Originally Posted by michelletong
Occasionally I have to travel on his highway that runs through a hill with a decent incline. I have been told to downshift whenever i'm climbing so i won't mess up my transmission. However, my bf said that I dont need to downshift because I have an automatic and i'm going against the car's natural response and end up messing my transmission. Whats a good way to tell when i need to downshift and when i dont? also, i noticed that sometimes when i drop a gear and then bring it back to the fourth gear again the car gets "stuck" on the lower gear for a few seconds, is there something wrong? I have an 01 automatica honda accord 4 cyclinder. please help!
Your boyfriend is right
Let the tranny do its thing. It is equipped with a system called 'grade logic control' that uses a series of algorithms and sensors to determine what gear the vehicle needs to be in. That's why if you're braking hard for a corner, the tranny will downshift as you enter it so you have power to cut through the apex. If you're going down a very very steep hill the tranny will downshift into 3rd by itself.
Jim: The 6th gen autos do not 'gear hunt' whatsoever, and IMO hold lower gears annoyingly long when an upshift could be done.