legacycentral bbs

I just got my liscense and sort of inherited my sis's 91 legacy wagon.

I have a question about selecting between "D" and "1", "2", and "3". Whats the difference between just driving in "D" and the other selections? Does it hurt the transmission in normal driving in 1,2,or 3 in any way? I heard they were just better for driving uphill. If not what selection do you guys drive in at different speeds?

P.S. please reply in plain english

Man how I wish ciper was here Ah well. The way it is supposed to work is the selection is supposed to be the highest gear the tranny will shift to, so in 1 the tranny should only go through 1st gear, in 2 it will only go though 1st and 2nd, etc. however, if you get to 6500 rpms in 1 the TCU will shift to 2nd to prevent damage to the engine and drivetrain. The same for 2 with 2nd gear. I believe it will do the same in 3 with 3rd gear but I've never had it in 3 when I was going that fast. However if you're driving along in 1 and you go fast enough to warrant the upshift to 2nd, then decellerate enough to be at a reasonable speed for 1st gear the tranny will downshift back into 1st, so be careful with that. The same with 2 and 2nd gear. I usually drive in 3, simply because i dont drive fast enough to warrant the multiple shifting you'd have to go through in D I'll switch to D if I know I'll be going more thana few miles straight, no accell changes. Like on the freeway or on a long street or something. There's no reason driving in 1, 2 or 3 should hurt the transmission so long as you're driving it normally. If you're doing 80 and slam it into 1, you're pretty much guaranteed to hurt something. It will probably downshift straight to 1st, hit the limiter, shift to second hit the limiter, then shift to 3rd until you get to a low enough speed to go into 2nd, then 1st. Either way, it's just like driving a manual, but with quicker shifts, and a stronger tranny

It may not even shift at all if you drop it in 1st at 80. I through my '84 in reverse at 40 once (shifter passed neutral without stopping since the button on the XT shifter I had was a little flaky). I expected to look at my transmission in the rearview, but it never shifted and I quickly moved it out of reverse.

Steve

I know that my 2 will not shift up to 3 at 6500rpm and I'm glad as that's where I get the best accel, holding it in 2 up towards 5000+ RPM

thats really odd, does it just bounce off the rev limiter? or does it have a rev limiter? I know mine shifts at 6500rpm and downshifts if you leave it there.

dont the automatics shift at 6250?

nope

FireMarshallStev wrote:I just got my liscense and sort of inherited my sis's 91 legacy wagon.

I have a question about selecting between "D" and "1", "2", and "3". Whats the difference between just driving in "D" and the other selections? Does it hurt the transmission in normal driving in 1,2,or 3 in any way? I heard they were just better for driving uphill. If not what selection do you guys drive in at different speeds?

P.S. please reply in plain english

Congratulations on your "new" car. Take good care of it, and it will take good care of you.

For the vast majority of normal driving, the transmission is designed to be left in D. You don't have to think about it. Under some circumstances you might want to use one of the other forward selections- low traction, uphill or downhill, some other instances, too. To find out about when and how, I suggest that you read your owner's manual. There is plenty of information in there to get you pointed in the right direction.

But for the most part, just leave it in D, don't over think it. You have plenty of new things to pay attention to, considering you just got your license.

Enjoy the car, learn to drive it safely.

QuickDrive wrote:I know that my 2 will not shift up to 3 at 6500rpm and I'm glad as that's where I get the best accel, holding it in 2 up towards 5000+ RPM

Yeah, I'm a fool, it shifts...

I used to only use the lower positions while waiting for an opportunity to pass on the highway.

Took the '84 wagon to the dragstrip and got a 1 mph higher trap speed shifting manually (66 vs. 65), but longer ET by a tenth.

Steve