I'm a bit confused as to which gear is best for me, D or D3? Is there a difference when it comes to performance and gasoline consumption? I understand that D2 and D1 are only used for uphill climbing and engine breaking when going downhill. But what's the difference between D and D3 in terms of it's usage? I drive in an area where the roads are very bad so I seldom go beyond 60km/h. Should I use D or D3 or it doesn't really matter?

if you want the best gas mileage use "D"...."D3" will just limit you to 1st,2nd,3rd

 

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

 

The shift level goes like this: D, D3, 2, 1. Putting the shifter in "1" locks the transmission in gear 1. It would not shift to gear 2. Setting "2" is similar to setting 1, it would not shift up to gear 3 or down to gear 1. D3 is different. It automatically selects gear 1, 2, and 3 according to the amount of throttle you give. In order to use gears 4 and 5, you have to shift to "D". The "D" will automatically cycle between gears 1,2,3,4, and 5. If you want the best fuel economy possible. Always drive in "D" to let the tranny do all the work. If you need more power--like getting on the freeway with the onramp being on a hilly slope- then shift to D3 before you get on the onramp. This will prevent the tranny from shifting to gears 4 and 5 and back to 3 over and over, also known as gear hunting (which is also horrible on performance). Also, gears 4, and 5 have less than a 1:1 ratio, good for fuel economy, but not that great on performance.

 

say you are going downhill using "D" ... it's giong approx 60km/hr and you don't want to keep pressing on the brake and want to use some engine breaking.. is it ok to shift down to D2 (or even D1) at those speeds?

 

What's the point? You could have saved a couple bucks and gotten the manual if you wanted to do all that.

 

say you are going downhill using "D" ... it's giong approx 60km/hr and you don't want to keep pressing on the brake and want to use some engine breaking.. is it ok to shift down to D2 (or even D1) at those speeds?

really for the most part you should never shift into first while moving so no..

 

say you are going downhill using "D" ... it's giong approx 60km/hr and you don't want to keep pressing on the brake and want to use some engine breaking.. is it ok to shift down to D2 (or even D1) at those speeds?

It's probably not a good idea to do that in an automatic transmission. Use the brakes for what they're intended for.

 

Do NOT pretend you are driving a manual when driving an automatic........put it in D, and don't shift it. Not good for the automatic transmission to shift gears manually while moving.

 

say you are going downhill using "D" ... it's giong approx 60km/hr and you don't want to keep pressing on the brake and want to use some engine breaking.. is it ok to shift down to D2 (or even D1) at those speeds?

yeah, the other guys are right. engine braking is mainly for big trucks and semis. the way you should go down a mountain is brake, then let go of the pedal to give the brakes time to cool, then brake, then let go again... This might not be the most comfortable for your passengers, but better than riding on the brakes.

 

Not good for the automatic transmission to shift gears manually while moving.

Why is it bad to shift the tranny when moving?

 

I personally think it's retarded when someone constantly shift's manually on an auto tranny... Had a friend that did it in some *** ass Nissan truck all the time and ended up having a few problems due to it. Im sure hitting red line almost all the time was a big factor too.

Do what you want man, but manually controlling a tranny designed to automatically shift can't be the greatest thing on it. But I honestly don't know **** when it comes to tranny's...






Mechanical tranny's I should add.....

 

I personally think it's retarded when someone constantly shift's manually on an auto tranny... Had a friend that did it in some *** ass Nissan truck all the time and ended up having a few problems due to it. Im sure hitting red line almost all the time was a big factor too.

Do what you want man, but manually controlling a tranny designed to automatically shift can't be the greatest thing on it. But I honestly don't know **** when it comes to tranny's...






Mechanical tranny's I should add.....

"Retarded"...word used by ignorant individuals with limited vocabulary who have no care about who they may be insulting. Use a dictionary, dear, and then realize the number of people who are greatly hurt by people like you who throw that work around needlessly. My guess is you could care less.

 

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

^^^agreed

 

you should only use the other d's on inclines (going up hill... or VERY SLOW declines.. like 5mph. nothing like 60kmph... otherwise keep it in D

 

on my daily commute, i have to climb this fairly large hill. i sometimes switch from D to D3 when i need more power. i don't think this will be detrimental to the tranny, otherwise, honda wouldn't make this feature.

