1) Is it bad for my TL to play around with the sports shift too much? I use it quite often to get the feel of power when I am going uphill or if I try to accelerate quickly.

2) What RPM is the best to shift gear (to attain the max acceleration w/o doing damage to the car)? What RPM do I not want to reach?

3) If I am currently going 80 MPH, is it possible to downshift to gear 2 or even gear 1? I've downshifted accidentally at high speed and the RPM went from 2000 to 5500 instantly and I felt that I've damaged my car....am I mistaken?

Thanks guys!

 

Welcome to the forums. Glad to see you are taking advantage of our great forum and asking questions.

1) It's made to be used. Shifting when appropriate is not considered abuse.

2) Red line is 6700, and I'm no expert so others will know better but if you want the max go power then maybe around 6,400. The Vtec doesn't kick in until 4,700 and then you will feel it pull better.

3) The computer for the 5AT won't let you hurt the engine or transmission, so if you downshift to a gear that would over-rev the engine it just won't do it. The number will blink 5 times and then change to the lowest allowable gear.

 

It is my understanding that the sport shift feature isn't really going to allow you to blow out your engine. It's not going to let you shift into first gear at 80mph because the transmission computer knows that you're going way too fast for this gear. Based on the fact that the transmission computer knows this - it's not going to let you do anything not inside of the car's operating parameters.
Therefore, I do not believe you have hurt your car at all by downshifting and ending up at 5500 RPM. The car is designed to be able to do that when power is needed.

That being said, since sport-shift autos are still automatics, I don't really think they's 'designed' for shifting like that all that time. I personally - this is MY opinion only - think that its more of a 'bells and whistles' thing rather than a practical design and I do believe that constant use of the feature over longer periods of time puts undue wear on the clutches and such on the inside of the transmission. If you need more power, just floor it and the car - i.e. the engine/trans computer - does the job in a timely manner that isn't too stressful on the transmission. That is purely my opinion however, and that is why I drive a manual transmission car.

As far as what RPM - its OK as long as you're below the redline....but taking the car up to redline each time is unnecessary...that does stress it alot, and you get a power dropoff as you pass the sweet spot and approach redline. Running the car THAT hard is for those times you need to get going fast to avoid a situation or when you're trying to show off However, 4 or 5000 RPM in a Honda/Acura engine is no problem...they're designed to get up there b/c that's where the power is. I drove my 97 accord pretty hard - took it up to redline pretty often - and it still kicks w/ 210K miles on it...still passes inspection and no oil-burning!

P.S. - for the absolute maximum acceleration, you would take the car all the way to redline and shift - but what's the point? You get 90% of that with alot less effort. Either way, leave the car in full auto and it'll do all that for you. It's an auto remember?