Auto Trans paddle shift issue

[Akired86]

Shiftdown! Till you hear the engine breaking!

[Guff]

I have to agree with the chaps saying to just shift down. You guys aren't going to get any puff trying to accelerate from a cruising speed at a higher gear like you guys described. The reason you guys are getting acceleration in D is because the car is definitely dropping a gear or two to get into the meatier part of the powerband. I know we like to tout our "Flat torque curve" statement but you're not going to get much of anything at 2k RPM.

[mit_peid]

Reading this thread swayed me to think the white FR-S AT I have a deposit down for could possibly be the correct decision (over the FR-S MT). I live in L.A. and this will be my daily driver.

[KelvinBRZ]

Bringing a thread back from the dead, but I'm just curious -

I've been doing a lot of commuting in traffic lately, and I was wondering if it's bad for the engine (I have an AT BRZ) if I am in 6th gear running 45mph accelerating to 75mph by depressing the gas pedal all the way down?

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by KelvinBRZ

Bringing a thread back from the dead, but I'm just curious -

I've been doing a lot of commuting in traffic lately, and I was wondering if it's bad for the engine (I have an AT BRZ) if I am in 6th gear running 45mph accelerating to 75mph by depressing the gas pedal all the way down?

I assume this means being in 6th at 45 mph and absolutely flooring it

Very bad long term, thats called lugging an engine, in the simplest way it's almost like being in first and carrying or towing several tons of weight, its very hard on the connecting rods and crank bearing and rest of the drive train for that matter. It's like if you were riding a bike when you were a kid trying to go up a hill in the highest gear your legs would hurt and you would give up, thats basically whats going on. What you should do is go to 5th or 4th and floor it up through the gears

[navanodd]

I think that part of what you are experiencing is what has been said above about being in too high of a gear for accelerating. These engines just don't have the torque to accelerate at cruising RPM, they like to rev.


I also think that maybe you're used to the way automatics in other cars behave. I don't drive my car much in D, so I'm not sure how the torque converter behaves when not in manual or sport mode. Our car locks the torque converter very aggressively, as soon as I switch into 2nd the torque converter locks. If you are expecting an instant change in RPM when you mash the throttle it is because you are used to unlocked torque converters that allow slippage.


The locking torque converter helps fuel economy and makes the car much more responsive because the drivetrain is rigidly fixed to the engine. As a consequence, the lack of slipping makes each gear a little less flexible and requires more downshifts to get the torque you need at the wheels.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by KelvinBRZ

Bringing a thread back from the dead, but I'm just curious -

I've been doing a lot of commuting in traffic lately, and I was wondering if it's bad for the engine (I have an AT BRZ) if I am in 6th gear running 45mph accelerating to 75mph by depressing the gas pedal all the way down?

Are you running in manual mode and holding 6th gear? In that case, yea, probably not good. If you are in auto mode, the tranny should be downshifting.

[KelvinBRZ]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Are you running in manual mode and holding 6th gear? In that case, yea, probably not good. If you are in auto mode, the tranny should be downshifting.

Hmm, I thought our manual mode had some programming that won't allow the car to lug? Usually when I do accelerate in 6th gear I do notice that even at 45mph the rpms jump to 2500 instead of where they should be at 1700. Going up a hill is a different story..

Our manual mode prevents us from downshifting into redline so I'm assuming it won't let us purposely damage the engine from lugging at 6th gear?

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by KelvinBRZ

Hmm, I thought our manual mode had some programming that won't allow the car to lug? Usually when I do accelerate in 6th gear I do notice that even at 45mph the rpms jump to 2500 instead of where they should be at 1700. Going up a hill is a different story..

Our manual mode prevents us from downshifting into redline so I'm assuming it won't let us purposely damage the engine from lugging at 6th gear?

In manual mode, it will downshift on the low end, but only on the very edge of the engine stalling. You have to be way down in the RPMs, usually below 1000 (and more towards 500) my experience. It doesn't prevent you from accelerating in the wrong gear though.

On the high end, you are correct, it will not let you downshift into the redline, but you can bounce off of it all day long and it won't change gears.

[navanodd]

In my experience it unlocks the torque converter about 100 rpm or so before it would downshift to prevent stalling. Doesn't seem to do it to prevent lugging, just a softer anti-stall than a downshift.

[awhatzable]

Originally Posted by FR-S,M.D.

Same thing happened to me today, except I had it in 4th. Was stop and go traffic on the highway, so downshifted from 5 to 4, then when the road opened up a bit, gave it some throttle, but revs stayed around 1500 no matter how much throttle. Put her over to auto, immediately revved higher and got power. Then back to manual, and problem was cleared. Too identical to be coincidence.

In a manual gt86, you will lug the engine if you try push it below 2000rpm. Unless it's a flat or descending ground. Maybe it's stopping you from lugging yours. Have you tried down shifting again ?

[Impureclient]

It's been 3 years.....I think he figured it out by now.

[ma_tt11]

Originally Posted by FR-S,M.D.

I drove a manual before this car, got AT bc it's DD and Toronto traffic is probably only second to LA traffic. Plus, this AT is really sweet for a slush box.

Same deal - if I wasnt stuck in the minus-one-lane-now rush hour traffic 2-4 times a day, 5 days a week...

AT was really the only choice for my commute. Still a ton of fun though