 

Only use D unless your towing 500+ lbs

keeping an auto tranny in 1st 2nd or 3rd gear really kills the banded clutch packs. NEVER EVER engine brake in an auto by selecting a lower gear. The ecu will auto engine brake for you if you have cruise control set.

But then again who cares, if your the guy who thinking Starting in D1 is faster for some reason than just hitting the gas then you not gonna listen anyways.

 

yeah, the other guys are right. engine braking is mainly for big trucks and semis. the way you should go down a mountain is brake, then let go of the pedal to give the brakes time to cool, then brake, then let go again... This might not be the most comfortable for your passengers, but better than riding on the brakes.

Sorry, but that's totally not true! There is no way, at least on many of the mountain roads I've driven, that you can stay off the brakes long enough for them to significantly cool! If you live in mountainous areas and drive roads that have long downhill sections, it is definitely preferable to keep the car in a lower gear, one that's appropriate for the speed you're traveling, and let engine compression help keep the cars speed in check. It absolutely will not hurt the engine or transmission and it will go a "long" way toward extending the life of the brakes.

I was on a trip in Colorado, descending from Slumgullion Pass when we started smelling a "very" harsh/acrid odor. This smell would come and go but when it hit you, it was like hitting a brick wall. The farther down the mountain we went, the worse the smell got. This went on for a little over 5 miles. Anyway, we finally caught up with the culprit. It was a Buick with a couple of little ol ladies in it. The driver had ridden her brakes all the way down that mountain pass and had totally cooked them. When we pulled into the next town, she turned into a local restaurant and as we passed, you could see her front brake disks were glowing red! :SHOCKED: In case you didn't know, that is not a good thing. At the speed she was traveling, she could have manually shifted into D2 and let engine braking control the speed of the car and she wouldn't have cooked her brakes in the process.

Bottom line is, it doesn't matter what kind of vehicle you're driving. Truck, car, or motocycle, if you've got a long downhill section to travel it is totally appropriate to use engine braking to help control the speed of the vehicle.

Not good for the automatic transmission to shift gears manually while moving.

This is also a misconception. Manually shifting an automatic transmission doesn't put any more wear and tear on the transmission than letting it shift automatically does! That's provided the driver is shifting into a gear that's appropriate for the speed the car is traveling. If you abuse the system, you're going to have problems but, to use an example related to what I posted above, if you shift into 2nd gear at around 30 mph on that downhill run to help control the cars speed with engine braking, you won't be hurting a thing.

FWIW!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Sorry, but that's totally not true! There is no way, at least on many of the mountain roads I've driven, that you can stay off the brakes long enough for them to significantly cool! If you live in mountainous areas and drive roads that have long downhill sections, it is definitely preferable to keep the car in a lower gear, one that's appropriate for the speed you're traveling, and let engine compression help keep the cars speed in check. It absolutely will not hurt the engine or transmission and it will go a "long" way toward extending the life of the brakes.

I was on a trip in Colorado, descending from Slumgullion Pass when we started smelling a "very" harsh/acrid odor. This smell would come and go but when it hit you, it was like hitting a brick wall. The farther down the mountain we went, the worse the smell got. This went on for a little over 5 miles. Anyway, we finally caught up with the culprit. It was a Buick with a couple of little ol ladies in it. The driver had ridden her brakes all the way down that mountain pass and had totally cooked them. When we pulled into the next town, she turned into a local restaurant and as we passed, you could see her front brake disks were glowing red! :SHOCKED: In case you didn't know, that is not a good thing. At the speed she was traveling, she could have manually shifted into D2 and let engine braking control the speed of the car and she wouldn't have cooked her brakes in the process.

Bottom line is, it doesn't matter what kind of vehicle you're driving. Truck, car, or motocycle, if you've got a long downhill section to travel it is totally appropriate to use engine braking to help control the speed of the vehicle.


This is also a misconception. Manually shifting an automatic transmission doesn't put any more wear and tear on the transmission than letting it shift automatically does! That's provided the driver is shifting into a gear that's appropriate for the speed the car is traveling. If you abuse the system, you're going to have problems but, to use an example related to what I posted above, if you shift into 2nd gear at around 30 mph on that downhill run to help control the cars speed with engine braking, you won't be hurting a thing.

FWIW!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

Your wrong, thats all i'm going to say about this, unsubscribed

 

Your wrong, thats all i'm going to say about this, unsubscribed

Sorry you think so but I'm not wrong. If you care to offer your reasoning for making that statement, I'd be willing to read it. You can even take it to a PM if you want to.

