This morning on the way to work, I floored it while the streets were wet , the wheels spun, VSA came on, and then the transmission was stuck in 2nd gear @ 45 mph (5K RPM) until I came to next red light (about 2 miles)

Is this normal?

I was in auto mode, but even in sportshift mode, 2nd was the only gear available.

 

i had the same Experience a few months ago with my 04 and posted about it and no one else at the time had that Experience and when i took it to the dealer they couldnt find anything wroong. In my case i was on the highway goin not to fast and punched it to pass a slow car and noticed it was stuck even if when i put it in ss it wouldnt leave 2nd...i just put it in neutral let the revs drop and put it back into drive and it was fine...i dont know...never happened to me since....could be a one time thing....

Travis

 

I should have turned off VSA but I didn't think to try that.

 

EXACT same thing happened to me (see my premature new thread).

There must be something more to it than coincidence.

 

The problem is a faulty second (or third) gear clutch pack.... in other words your automatic tranny is about to die. Follow this link.... https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127165

 

I think the computer must have been over-riding my inputs because everything has been fine since. It must have been VSA + slick road + punching it that caused the problem. I don't think anything is wrong with the transmission,

In fact, I went on a road trip last week (1000 miles round trip). I kept the cruise set at 65 and got 35 mpg. I was amazed.

Either way, I've put well over 1500 miles on the car since this happened and no issues. I still have 2.5 years and 28,000 miles on the warranty, so we'll see...

 

Most modern cars will do the same thing.
The new passat (B6) is reported to do the same thing if you sit there and abuse it
(sort of) by getting stuck in snow.
The ecu detects excessive wheel spin, no car motion, and/or other things and protects things by going into limp home mode.

It likely would not happen if the stability control is turned off, or would not happen as fast.

That is better than what ford did, my wife had a taurus with the 24 valve motor,and that car would NOT allow you to floor the car from a stop (as in drag race), it would cut out 2 cylinders to protect the transmission.
My wife was SO pissed about that 'feature'.

I wish the stability control was not on the TL, my passat had the same sort of setup, and unless you turned it off, the car was a dog when trying to get away from a stop quickly, the slightest bit of wheel slip would trigger it and reduce the engine power for a few seconds, allowing other cars to blow you away.

I wish there was a way to disable it and remove the warning light.

Brett