Is shifting through gears on an Auto Tranny bad for it? My friend used to do it in his 89 camaro ALL the time, and it never seemed to hurt it....I'd like to know, cause I can'tr afford a dead tranny!!!!


hehe

 

what all those people have viewed it and can't give me a simple answer? I know it may be a dumb question to some of you but please :-)

later

 

i do it all the time too, but its harder on the tranny doing it this way, manually shifting causes higher line pressure which causes it to wear faster.

 

tHANK YOU THANK YOU for responding. Any idea how much faster? I have read that it is not good to leave the car in OD all the time too......is this true? thanks again!!!!

 

i do it sometimes!!
not going to effect it that much at all...

forgetting to change the fluid and neutral drops hurt it!!!

 

neutral drops are not something I do......fluid change, that probably does need to be done.....how much that run on these cars?

 

depends.. if you do it yourself with the right tools it could cost you like $15 or so... I don't know the "right" tools for it.. but I'm sure there's something for it aside from just a pan kit ... if you take it to a shop you're probably looking at $100-$200 ... they rip you so bad on tranny fluid changes... I used to work at Jiffy Lube and it was like $80 there I think...

 

oh.. and as far as causing problems, I've done the auto-shifting thing for 5 years now, (pretty much the entire time I've owned my car) and it's never caused a problem until now.. I've driven it from 114k miles to 182k miles in the past 5 years.. gone through 3 tranny mounts (all rubber, until now, I have a poly one), one loose TV cable bracket, and now this problem. I don't think it's a big problem, but I haven't fixed it yet (and haven't tried.. no time...) .. I think it's probably a loose cable or something.. still works just fine.. other than that, no mechanical problems with the tranny.. hope that helps.

 

Just go to your local parts store and ask them for a new tranny filter (it's about $9.00, I did it two days ago) and it ussually takes about 5 quartz of trans fluid. All you need is a 1/2 inch socket, a rag, a big reservoir for the big mess, and a lot of patience so you don't make an even bigger mess, but it's not hard at all! Good luck.

 

don't you need a gasket too?

and I was talking about doing the entire transmission.. not just the pan.. by hooking a pump up to the tranny lines going into the radiator and forcing the old stuff out while pumping the new stuff in... or some other way similar to that.

 

Im on my third camaro. I used to downshift and upshift manually all the time and didnt have too much of a problem until my 3rd camaro. One day, it just started not to downshift manually anymore. I've heard it made the transmission wear faster. When I rebuild this transmission I'm only going to manually upshift when I really want to, not going to make it part of my daily driving, because it really does wear it down faster. I'm sure the tranny I have in my IROC now had some wear when I got it, and my downshifting just helped it die a little faster. Good luck tho!

- Tom

 

I'm sorry for not mentioning it, but the filter does come with a gasket. I got mine at AutoZone for about $9. The method you're describing I've never done, but anyway you do it, the filter & fluid should be replaced at least every 30,000 miles.

 

Your going to want to get a transmission flush. It's a little different then just changing the fluid. Remember when you change the fluid your not getting the rest of it that in tourqe converter. You also need a new filter and pan gasket.
Check out your area for a good tranny shop that can perform this service for you.

 

Ok, I have a question. How does the higher line pressure from manually shifting it make it wear faster? I know that they make boost valves that cause you to have higher line pressure which I thought was supposed to help keep the clutches from slipping as much and help prevent problems.

Ben

 

Which line in the radiator (from the tranny) is the one that carries more pressure? In other words which one should be disconnected in order to flush the tranny?

 

Tho I haven't had my Trans Am long enough to find out how quickly it'll kill the transmission, I do know that the transmission in my dad's cadillac catera blew after 130km's, probably as a direct result of my highschool days.

 

get a 5 or 6 speed manual /manual valve body