Hey Everyone!!

So about a month ago I replaced my pressure switches in my automatic tranny. I have noticed sense then that my car sucks at downshifting!! Example being 2nd gear is good to 70MPH and if I am going over 60MPH I cannot force it to downshift not will it downshift by itself under Full Throttle....it just lags along in 3rd gear...Really freaking sucks!! I need to know what other people are seeing for their downshift points and if this is normal, maybe my old switches were wore thus allowing this to perform better (in my opinion) or maybe I got a bad switch/sensor!!

Thanks for everyone’s help on this!!

Jeff

 

So it won't let you downshift from 2nd gear to 1st gear while going above 60MPH? I'm sure that's not good, going that fast and trying to downshift to 1st. Wouldn't your RPM red-line?

 

If you throw it into SS mode, a few things will happen that cannot be bypassed. First is that 1st gear is controlled by the comp (tranny will downshift from 2 to 1 automatically, and upshift from 1 to 2), although you can manually start from 2 from a light or something like that...but I'm sure you've seen that. The tranny computer will override your shift attempt too if it will throw you into a bad redline or high rev situation. We do have some control over the tranny in SS mode, but the computer is still very much present. On that note, I'm going to go for a drive and try to push some limits of the shift points HAHAHAA!!

 

That just might be too high of an RPM for the auto to downshift.

 

NO!! Im saying at 60 to 70 it will not downshift to 2nd....just stays in 3rd! This sucks because 2nd is go to 70 and if im going 61 and floor it, well she just lags along in 3rd gear instead of downshifting! Maybe someone else with a 3.2 can test what there car does at 63/65 MPH....Does it shift down to 2nd or only 3rd??

 

in ss mode for me it doesnt shift from 1-2 automatically

 

^^ interesting...maybe that happens just on the 04-06 TL auto tranny, not sure about the 07-08 and type S.

 

Because it's a high-rev downshift.

You said that 2nd tops out at 70Mph, correct? Then why is the car going to downshift to 2nd, when it's just going to upshift right again into 3rd at 70? 60Mph to 70Mph doesn't take but 2-3 seconds at the most in these cars, so that extra 9Mph in 2nd gear isn't doing your transmission any good.

Nothing's wrong with the car.

 

I thought redline shift points were 1st ~30mph, 2nd ~60mph, and 3rd ~90mph... without bouncing against the redline, of course... guess I've never been bold enough to push the limits with the auto. In my previous TL ('06 6MT), shift points fell around those speeds based on what I could see.

 

2nd is 70mph in the Auto! How do you not push the limits as you say....poor car is not getting her legs stretched at all :-((

 

It is normal. This issue was one of my early threads that I created back when I first joined the forum -

No VTEC when flooring it at 60 MPH (click here)

 

It's normal for the shift points to be at a higher rpm when going up through the gears than downshifting to a lower gear. There's a pretty good lag from the time the computer sends the signal to the time it reacts. It could very well cause the car to be slower if it has to wind up and downshift and immediately upshift. Off topic but IMO, this logic covers up the super sloppy "Z1 shifts". With the racing stuff you can really feel what's going on.

 

Cool thread. Didn't know it would only downshift near redline without your foot in the throttle. That was like a time capsule. You only had a few weight reduction items then.

Knowing your background, when are you going to try out a high stall convertor or do you even plan to use it since you're going to squeeze it eventually? I look at a high stall as a safety cushion when using nitrous as it's just one more way to avoid potentially damaging mistakes. One thing for sure, with a 3,000 stall, chances are it would be just enough slip to keep the car in vtec through all the gears.

 

True. And, I have had this to happen on occasions. Sometimes the PCM won't downshift from 3 to 2 when I feel like it should, and a few times the trans did do a 3-2 when it shouldn't had.

It is indeed a weird feeling to hear the engine screaming into vtec and to actually feel negative g-force (slowing down) until the PCM decided that it needs to upshift just a fraction of a second later. Thru this ordeal, I lost a mph or two instead of getting a hard acceleration.

At least I have the lightweight UR Pulley. It was really a nightmare years ago when I still had the heavy oem crank pulley.


Ha, ha.... I felt the same way when I read thru the thread yesterday. Weird to read your own words from years ago. "Oh, I can't remove my precious spare..."



I have no plans to try a stall. I understand and agree how the high stall would prevent excessively high torque from the nitrous.

I will be using the natural downshifts to prevent excessively low rpm loading. I never use sport shifting. With the nitrous, the sport shifting, for sure, will be a huge no-no. Even in the worst case situation of the trans not downshifting into 2nd at 60 mph. the rpm's still come up to 4000. But with my data logging, I have been keeping an eye on my minimum RPM levels under wot for this reason to make sure.

That's ok.... I will have ntec.

 

u need to let off the gas b]pedal at 60mph and then drop it into 2nd gear... you won't be able to be on WOT and downshifting...

 

Yea man your car is just fine!... 2nd will top out around 72ish... if you stay in 2nd it wont shift automatically... I feel 2nd is my strongest gear... especially around 5k rpm, step on it and that baby pulls!...lol the computer overrides your shifts when your going too fast... i was in 4th around 90 mph and i wanted to down shift into 3rd (which tops out at 105ish) to get out of traffic and it flashed 3rd gear 3 times but stayed in 4th for safety... the car was like WTF calm down!...lol try this, next time your going 60, leave it in auto and then step on it, sometimes it'll down shift itself to max out 2nd... the car is smart and powerful, it wont blow itself up, only you can do that...lol

 

2nd topping out at ~70-72mph, good to know. I may never do that, but a nice fact nonetheless.

Yukoncole - for me, the legs won't be stretched in an auto Honda anymore. I had a '99 AV6 coupe who's tranny blew at 105k miles (bought new) because the legs were "stretched" quite often during my collegiate years, while a buddy of mine has driven the exact same car with total caution and he's got 196k miles on the same auto trans. I'm not sayin'... but, I'm just sayin'. Needless to say, I'm not all that trusting of an auto tranny holding up for years to come after being abused. However, my old 6MTs ('05 AV6 and '06 TL) were a different story entirely. Of the vehicles I've owned in the past 10 years, those were the ones to drive mercilessly - real fun was had in those.