Sluggish Starts

[arknotts]

My IS300 has the ECT transmission button too. I leave it on 90% of the time...otherwise I feel like the engine is bogging just a little in too high of gears. With ECT on I can just flick the gas a little to get it to downshift.

Oh, and my gas mileage isn't any worse. If anything it's a little better!

 

[akito]

With the use of the "power" mode often does it stress the transmission at all?

 

[Poodles]

My truck has the ECT transmission feature, it makes the trans much more sensitive to downshift under throttle and it forces the transmission to hold gears until redline when under more than ~60% throttle... or something like that. For a 3.4L V6, it moves pretty good, with or without the button. Without the button down, the transmission will hold gears to redline at WOT, so it doesn't effect highway passing at all. However, I'd imagine it'd make it feel a bit less sluggish in the city by holding gears longer.

I presume that the Supra's "sport" shift mode does much the same. They're both A340X transmissions, after all.

It will downshift once in "norm," twice in "pwr."

With the use of the "power" mode often does it stress the transmission at all?

Doubt it, more than likely it would decrease wear as the shifts seem a bit harsher (meaning faster and less slipping so less wear and heat). Still, an upgraded tranny cooler would be one of my first mods on an auto GTE...

 

[Suitcase Jefferson]

I've been keeping mine in power mode and I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

Better acceleration, better pull... it sure has lots of poke, that's for sure!

 

[te72]

Told you.

Poodles brings up a good point though, I have yet to drive ANYTHING with an auto trans that was anywhere near as fun as my 88 was. VERY intelligent setup they had going on there.