First I want to thank "autotechpat" for the reply to my question last week. Did what I was told and it all worked out.
Now here is this week's question: driving back east from Las Vegas, taking I 40. Will be going thru some moutainous regions in AZ and NM. None are 10,000 ft elevations, more like 3200-4000 ft.
Do I keep my car in Overdrive going thru these areas or do I manually change the gears?
Second question and I'm going to come across as being a "dumb blond" here - but manually changing the gears - which one is for which?? Lower gear - going up or down? I"m sorry. I'm normally not this stupid. I have driven the mountains before but in an SUV and I wasn't the driver and wasn't paying attention to what the driver was doing!!
Thanks for your help.
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Mountain driving with a automatic transmission can cause the transmission to shift often - this is called "hunting" for the correct gear. Unless your transmission begins "hunting" there would be no need to shift out of "Overdrive" into "Drive", never shift to any other lower gear (2 or 1) at freeway speeds! Second question, when driving uphill under normal conditions it is not necessary to shift to a lower gear, in some cases when driving down a step hill shifting to a lower gear will allow the "engine braking" to help slow the car. Let me explain - In automatic mode the transmission will shift gears in order 1,2,3,4, with one being the "lowest" and 4 being the "highest". If you are going down a steep hill at speeds of up to 30mph the transmission will automatically end up shifting into 3rd gear. If you manually move the shifter to the 2 position this will hold the transmission in 2nd gear allowing the engine rpm's to increase which will help slow the car without using as much "foot" braking, this is called "engine" braking. On a VERY steep down hill at speeds of 10 mph and under you can shift all the way down to 1st to help slow the car down. It take a bit of experience and practice to know when to down shift so try it a few time in safe situations so you will begin to understand what is happening. One more bit of information to add - if you ever find your self stuck in the sand or snow starting out in 2nd gear will help you keep from spinning the wheels. There is less torque available at the wheels in 2nd gear than in 1st. (Torque is the rotational force that is trying to turn the wheels). Now this is what the shifter positions mean - 1: first gear only, transmission will not shift out of 1st gear. 2: 2nd gear only, transmission will start in 2nd gear and not shift out of 2nd gear. 3: transmission will start in 1st gear and shift to 2nd and 3rd as necessary. 4: transmission will start in 1st gear and shift to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th as necessary.
I hope this is not to much information all at once!
