Is it bad (other than for gas milage) to drive our automatic cars in the low gears? Like lately ive been shifting at like 6800. Does this wear down the tranny or anything, using like 1, 2, D (3rd)

 

Prepare the flame suit....

 

Yeah I know you got flamed for it too. I dont care if they flame me lol I love my car and im 17 making the insurance payments and car payments and gas payments and cell payments every month for my own **** without anyones help so Ill get what I want, I just want to know if what im doing is going to cause a trip to good OL Mr. Goodwrench.

 

I wouldnt do it all the time, but it cant hurt it that bad. But may I Ask why you do it like that? The autos are programmed for you to get good mileage plus not shifting

 

Oh and since someone is going to ask. I didnt get a manual because my parents nor brother can drive manual and if they ever needed to borrow my car or take it to the dealer (I always have my dad take my car in for service so we dont get hit with that young driver + Cobalt = Driver abuse ****). Id love my auto because if i had to drive manual all the time it would deff cease being fun, especially in stop and go traffic.

 

I suck at driving a stick. That's why I got an auto. No need to blame the family, I'm not ashamed of myself. Awesome that your paying car note, insurance, and all that jazz yourself. If I had to do that at 17 I would be driving a 78 Chevy silverado...oh wait, that's what I did. Never mind

T/A your question though. I would leave your auto in the regular drive position. Gas is too expensive for a whole lot of goofin around. The "I" speed is for increased power if you really want to drive it like that, but your gas mileage will suffer, but I don't think it will affect your engine in the slightest.
I wouldn't be trying to shift out of L gear on the fly, unless your going down a steep hill or you are just dead set on squawling tires. THAT probably can't be too good on an auto tranny.

 

You're not shifting at 6800 RPM. Your fuel shut-off would happen before then.

It's not necessarily bad. But running your powertrain at high RPM all the time does create unecessary strain and heat and wear. So why do it?

 

Uhhh. ::Face_plain:: .... If your trying to be a dick then ill just tell you im not one of those kids whose easily influenced and follows everyone else in thinking whats cool. (in this case, NEEDING to get a manual or else your not cool) Hence why my own high school pays me during school to work for them. I can drive a manual fine. I just don't want to be a dick to my family who might need to borrow my car. Nor have to deal with it all the time. I like drving my car sometimes in my little semi manual mode because otherwise my car just feels like a ***** shiting at 1600 lol


If not. My car dosent say I, it says 1. I dont know why people say that. Im assuming some other model has I instead of 1. But thanks for the info.

 

Not for me?

 

No dickage intended. Settle down

The SS 2.4L have a "L", an "I", and the a "D"

I guess they wanted to stick with the whole "Alphabetic" labeling thing.
To show how much cooler the SS model is???
I can't imagine that it would be any different on the 2.2L, just labeled different. I've never read anything about the tranny being different between the two trims.

 

wtf does I stand for? lol Obviously its 2nd gear but what does I mean

 

Not the SS. The 2005 model year Automatics had the quadrant labeled 1,2,D,N,R,P. After 2006, the relabeled it to L,I,D,N,R,P. That's on all the 2006 cars, not just the SS.

There is no change in the trans itself at all. They changed it because the positions 1 and 2 are not actually first and second gear, and caused confusion. So now, they have "low" and "intermediate".

By 1 not being first gear, I mean this; Go put the car in "1" or "L", whichever you have, and then go accelerate at WOT. Notice the car shifted to second gear? Even though it's in "1"? That's what it's supposed to do, that's why they changed it.

 

Yes I know, however when your in Drive, and floor it, the car downshifts to first anway, you loose power, and traction controlls kicks in and im all over the road. Hence why I like using first which really is first gear until the car shifts at about 6800



Edit: this is really only at night or on the weekend, the other 90 percent of my driving is going to school (which is also work) lately in 30 degree weather at 7am.

 

Well your question has already been answered...

Just don't know why you're trying to justify why you do it. No need to.

 

If you wanna dick around with an automatic, heres what I do:

Get a B&M shiftplus, then pull the fuse for "ABS2" under the hood, which will disable ABS and Traction Control, then dick around like no tomorrow

 

are you racing? are you showing off? i guess i dont understand why you need the power..

 

I understand why he is doing it I did it in my old cav it makes it shift alot harder and seems to be faster. Its fun sometimes. I ran my car to 95000 miles in less than two years in this Texas heat without any transmission damage are even regular maintenance. i never changed the oil or filter for the tranny or had it flushed. I never had a problem but I was always told that what it does is heats up the fluid to hot and causes it to break down quicker so if your really worried then just make sure to go by the book and have it flushed every 30000 miles and there will be no problems. That cost about 100 bucks from the dealer. Happy Shifting

 

Well, yes, if you are driving normally, then floor it, the car responds. That's why its called an automatic. It's the same as manually placing the selector in a lower gear. Except the car can downshift automatically a lot faster in response to you going WOT then you can move that selector.

The car doesn't lose power.

If traction control is kicking in, how are you all over the road? Wouldn't that be if traction control DIDN'T kick in?

Here, read this:
Launching the Automatic - Brake Starting

The only difference at all between a car accelerating at WOT in D versus 1 or L is that traction control is ON in D. The power and shift logic are exactly the same.

The difference in idling around in something other then D is the car will remain in the lowest safe gear for the car's present speed, hence keeping the RPM's high.

Now if you are racing, there is some advantage to that. If you are just driving around town, then you are just wearing out your engine.

 

Umm because its fun, and I like to dick around in my car, because like I said before the only other driving I do is too school at like 7am when im half asleep and not to mention frozen.

 

So I have a question in regards to the 1 and 2 gear settings......maybe you can answer this halfcent....If my car is a 4 spd auto why only 3 settings the 1,2, and D? its an 05 base cobalt....it still confuses the hell out of me lol. probably a pretty dumb question but Figured I would ask....

 

dude look...no one is telling you what to do. but just listen if you ask for advice. halfcent knows his ****. if you want to dick around so be it. but over doing it will affect the engine/trans over time.

 

I don't get the impression he does it all that much. If he does, he can buy himself a nice new transmission. I think he was just curious about the times that he does it. I do it every once in a while. When I get my car back, I might get Shiftplus and see how that works. He should probably do the same.

 

well i have the same car and i use 1 while im tryin to race cuz it will redline both first and second at any throttle...2 takes it through third and then drive of course. use 2 when ur below 40 and want to jump on someone. it will hit second right at like 3000 rpm and give you a pretty good pull

 

Hence another reason then changed the labels.

Here is the shift logic (I should probably make a thread about this)

In the "1" or "L" position, the trans can operate in first and second gear. The trans will shift to 2nd during acceleration at WOT when reaching 6500 RPM. The trans will try to stay in first gear as long as the RPM's are below red line. Meaning, if it shifted to second, it will down shift to first as soon as it can without exceeding 6500.

In the "2" or "I" position, the exact same thing as above is true, except it now shifts to second normally, and allows 3rd gear to be used.

"D" keeps the car in the highest possible gear (instead of the lowest as above) so as to maintain low RPM's, driver comfort, fuel efficiency, and allows the use of 4th (overdrive).

 

What is Overdrive anyway?