D, 2, L, whats the diff?

[napkinthief]

Whats the difference on an automatic driving with regular D, 2 or L. On D, I can top off 103-105 depending how much gas in my tank. On L, I took the car to 115 and still raising, but engine temp thing started going up to I stopped. Is it bad for the car? I also noticed handling in L is different, harder to control than D, but maybe because more power in the wheels?

 

[psychlow]

Wow.

You're saying you took the car to 115MPH in first gear?

Most automatic transmissions have three gears (plus some have an overdrive gear).

D allows the full use of all three gears (D + overdrive on allows all 4 gears).
2 allows use of only gears 1 and 2.
L allows the use of only 1st gear.

I don't know much about the operating characteristics of DSM automatic transmissions, but I'm hoping that there's a safety net that allows upshifting when people try to max their car out in L.

 

[napkinthief]

no L definetly changed gears, the rpm would hit 6500 then im guessing shift and rpms drop to 3000 and grow again to 6500, i counted 3 shifts, 1>2, 2>3, 3>4 at about 30,60,and 90, around 105+ the temp gauge was noticable moving up, so i slowed down and stopped for about 10 min to save my engine.

p.s. i do have an overdrive which was turned on the whole time...what does it do if its off?

 

[kyledykstra]

It's another gear. Automatics have gears just like a manual, 1,2,3,4. (L,2,D,OD)

Since you seem do have no idea what you're doing, leave your car in D with the overdrive switch on. Else you'll be back here in a week wondering why your transmission is making noise.

 

[tylerk]

On L, I took the car to 115 and still raising, but engine temp thing started going up to I stopped. Is it bad for the car?

 

[1fstSS]

thats not good for your car man!! but if you want to realy give your tranny a thrashing do like 65 and toss that baby in reverse or better yet park your clutches will slip untill your doin like 15 than youll have a fun ride

 

[Xit40]

Actually the L gear will use 1st and 2nd. It does that to protect the transmission from people just slamming it down into L, as noted above . If your RPM's are too high when you shift down into it you will first go into 2nd and then after slowing drop down into 1st. That's why it's listed as L and not 1. Either way I would not recommend driving your car like that. You're just asking to break it.