My manual is outside in the cold, and I'm curious. After reading about VTEC, I want to feel it kick in. My only problem is that I have an automatic. Can I drive the car using the manual shifting (whatever it's called) or is this really for heavy loads, pulling stuff, etc.? I'm afraid I'll do serious damage if I use the manual shifting to hit high RPM's because I'm not sure if it was designed for this. Can someone educate me on why they included this?

 

The engine can handle a load up to about 7000rpm. Make sure to shift before redline.

When on the highway, put the car in sportshift, slow down to about 50 or 60. Drop into 3rd gear and hit the gas.

Enjoy...

 

Assuming you've already done a good break in on the engine, you can go out and have fun with the manual shifter. You have a rev limiter for the higher gears and an auto shift override into 2nd. It'd be tough to do any real damage just cause you're overriding the auto.

Go Enjoy!!

 

My '02 has 75k miles and I drive it in the 'manual' mode all the time without incident...

 

AcuraTL2k4 is right on... The engine kicks in on the 3rd gear...I'll tried it before and it was pretty cool!!!

 

actually you are both incorrect, there is no such thing a VTEC kick, all VTEC is, is a change in cam profile, at a certain RPM the rocker arms lock via a sliding pin which lets the higher profile lobe move the rocker arms instead of the smaller ones. you can hear/fell the different no matter what gear you are in as long as you are in the correct RPM range

 

why slow... can it be done at 70!!!! the 2g could do that easily even 80 no problem. burst it up to 90 -100 and shift to 4th

 

The reason I said 50-60 cause he doesnt seem to experienced about putting into SS and pushing his car. This way he wont be to scaried. Plus he will have more a feeling when VTEC engages. If I have to, I willk drop it into third at about 70-80.

In the 2G you should only shift into 4th at 110. If you shift at 100 you lose so much time because your rpms drop to about 3000. If you hold to 110 you only drop to 3750 or 4000.

 

In my experience, all you have to do is stomp on the throttle. No SS required. You'll feel the VTEC. Just don't wimp out and let up on the throttle. And be sure you have a lot of open road. The first time I stood on the throttle I found myself going 60 in a 35 in the blink of an eye. Scared myself.

BTW, am I the only one who keeps trying to work the clutch whenever I use SS? It's been over 14 years since I've driven a car with a manual transmission, but I guess my left leg hasn't forgotten. I also almost always screw up the shift from 4 to 3. With the shift pattern I'm used to 3rd is up from 4th so I always end up pushing the shift lever forward instead of pulling back when trying to go from 4 to 3. I'm so bad at it I've given up on the SS except when I use it to provide some downhill braking.

 

So the speed shift won't really hurt the car? I've never had this option in a vehicle before, and I'm wondering why they even sell a manual at all then. Sounds like we (with the automatic's) have the best of both worlds.

My TL is in the shop getting the backup sensors installed. I have a TSX to play with tomorrow morning. Guess what? I'm gonna have some fun since it's a loaner.....

 

I was wondering... Do people really use the SS to downshift when breaking like you would for a manual transmission. Will this hurt my car? I've been using the SS to downshift to help with breaking, but I've always got it in the back of my mind that this might not be the best thing for my car. I know that the car is supposed to prevent you from damaging by downshifting to a gear that will put you above redline, but will repeated downshifting hurt my car?

I got the 5AT because I didn't want to deal with the clutch in NY traffic and I was hoping that the SS would make me forget, but I really wish that I got the 6MT.

 

i think it is bad if you redline when down shifting, if youre below like 4000 rpm, then you're ok, otherwise, i can't see it not being bad for the car. ::

 

As a thought - Brakes are a lot cheaper than transmissions - your choice

 

Back in 00 I get an 01 CL type S. I used to always shift it myself. I would shift into 4th when slowing from 75 and then when it got to like 45 shift to 3rd... 25 to second. I the tranny did not mind this... well it did not seem to.. at all. no over revving it when down shifting and not being abusive trying to down shift at too high a speed. The ECU would not allow it anyway.

At 40K I notice the tranny shifting different and at 55 it was replaced. I did not manually shift it any longer since I suspect spending more time in 2nd and 3rd helped cook those gears.

Now for brakes at 60K I had them checked and they mechanic asked me if I used my feet to stop the car and said considering the mileage on the car he has never seen so little brake wear. I got rid of the car with 83,000 and the brakes were about 50% worn since I had them serviced at 78,000 and they said they had some life left in them...

 

There is no way that you can damage the engine by hitting the redline. All you will do is bounce the tach off the rev limiter and the engine will hesitate because that is how the computer is designed to protect the engine from any damage. I play around with the SS and although you are going through the motions of shifting, all you are really doing is bypassing the automatic servo's for a brief perdiod of time. Haven't many of you noticed that when you are in SS mode from a stop that it automatically shifts into 2nd for you. I hardly use the SS because of this function. Furthermore, the SS will not let you make a "money shift" during downshifting, unlike in a manual transmission. On the otherhand, when I drive my NSX, I constantly keep the car in the V-Tec band because that is where the most available power is, hence I usually bounce the tach off the rev limiter when driving on the track, and even on spirited drives on the road. It does absolutely no harm to the engine. Heck, these engine can run at 8000rpms all day long with with little damage. Do I advise doing so; no, because using anything at 100% of it's capacity 100% of the time will cause wear over time, but on occasion, why not?

