I have a 94 A4 Z28 stock drivetrain, k&n, flowmasters.

My question is when i race from a dig i put the car in 1st, hold brake and give a rev around 1rpm, then i off the brake and smash the gas till red line then i shift to 2nd till red line, then i shift to D. (NOT the circled D) Will this mess my transmission up?

I havnt had any problems but a friend said i shouldnt do it because i have a auto and since i dont have a clutch i shouldnt do it

 

Some people say one thing and some the other. Personally I say no it wont and I really think alotta people say that it will because its happens after they start doing it and giving the car a hard time. But its not the manual shift that kills the trans its the " HARD TIME" that accompanies it!

 

Ok thaks for the quick reply and now i know its ok as long as i dont over do it

 

From my experience, doing a few drag races and stuff, I manually shifted sometimes, and saw no problem with it. The tranny always worked consistantly ... nothing seemed to change. I don't think it was doing any harm, and contrary to the "let the computer shift your automatic transmission! " camp, when you start switching up gear ratios, etc., the computer doesn't always have the shifts exactly where they need to be anymore, so you've gotta override the computer .

HOWEVER, what INSTANTLY killed my 4L60E was taking it out on a very tight road course, with a set of 4.10's out back, and absolutely givin'er!!! The transmission hated my guts, and puked 2nd-gear within a couple DAYS of being on the track!! (I can laugh about it now, 'cause it was ~2 years ago ).

As a rule, leaving the shifter in 3rd (Drive) is probably best (for everything, the tranny, your speed, consistancy, etc., etc.). But like I said, there are times where you either want/need to control the shift RPM, and/or, maybe you want to HOLD a gear (ie: w/2.73's, it was almost better to hold 2nd gear across the 1/4 mile line, instead of allowing the non-beneficial shift to 3rd). Also, if you throw a different ratio out back, you'll likely need to re-program the WOT shift points, and until you do that, manually shifting CAN/WILL improve your track times .

 

Thanks I needed to hear that

 

the only thing i have heard in that regard is that downshifting without a manual/reverse valvebody is detrimental to the transmission. put in a different valvebody and you won't have that problem. i would rather just have a 6 speed, but i'm stuck with an A4. oh well.

 

In my '93, after 1 pass just leaving it in drive, I began manually shifting my car, because it dropped my E.T's by almost half a second. But my 700-R4 was shifting around 4100 rpm, so that would be why. I haven't tried adjusting the tv cable etc, just figured the problem was easily solved by manually shifting at 5500 rpm.

I wouldn't say that would be the same for everybody. The rebuilt tranny I had in a '94 TA shifted very firm, and actually performed far better by letting it shift itself than me rowing through manually. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks 2 you all