Stupid transmission question.

[99SEDude]

No, the transmission is not stupid, maybe I am for asking the question. I didn't know where else to post so bear with me here.

For some reason it occurred to me that I'd like to know what gear my car is on. I have an auto tranny, so there is no way to know. Anyways, I thought maybe there is a way to get that information from the car's computer or from the tranny itself. Like I said, I don't know if it's possible or if it would be useful at all or not. Just satisfy my curiosity here. I was thinking some kind of simple display that would show you 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on the gear and that changes as the tranny shifts. Anyways, any takers?

[Dargasonus]

I've never seen anything like that..but it would be interesting to see one

[Mike94SE]

I can hear when the motor shifts so I'm happy

[2K SE]

When I was driving an auto I knew what gear by looking at the tach. But it did not matter as it was an auto and did all the shifting by itself.

[Brandon]

i think it would be neat.... ill feel it shift, but i think it would be neat (prob distracting) when your on an empty road or trying to merge on the interstate and watch the numbers kick down and back up again...

[99SEDude]

I can hear mine shift too, so I know it's shifting, I just would like to see what gear it's on. I guess something like this would be more of a novelty item really, since we don't have to worry about shifting. It's like the other day I was driving around the apartment complex and they have a 30MPH limit, so I was doing about 25-30 and I wondered what gear I was in, and I thought it would be cool to have one more gauge or display to look at. Anyways just an idea and I wanted to know if it was possible.

[cabdisaster]

im glad im not the only one who would like a shift guage.

[mrjoecanadian]

Originally posted by 99SEDude
I can hear mine shift too, so I know it's shifting, I just would like to see what gear it's on. I guess something like this would be more of a novelty item really, since we don't have to worry about shifting. It's like the other day I was driving around the apartment complex and they have a 30MPH limit, so I was doing about 25-30 and I wondered what gear I was in, and I thought it would be cool to have one more gauge or display to look at. Anyways just an idea and I wanted to know if it was possible.

2nd :lol:

[Nacho]

I know now there is a lot of cars that have them now, i test drove a sonata and it had it, it was cool to put it in shifttronic mode just tromp on it and it wouldnt shift till red line or you could shift it by yourself. I wouldnt see why there wouldnt be a way to get that info from the computer but it would probably be a very time consuming process.

[Dargasonus]

well it could be really useful if your having transmission problems.
I saw some car advertised that showed how many cylanders it was running on...it could run on 4cy or up to 8cy to keep the fuel milage down when you weren't hammering it. It was advertised on tv today.
anyone else see it / catch the name?

[matts]

yeah, it's a new thing GM has out now.......cant recall the name. i say give it a few years and see how it holds up in the real world.


i know what gear my truck is in just by listening to it and i know it's shift points pretty well. i dont have a tach, so all i've got is the speedometer to go by

[Nacho]

It's called cylinder deactivation, cadillac actually tried this quite a few years ago and it was horrible, they brought it back with the new hemi's now its seemless when it switches to 4 and 8, now chev has it on some v8's and a couple other companys have it too.

[TorquePower]

I agree, this was be pretty cool, not only for your own amusement, but to be able to say

"My car has a shift gauge, does yours?"

[voyager]

"displacement on demand"

[rabidpanda69]

Originally posted by voyager
"displacement on demand"

:agree: And I believe GM put it in their trucks before chrysler put it in the HEMI. It just didnt take off with GM for some reason.


I kinda think the gear light is a good idea, but you get used to your gearing quick if you drive a manual or in my case a bike, that doesnt tell you what gear your in. But why not right? You dont really need a tach, but it sure is fun to watch that needle bounce around all crazy like :lol:

[luked]

DHP Powertuner will do this, You need a laptop or some type of mini-computer with screen for it to display though.

[skateswitch97]

its not that hard to know what gear your in, autos pretty much always shift up to give good gas mileage, you can see it drop if your were jsut steadt cruising around at 30 it was in overdrive, the gears for my car go abou like :
redline out of first around 40 i think
redline out of 2nd around 75
turn overdrive off so it dosent shift earlier and it pulls to 105 in 3rd at 5200rpms
if you pay attention to it when your accelerating and driving one day youll probably catch on to its shift patterns

[Nacho]

Originally posted by rabidpanda69
:agree: And I believe GM put it in their trucks before chrysler put it in the HEMI. It just didnt take off with GM for some reason.




close but actually dodge was commended for being the first pick up to have displacement on demand.

[99blackSE]

Would be kinda neat to see but, yeah, like some guys said, I know what gear im in just by looking at the tach and speedo.

[99SEDude]

Well, I was a spoiled little bastard growing up, so I want to be able to see what gear I'm on at any time without having to think too much :D

[tenspeed]

I've seen it on the WRC cars and F1 I think. They shift by hitting buttons on the steering wheel.

The manual tranny GA cars have a shift light that comes on in the lower gears. Most of the time, I'm only concerned with what gear I'm in is when I'm stopped.

[PontiacGA]

Originally posted by tenspeed

The manual tranny GA cars have a shift light that comes on in the lower gears. Most of the time, I'm only concerned with what gear I'm in is when I'm stopped.

I had one of those lights on my Cavy I had. If it's anything like those, they come on WAY to early to actually go by.

[96GreenGaGT]

not a shift light like on the tachs for manual... no dummy lights. he means a display that says 1,2,3,4 and lights up when your car shifts into the proper gear. i assume it's not too difficult to do.. probably get it from the tranny itself. some kind of sensor would be needed.. it depends you'd have to know about trannies lol.