I was thinking about getting a shifter and a shift light for my A4.Does anyone here get better times or reap any benefits from doing this.I was thinking about doing it,any light on this subject would be nice.

 

I've read that since its an electronically controlled transmission that it takes slightly longer to shift when manually shifting... or at least something to that effect, can somebody else chime in here?

 

shifting will not give you better times

do NOT downshift, itll tear up your trans

you can upshift all you want, but since your trans is electronically controlled it'll shift at its set point unless you have a '93

 

I shift mine manually, all the time

 

I occassionally shift my 4L60E when I want more gear. Heh.

 

I shift mine manual. I have a reverse manual valve body in mine.

 

like the others said... it is eletroniclaly controlled so it dosn't really matter... just leave it in Drive and then you can upshift into overdrive when you get there. That is the fastest way a A4 can shift

 

The 1993s have a 700-R4 which you can shift manually with no detrimental effects..94-02 has the 4L60E (electronically contolled 700-R4)...Being computer controlled it will shift better if you let do the shifting...manually shifting will cause two things: excessive wear of the bands, and it will not shift right away, there is a delay which means that your shift points will be off...
--Alan

 

I know other people have said but I am chiming in to re-inforce this. Letting the computer shift for you will not only make the car run the quickest but it will also make it more consistent if you bracket race.

 

LOL...Where do you guys come up with this information? Manually shifting does one very important thing in an automatic transmission...It RAISES line pressure. Higher line pressure means more positive and quicker shifts! Quicker shifts means LESS chance for the 2-4 band or 3-4 clutches to slip...Which HELPS make them last longer.

Just as a referance, I've been building racing automatic transmissions for 14 years, and I manually upshift AND downshift mine.

Frank

 

hahahahaha...i manually shift mine too...lol...i dunno i found this funny for some reason......my buddys been working on cars his whole life and races anyhting from a 4 cylinder car to a monsterous V8 and always shift manual if its an automatic......i woould think it would be better off shifting....alo isnt tha t what a shift improvement module for these cars are for...to stop that delay during shift???correct me if im wrong...

 

uh, Frank How many years have you been rebuilding overdrive trannys?When you manuallyshift a 4l60e theres a delay in pressure rise, you shift it from 1st to second and there is a delay because there is not enough line rise to complete the shift on command . You will burn the tranny out shifting manually because ther isnt enough fluid pressure to hold the clutches.These trannys dont respond to manual shifting like the t-350 or 400 do,I worked in a transmission shop also except we only did performance rebuilds for conventional and overdrive trannys . No disrespect to you I just dont want to see any board members experience premature tranny failures.

 

Im just wondering if it would hurt my tranny to slip it into neutral and throw a rev then put it back in D while rolling? Can anyone give me some info

 

Works just fine as long as you're not trying to use extra revs to punch forward, ie rev it up in neutral and throw it in drive. Popping it out of gear won't really have any bad effects on it.

GM most likely spent countless hours on these transmissions getting the shift points correct and ensuring reliability. Why risk it manually shifting? Unless your car shifts prematurely at like 5200 rpms or something [mine is always between 5800 & 6k ], there's really no point, when you're racing it's better to leave it in od and pay attention to the road. Manually shifting is not going to make you any faster from a stop. From a roll, I can see the point to it since the 4L60E takes a second to downshift, but make sure you do it carefully. My friend put my car into 2nd gear at almost 80 mph today (3.23) and I wasn't too happy about that- luckily the tach did not read over 6k. I don't see what the point of manually shifting an automatic is unless you're downshifting from a roll to get a quick response, or you're going around a slow turn and plan to let it rip afterwards.

In summary, I don't know too much about the effects of either, but the 4L60E doesn't really seem to care what you throw at it, it'll go out when it decides to. It seems most of the problems are with user error, such as over-revving or downshifting one too many gears...which will help it go out a lot sooner. if you need to manually shift all the time, then maybe you need to look at something with 6 gears instead of four also.

 

My thoughts exactly. reving in neutral with an automatic tranny is a kinda ricy thing to do. I constantly see kids in old automatic imports do it to try and fool people into thinking they have a stick.

Then again... I've done it with a few older Irocs I had.. So i'm the pot calling the kettle black. Hindsight is 20/20.