Somebody explain to me how the SS would be used to the fullest. While racing for fun does it help? I would think letting the tranny do it's job would be more efficient...the only time I have used it when i was going up a hill...dropped it to 3rd and the rest was history.

 

• hold the particular gear
• reach red line
• feel bored
• get rid of vibration at 5th gear/1500 RPM/50-55 MPH
• burn your tranny
• enjoy the louder engine sound without kicking your pedal all the way down

 

One of the most useful parts of this is when you want to pass on the highway. Instead of flooring the accelertor pedal to "request" a 2 gear downshift from 5th, you can simply pull the shifter towards you twice rapidly and gun it. Heck, you can even knock it down to 2nd but you will bump the limiter shortly after 60mph...as I have done a few times. 3rd is where the sweet spot is on the expressway for quick passing and 2nd is for the streets. However, save the racing for the tracks.

Like you said, the tranny will be efficient more so for economy than for speed if you let up on the accelerator. By holding a gear, you can summon full power much more rapidly if you are already in a lower gear instead of waiting for the computer to sense you need for power and then downshifting an undeterminded number of gears.

dsc888

 

Turn off VSA and put it in SS mode and take it through the twisties.

Another option is to use L mode. Again turn off VSA, put it in L mode, let it do it's thing for 1->2 then move it back to D when at or near the redline in 2nd.

I enjoy both modes. It's not as good as a 6MT, but it can still be fun and you can always slap it back in D when ready to relax or on traffic.

BTW - I hate the FWD/6MT combo. It is unnatural to me. It needs to be RWD or AWD before I would get a 6MT.

 

i'm scared to burn my tranny...i'm gonna have this car for a while...

 

i have a question, i noticed that in L, its suppose to choose the safest low gear when down shifting, that means in L it could possibly downshift from 5-3. so if L has access to 3rd gear, how come if a person wants to redline everygear(well, 1-3) u cant just leave it in L and floor it, and it would hit redline everytime and then shift, wouldnt it?? i guess ill give it a try when i get a chance...

 

L has access to 3d gear when shifting down, but when shifting up, it will not go into 3d gear until you manually move the lever to D or SS.

 

hopefully going MT in the VERY near future but...what am I looking at any serious damage by going L to D or SS?

 

Our wonderful and talented car will not let you do even minor damage. Everything is programmed to protect against that.

There is nothing wrong with going from L to D or SS at any speed and rpm's right up to the limit. If you try to go beyond the limit, the rev limiter will let you know.

 

Are you sure about this? Does it just bump into the rev limiter?

 

if Ron is right(not doubting you, i just havent tried this myself), then yeah, it would bump it into the rev limiter, ive hit rev limiter in 3rd in SS mode because the delay in the shift made it happen, so you have to move the lever at around 6500 and it will shift at 6800

 

I wasn't really sure, so I waited until I went shopping and tested it out. Both L and SS, in second gear, will be stopped from over-revving by the rev limiter. Goes all the way up to 6,800 and then starts cutting in and out. Neither will shift from 2nd to 3rd without moving the lever. The difference here is that L will go to D and go right on up to the highest gear suitable for the speed and revs, while SS will go to 3d and stay there until you shift it again.

Several months ago there were some threads which detailed the differences between SS and L, but so far I haven't been able to find them.

The main advantage I remember for L is that, in an emergency, it is one quick flick of the lever backwards to drop you down to the lowest safe gear, and then it will keep dropping automatically as the speed decreases.

If you are in drive, you have to move the lever to SS, then pull it back each time to get to a lower gear, and if you are in an emergency situation you probably don't have the time to pay full attention to this, so L will do it all for you with one pull on the lever.

 

What kind of emergency does this come in handy for?

 

Cops & Speed traps

 

i didn't even realize that LOWER gear could be used for that....but dosn't that technically hurt the tranny?

 

I thought (am hoping) that the tranny on the 3rd gen is pretty stout and they dumby proofed everything with auto-downshift/rev-limiter/shift-blocking-when-bad-idea. This theoretically should keep the engine from stopping/exploding. And also thought (same thing) that Honda engines are about the most durable you can get. I have a friend that drove his CRX like he was in the depths of an ether binge, and never wore anything out except the roof when he flipped it after 3 years.

I spent too much money to not have fun with my car, so I've been putting its suspension/hp to good use From what I gather, the worst problem with using a lower gear is that the faster the engine spins, the worse mileage you get. IMHO, I'd rather pay a little more for fuel to accelerate faster, and I generally hold it in as low a gear as it can go until I'm coasting/at speed for as fast as I want to be going, then I drop it to the highest gear. I like to feel the VTEC power any way I can.

Can being in too high a gear hurt BTW? Say your going up a hill, what's the disadvantage to staying in 5 if it can take it. This is assuming there's traffic, so going faster isn't useful. Also, I wish there was a way to skip a gear shifting up, because from what I gather, each gear change is another bit of wear, and sometimes, I'm just basically going right from 3 to 5, on a highway. Any thoughts?

I'd also much rather drive it fully and find out what breaks NOW while I'm under (my extended) warranty.

 

That's what brakes are for <Grin>

How does lower gear help you there? Decelerate faster? I'd heard of using lower gears as a way to limit how fast I'm drivin, but I just felt funny doing it that way.

 

Do not bet your life on honda engines being the most durable you can get. Not the v6, the 4s are good.

Using SS mode (for 2gen) was probably the quickest way to fry the tranny (as we later discovered). I do know that if you try to down shift to a gear that is too low, like bump the shifter down 3 times at 75, the car will not shift to 2nd. I have never seen the car bump the rev limiter from down shifting. I have only seen it while upshifting.

 

I tried once, and what happens is if your in 3 and going too fast for 2, and shift down in SS, the number blinks at you. It sucks some times when you're going *just* fast enough to be too fast for 2nd, but you still want that 2nd gear kick. Oh well, 3rd isn't too bad...

 

This is so far my understanding.
-Redline is at 6800RPM but fuel actually cuts off a bit higher like 7000RPM. So you still have a little time to shift even you are at 6700RPM.

-If you hold your gear at 5th going up hill(giving gas, making torque multiply) you will be using more gas than 4th or 3rd with torque locked up. You can test it using MID. Just reset it, half floor it and let it get off from lock-up position in 5th. Mileage goes bad instantly worse than giving gas in 3rd or 4th at same speed. On a hill, if you are unsure which gear is most efficient, just leave it in D. Computer knows which gear at which throttle is most efficient.

-downshifting from 3 to 2, you have to be close to 60MPH to make it happen. I agree it won't downshift right to the limiter in SS. Anyway you can't accelerate even you downshift so there's no fun even if it was possible.


My last word: TL has sweet free revving engine. I hit rev limiter often in 2nd because I forget to shift listening to the exhaust and car pulling.

 

That's happened <blushes> a couple times to me too mainly listening to XM comedy channel or talk radio gets me. God I'm glad I didn't get a MT. I'm just too much of a dits.

 

ss is worthless

 

Just about except when I'm coming in too hot for a turn and I need a little extra bit of deceleration I'll downshift into 2nd right before the turn.

Oh yeah, the other time I use SS is enter/exiting my sub division where the speed limit and speed bumps necessitate staying below 3rd gear.

Forgot that sometimes I'll downshift to 4th on the highway if I see a slowing situation up ahead and don't want to bother using the brake pedal.

 

very interesting...

 

In a sequential transmission (TL) YES it is.

 

It works well in traffic.

 

If you have auto, you will appreciate extra control of SS