 

keeping an auto tranny in 1st 2nd or 3rd gear really kills the banded clutch packs. NEVER EVER engine brake in an auto by selecting a lower gear. The ecu will auto engine brake for you if you have cruise control set.

You must have popped this one up while I was typing up my previous post. Where in the world do you get that from? Once a gear is fully engaged, there's no undue wear and tear on the clutch pack or band because there's no slippage. Just like there's no clutch slippage on a manual transmission once the clutch peddle is fully released. It's only during the actual shift itself that any wear occures. That can't be avoided but you make it sound like you're tearing things up just leaving the transmission in 1st or 2nd gear and that's simply not the case as long as the transmission if functioning properly.

And concerning your statement that the ECU will auto engine brake with the cruise control set??? First of all, in the long downhill sections we're talking about, you're not likely to have the cruise set anyway but that would depend on the condition. As for the ECU using engine braking? I assume you're refering to Honda's "Grade Logic?" All that does is force a downshift in the transmission when the system detects the driver repeatedly pushing the brake peddle without a signficant, long term reduction in speed. I've had it happen on my last Honda car with an automatic transmission. Please let us know what the difference between that, and the "driver" manually downshifting the automatic transmission might be!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Honestly.........I think you guys who buy autos and WISH they were manuals should drive them exactly like you actually saved $1000 and bought a manual. Hopefully your tranny lasts through the warranty period and is an expensive fix when it goes

If you NEEDED an auto because you don't know what the word "clutch" means, then you should've bought a car with a manumatic transmission (can manually select the gears but it's a glorified automatic). My other car is a manumatic (manual transmission not available as the company didn't have a manual tranny at the time that could handle the power), and I make use of the manumatic mode as much as possible, but it's not a replacement for an actual manual transmission.

 

Honestly.........I think you guys who buy autos and WISH they were manuals should drive them exactly like you actually saved $1000 and bought a manual. Hopefully your tranny lasts through the warranty period and is an expensive fix when it goes

Well, I can't say I totally disagree with you! But, have you priced the cost of overhauling a manual tranny and clutch that's been trashed by someone who didn't know how to drive one? Neither version is exactly cheap to fix!

If you NEEDED an auto because you don't know what the word "clutch" means, then you should've bought a car with a manumatic transmission (can manually select the gears but it's a glorified automatic). My other car is a manumatic (manual transmission not available as the company didn't have a manual tranny at the time that could handle the power), and I make use of the manumatic mode as much as possible, but it's not a replacement for an actual manual transmission.

What's the difference? The automatic equipped Civic has a nice little shift lever. The driver can move it from D1 to D2 to D3 to "D" and back again at will. Ok, so that's a "little" more work than just bumping the lever to upshift or downshift but what's happening in the transmission itself, at least as far as the gear shifting is concerned, is exactly the same. The only real difference between what the automatic equipped Civic has and what's called a "manumatic" is the interface between the tranny and the driver. It's still just an automatic transmission. Oh yeah, forgot, and the fact that the driver can't specifically select and hold 4th or 5th gears on the Civic's 5-speed automatic, because once you're back in "D", your back in full automatic mode, but that's minor in my book!

Oh well.......

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

you should be using "D" 99% of the time.

 

Isn't there a book in the glove box that explains all of this at a 3rd grade reading level?

 

^^For most of us, this is probably true. However, I've driven a few automatics in mountainous country and have rarely been impressed with the tranny's gear selections while climbing or descending a long incline. In those circumstances, it's perfectly acceptable to force a given gear selection, like D2 for example or using the manumatic mode on those cars so equipped, to keep the engine working within it's power band. It doesn't hurt a thing and makes it easier to control the car. Let's face it, if the algorithms they use to control how and when the transmission shifts gears were perfect, there'd be no reason for the manufacturer to give the driver the option of direct control of the shifting process. All we'd have on the shift lever is park, reverse, neutral and drive. That's obviously not the case.

And M1k3, while, as I said, I don't necessarily disagree with KevzSi's statement that "D" will do just fine 99% of the time, repeating it, or anything else for that matter, over and over and over and over again, doesn't necessarily make it true!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Isn't there a book in the glove box that explains all of this at a 3rd grade reading level?

Sure there is, but after working almost 10 years in the auto industry (a long time ago!) I've always been amazed at the resistence most folks seem to have to opening up the owners manual.