Guys, we buy cars to drive them. The TL is not going to be a collectible so get out there and put the pedal to the metal. The only downside is the fuel ecconomy, but a bottle of Nyquil cost more than a gallon of gas and you never hear anyone bitching about that.

 

well yeah but I do not use 3 bottles of Nyquil per day !!!! LOL

 

Less mechanical drive train loss with the manual transmission. Horsepower at the wheels will be slightly higher with the manual.
Personally, I prefer the convenience of the auto and use the SS on the bendy roads. Might not be as much fun as the manual tranny but it works well enough for me.

 

and then your car is OUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ..............

 

The only crappy thing about the manumatic (other than it's just a gimmick) ... is that your fuel mileage goes to sh*t b/c you always wanna keep the engine purring at 4500 rpms... I can't stand the bogginess low-end on the 5AT so I always seem to keep it running in 2nd or 3rd... of course Shell and BP just love people like me...

 

you dont' really have to test it on the highway... you can use "sports shift mode" and upon 2nd gear, gradually accelerate, at 4500rpm, you can really feel the torque, at 6000 rpm on 2nd gear, the car pulls, but remember to shift into 3rd before it hits redline.... (that's another way to feel the VTEC without hitting the highway)

 

I can see keeping the car running in 4th but not second and third all the time....

I would also say no matter which tranny you have if you live in the lower gears all the time your mileage will go to shit...

 

Can I shift into the speed shift setting while cruising down the road, say in "D" at 40 miles per hour? Or should I come to a complete stop first, then shift into speed shift settings?

I'm gonna have some fun once my car is broken in - I just hit 400 miles on the odometer today.

My backup sensors were installed last night. I tried them out on my wife. I made her stand behind the car, and then I backed up into her to see if they worked. They did, and I didn't run her over. Lucky me.

 

No reason to come to a stop. Just pull the lever to the left into SS and it will initially be in the same gear that you were in when you were in Drive. Then you can tap the lever forward or backward at your pleasure.

 

Brakes are cheaper than engines.......use them to slow down, but you can match rpm's to the lower gear to be ready to accelerate...


As for shifting.....I had a RSX-S before the TL with a comptech SS and it was surgically precise. But it could also lead to the dreaded 5th-4th-2nd miss-shift..and a blown engine. Lots of RSX-S's were blown because of it....For a while Acura replaced engines...not anymore. So far with my TL its hard to miss 4th and get second instead...

Still the revlimiter will prevent over-reving from excessive throttle....but not over reving die to miss-shifts.....

 

Bingo. The tranny makes little differnence when you're revving all the time. RPMs = MPG ENEMY.

This is why unless I'm in a 'spirited' mood, I lug around in 6th gear even at 45. I average 23 MPG including city driving and from what I hear, that's pretty good for a 6MT owner.

 

Yes and no. If you don't plan to keep your car beyond the warranty period transmissions are free, brakes aren't.

 

How much was that as an aftermarket add on -

How does it look?

Picts?

Thanks in Advance,

Michael

 

You are correct but you never know what's going to happen in the future.
Actually I was talking about using the 5AT to slow down by downshifting. Hella fun and almost harmless upshifting me thinks.

 

I guess I should've been more specific. I'm not talking about downshifting to stop from 50+mph. I'm talking about downshifting when driving around town. Say from 3rd to 2nd when driving say 35mph, or 4th to 3rd and then 2nd when driving 45.

Living just outside NYC I don't have many opportunities to hit redline (even in 2nd gear, just too many stops and too much traffic).

 

I don't see a conclusive answer yet.....on the issue of using down shift to slow the car down.

When I ride my motorcycle or 5MT Nissan P/U, always use downshift to slow down at traffic light, stop signs, etc. Not a hard stop but a more gradual stop.

I want to do this with the TL in the SS mode. If I am exiting the freeway, will I harm the tranny if I DS from 5-4-3-2-1 (65 mph to 0 mph) quickly?

Thanks for any information.

 

If Aucra says the truth and knows well about their 3GTL auto tranny, I think it's ok to do whatever you wanna do with SS mode. You even can play with L mode to get the best engine braking.

 

HOW BAD IS IT TO REDLINE? like is it incredibly bad? what are the effects on the engine and what not....a few times ive redlined on the highway because id be in 2nd gear going onto the ramp and id forget to change gears and it would redline and id be like...UCH FUCK....how bad is it that ive done this...ive easily done this 5 times

 

Read your owners's manual. One thing that grabbed my attention was the fact that you MUST shift into high (5th) gear before 149 MPH. I can not imagine how much damage I might have done -- if I had not read that!!

Read the manual!

 

It is not a SERIOUS problem (like lung cancer or sonething)-- You can get a new engine-- and Honda makes new TL's everyday.