Too many shifts

[Rhon]

Can someone explain how this tranny works? I have the 5 speed auto and if your cruising along at say 60 and step on the throttle a little it seems to down shift but it says it's still in 5th. I would think 5th is overdrive. It seems to do it in other gears also but it's more obvious in 5th.

Is it me?

 

[sunrun176]

It's the torque converter 'unlocking', plain and simple. If you press the accelerator quite a bit farther it will actually downshift, even in Manual Mode. (Note that, being in Manual Mode, you'll still have to upshift afterward.)

Also, to get the torque converter to unlock in Auto Mode you have to press a bit more on the accelerator than you do in Manual Mode. It seems likely to me that they set the programming differently between the two modes so as to save a bit more gas when in Auto Mode.

And you're right, 5th is overdrive. Here are the gear ratios for the 08.5's 5-speed SportAT:

1st 3.62
2nd 1.925
3rd 1.285
4th 0.933
5th 0.692
Reverse 3.405
Final drive 3.863

 

[Rhon]

Thanks for the info. That's quite a jump from 1st to 2nd. Guess I don't drive it enough to get used to it. It's the wife's car and I only get to drive it on the weekends.

 

[sunrun176]

<nods> Really makes it jump off the line when you want it to, tho'.. (burnout)

My wife and I were sharing ours for a while. Now our daughter has just started all-day Kindergarten and the scheduling works out best if we have two cars, so we got rid of my '95 Proteg LX 5-speed (which my wife refused to drive for several reasons and which I almost never drove because it had more problems to be fixed that it was worth) and got a used 2nd generation '05 Prius.. For her.