is cold. When I venture out for some prey on the interstate then we prowel in D-5. With my trusty bird dog of course, V-1.