how to select 2nd gear?

[tibbitts]

Previously, I owned a '91 Taurus wagon, 3.0L. I purchased it used and kept it for many years, but never figured out to to select 2nd gear. Now my wife is wanting to buy another (used) car, and we are considering a Taurus. However, I would now have more occasions to want 2nd gear (due to where I'd be driving), so I'm wondering... surely, there must be a way to downshift (or hold, on acceleration) 2nd gear.

On my wagon, when I needed to downshift to 2nd gear, I would downshift to 1st, which would only go so far as 2nd ... until of course the vehicle speed dropped to 30mph or so, at which time the transmission would rather violently shift into 1st. That's not really a good solution, since besides wear and tear, it tended to cause the car to go out of control on slipperly surfaces.

Thanks for any information on this related to the newer (say, '02 or newer) Taurus.

Paul

[vicv]

Auto trans with shifter "PRND2L", place shifter in "2" position. From a stop it will (should) shift from 1st to 2nd and then stay in 2nd. If already driving in "D", placing the shifter in position "2" will downshift into 2nd. Also might want to disengage OD to stay in a lower range when in "D".

[tibbitts]

I don't know about your Taurus, but mine (and those I have rented) had no "2" - that's the problem. There has to be a (simple?) way to overcome this omission. There is only 1, 3, and OD (plus N and R and P of course.)

Paul

[sbddude]

I have always just used 1 above 30 MPH.

[tibbitts]

The problem with "1" is that the transmission will indeed select 2... until you reach a speed low enough to allow 1. The resulting abrupt transition, besides whatever stress it may cause the transaxle, can happen in the middle of a turn and result in loss of control. It's like applying the *front brakes only* in the middle of a corner. While in theory it might be generally appropriate accelerate through a corner, and of course any brake application will wind up being a mostly-front-brake application, this still winds up being a real hazzard that has occured to me in driving my '91 taurus dozens of times. It seems like this would be the first aftermarket change anybody would want to make in a taurus (post-5speed obviously.)

Paul

[Gravesubject]

tibbitts,
I'm just curious: what are you doing that requires being in second gear so often? The only time I ever take my transmission out of OD is when I'm descending on a 6%+ grade, just to give the brakes some relief.

GS

[Willyum]

My '02 SES w/vulcan has 1 D and a high lighted D for O-D. No way to lock into 2nd.

[tibbitts]

When I lived in FL and owned the Taurus wagon I had little use for 2nd gear. But just in the last year I have driven to many mountainous locations where 1st is too much braking and 3rd is too little. I don't think a prolonged 6% grade is necessary to want to use engine braking. I rarely use brakes on any grades, and almost always just use engine braking. One time when driving down Mt. Washington NH (in 1st gear) with a car that had some problems with the engine idle speed being too high, my brakes pretty much went away, and ever since then I've pretty much stayed off the brakes entirely except when I need them to actually stop. Besides with one of the cars we have now, the rotors seem to warp even with very light use, which seems to be common with a lot of newer cars. When I owned the Taurus I did spend some time in the mountains of NC and TN, and on those winding roads I really needed the in-between gearing.

In my younger and more enthusiastic driving days, I would use 2nd regularly entering corners, which made sense as it both helped a little with braking (this was rear wheel drive admittedly, which has a somewhat different behavior) and of course youneeded to be in 2nd to accellerate off the corner anyway. Back then it was common to modify the 3-speed automatics to downshift at any speed. So it's really amazing to me that there is no simple aftermarket product for the enthusiast market that would select 2nd gear. Of course 4 speeds are better than 3, but the spread between 3rd and 1st is a real killer.

Paul