No 4th gear in A/T?

[caineroad]

This has been happening since a while ago. Whenever i start my car in the morning, no matter summer or winter. My A/T gearbox will only shift to 3rd gear in the first 2-3 mins of driving. That means even if I go on a higher speed, it still won't shift to 4th gear. Is this normal or there a problem with my gearbox? After it is able to shift to 4th gear, it runs fine and smoothly without any problems.

Please advise:frown:

[Kaotic Lazagna]

I believe that's normal. The ECU is letting it rev higher to quicken the engine warming process. It'll keep it in third to keep the rpm high. Just drive normal (don't gun the engine or floor it) until that "Cool" light turns off (and may be a minute or two after).

[supmet]

rtfm

[BLH]

Normal. My 2007 has done that since I bought it. My Scanguage shows about 130 degrees when the cold led goes off and it then will shortly start using 4th. gear.

[MadMax]

Yep, quite normal and nothing to worry about. Down here in southcentral Texas it only lasts for less than a mile, I guess our temps are a wee bit warmer than up in Toronto!

Cheers! M2

[kimona]

Quite normal. Don't drive the poor thing too hard until it warms up.

[bronsin]

Yeah its just a stupid design to waste gas. The manual transmission can shift into fifth before being warmed up so why not the autos?

[IllusionX]

Yeah its just a stupid design to waste gas. The manual transmission can shift into fifth before being warmed up so why not the autos?

An engine that runs cold is worse than wasting a bit of gas. I've been letting rev up, until it's warm

[bronsin]

An engine that runs cold is worse than wasting a bit of gas. I've been letting rev up, until it's warm

My ECHO averaged 40 mpg driving it five miles to work and I got into fifth at 35 mph whenever possible. Car is nine years old now and not even a light bulb ever went bad.

[talnlnky]

Yeah its just a stupid design to waste gas. The manual transmission can shift into fifth before being warmed up so why not the autos?

waste gas? thats one dimensional thinking sir. As said above, the car runs most efficient when its hovering in the 180's - 190's. Until you reach that spot you are wasting gas. By getting up to that point as quick as possible you minimize how much gas is wasted.

I bet under the right conditions I could do my 20minute commute to work without the temp reaching 188F (where it normally hovers). All I would need is cool temps (say 40F or lower), a light foot on the gas, and drive my normal route which is basically 35-45mph the whole way, but do it in 5th gear and use DFCO as much as possible.

Even this morning with temps around 60F when I left, it took probably half the distance for my car to get up to temp, cruising in 5th gear. A little 3rd gear action is not wasting fuel for the autos... similar to me using 4th gear probably warmed up my car in half the time.

Funny, I watched the temp this morning for the first time after changing my route to work about 2 months ago. I think I will try running 4th gear for the first 2 miles to see if it does have a significant impract, negligible, or non-noticeable.

[talnlnky]

An engine that runs cold is worse than wasting a bit of gas. I've been letting rev up, until it's warm

i've heard that is more of an issue for older cars.... and that if you keep rpm's relatively low it won't matter.... cars often rev over 1k when they first start... then steadily drop over a matter of a few minutes.


Oh a side note.... I've been thinking recently of making up a grill dam. I don't see many more 80+ days ahead of me... will mostly be a lot of 60-70's with rain 30-50% of the time. I want to see how much of a difference the grill dam will make for me over the winter when temps avg 40 during the day.

[bronsin]

[QUOTE=talnlnky;383541]waste gas? thats one dimensional thinking sir. As said above, the car runs most efficient when its hovering in the 180's - 190's. Until you reach that spot you are wasting gas. By getting up to that point as quick as possible you minimize how much gas is wasted.

How do you know that? Have you ever tested a cars mpg driving in third vs driving in fifth to warm the engine up? When I had my ECHO all most all the driving was 5 miles to work and five miles back home. (well 65% of it) Not having an auto I was free to choose what gear I drove in. Theres NO WAY I would drive in third or fourth when I could put it in fifth.

[talnlnky]

[QUOTE=talnlnky;383541]waste gas? thats one dimensional thinking sir. As said above, the car runs most efficient when its hovering in the 180's - 190's. Until you reach that spot you are wasting gas. By getting up to that point as quick as possible you minimize how much gas is wasted.

How do you know that? Have you ever tested a cars mpg driving in third vs driving in fifth to warm the engine up? When I had my ECHO all most all the driving was 5 miles to work and five miles back home. (well 65% of it) Not having an auto I was free to choose what gear I drove in. Theres NO WAY I would drive in third or fourth when I could put it in fifth.

dude, I just said i'd experiment with it..... also.. you can't compare 3rd gear in an auto to 3rd gear in a 5sp manual. the gearing is different. Also, yes, there will be differences for everybody. If you only drive 2 miles it'd be best (for mpg's) to drive in the highest gear, but if you drive an extended distance, you'd be better off (for mpg's) warming up quickly first then shifting to the highest gear.

you never stated that you had a short drive, so why would anybody assume such. People sometimes commute for 45mins or longer each way between work/school & home.

You have to take more than one perspective/variable into account.

[Kiz]

It's to protect the auto transmission. You don't want it going into 4th while the trans fluid is cold, it will greatly increase the wear. If you're driving round town in 4th gear then most of the time the torque convertor won't be in lockup and will slip accordingly. This slipping on cold fluid is what they're trying to minimise. Once the fluid has warmed up sufficiently it will allow you to use all gears.