Suz says she's ready to run you in her stickshift car to prove you wrong.

 

hey I got a question, I'm sort of new at the whole car thing and I drive a 07 2.5i I bought an auto for just normal everyday driving anyhoo though sometimes I like to take a canyon way home from my house and I was wondering if its okay to put it into 2nd or 3rd without ruining the car?

 

the smiley face implied sarcasm

I think you'll just have to do more maintenance on it (changing the ATF more often) I shift with mine when I want to have a more spirited drive. One thing I have noticed is that when I'm taking a lot of turns (with a lot of on and off throttle) the tranny shifts differently. It lets the revs go higher (not only when flooring it, but when cruising too).

 

so did the wink...

 

I have done it all the time for the last 5 years; I just make sure to blip the throttle before putting it into 2nd gear and I use synthetic ATF.

Using 2nd on the last i-club drive I had no problem keeping up with STI’s & moded STIs on twisty roads. I try not to leave it in 2nd for longer then 5 minutes at a time; give the transmission a little time to cool down before going into 2nd again.

 

yeah, that little blip is very helpful

 

ok cool, I was wondering because last time I drove through the canyon by my house I was manually switching gears. just wanted to make sure I wasnt breaking the trans. When you say "blip" you mean to let off the throttle a bit right? Thanks for the quick replys!

 

No, it’s more like rev matching on a MT. Just before putting it into 2nd, quickly push down on the throttle to get the rpm’s up, put it into 2nd and then let-up on the throttle a little, the faster your going the more you push it down. You’ll know that you’re doing it right if the shift is smooth and not a jolt. Just give it some time and you will get the hang of it.

 

we should have a meet for the 4eat club!

 

sweet, I guess i have been doing it wrong then because it will jerk sometimes.
I'm down for a 4eat meet.

 

Yeah me too.

But I'm 123456 miles away.

 

drive?

 

i m driving a 4EAT too..up in canada.. haha..

 

yeah i noticed that when i'm turning, i rev up to 4k though i'm just pressing the gas normally.

one question though,..i remember i was on 3rd one time and i did some spirited driving and for some reason, after it went to 6k rpms, it shifted, as if i shifted to a higher gear, although i was still on 3rd.

can someone explain this cuz idk whats that about.

 

As far as I know when you put it into 1st or 2nd it’s locked in that gear, even if you’re bouncing off the rev limiter it will not up-shift, (with one exception for safety reasons; if you try to shift into 2nd or 1st at too high a speed it will not let you destroy the 4eat, only when you slow down will it shift).

Putting it in 3rd gear is different; it’s not locked, so if you’re at a high rpm and you don’t have a lot of throttle it will shift to 4th gear. Over time you can learn the right amount of throttle to keep it from up-shifting.