say im on the highway going like 70mph (in OD 4rth prolly w the convertor locked up) and someone pulls next to me and wants a go. can i just pop it down to third? ive been told two different stories that it is ok and bad. of course it is bad to manually WOT shift an auto and i would never do that..but is it alright to merely pop down a gear while cruising at higher speeds (say 45 to 75) from OD to D (4rth to 3rd)
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Actually you are better off doing that then letting the car downshift by itself because the PCM is a little slower in deciding what to do in that situation and in manual 3rd you boost the pressure some. You dont really want to do that to slow the car down though, like I do, because it burns the clutches up faster, but when you build yer own trannies who cares In the situation you're describing, I usually let off the gas some, shift into 3rd, and then floor it, all in a matter of like 1/2 sec. You wont hurt anything by doing this, but I wouldnt do it over 85-90 unless you know a good tranny guy that does work cheaply.

 

Manually shifting back into 3rd is ok, just give it gas at the same time you are doing this. Manually upshifting at WOT is alright. Manually downshifting can be done, by giving it throttle (called double clutching in a manual transmission) at the same time you make the manual downshift, and then you can let off the throttle after the shift is complete. If you downshift without giving it throttle, will tear the unit up in time.

 

Downshifting your Auto from OD to 3rd is all right as long as you don't over rev/redline it.