I would like to keep my Automatic Tranny in 2nd gear. The gear selector only displays 1,3 and D. The only way that I can keep the car in 2nd gear is to press the winter button, put gear selector in 3rd, then press the accelerator to kick it down into 2nd. Then it stays there until I shift the selector back to D.

Is there any other way to keep in 2nd?

Do any of the aftermarket chips (ie. PES, Wettnauer, IPD) modify the way the gear selector program?

It might be nice to have the gear selector to act like 1,2 and 3 when pressing the winter button (with the kickdown and kickup disabled) and work normally without the winter button engaged.

Gordon

Thanks Gordon,

I have wonder how to do that. I will try that next time down the mountain.

1st is too low/slow, third too high/fast on down grade.

Why do you want to do that?

To manually put it into second gear without using winter mode, start off in first (1), then when it reaches higher rpms, shift into 3rd, then back into 1 and it'll go into 2nd gear (not first) and stay there as it's a built in safety feature (not to go into 1rst again at higher speeds). It'll only then downshift back into 1 if the speeds lower enough near stopping.

As long as you keep your speed above 25mph. If it drops below 25, the tranny downshifts into first.

Second is perfect for when you're descending a steep mountain grade in a chain control. The chains provide front wheel traction and the tranny provides enough braking power where I only have to tap my brakes for cars slower than me. Since TRACS is unavailable at speeds above 25, keeping it in second is ideal in this situation. Third gear doesn't provide enough braking, and first provides too much.

-Malcolm

Normally I'm a fairly sedate driver.

But, of course, there are those times when I want to feel the rush of the turbo, and I like to feel the punch in the 25-45 MPH range. I'll try your 1 to 3 back to 1 technique, but wouldn't it be the same if I hit the winter button, start it in 1, then push it up to 3 to shift into 2nd. My experience has been that once I'm in 2nd gear (when in winter mode and the selector on 3), it will stay there until I either go to "D" or deselect the winter mode.

2nd gear, for me, is one lever shift rearward from Drive, and a press of

the "Winter" mode button. This, for me, effectively locks it in 2nd gear.

I do this regularly (matching revs near-perfectly with my right foot along

the way if I'm invoking 2nd gear at the time, as at the top of a slow hill

I'm about to coast down).

Mazdas use[d] AW transmissions, and utilize[d] a "Hold" button instead of a

"Winter" button. Thus the only gear they cannot force is 4th (with same

3-position shifter).

I guess a "Winter" mode was more Volvoly. It does work similarly to the

Hold switch my previous AW had, especially for 2nd gear.

But it's just a software difference, and I'm certain it could be overridden

in a variety of ways if the desire was high enough and the wallet thick

enough... The thing is, after all, electr[on]ically controlled, with

firmware/software that can be changed and/or firmware control bypassed.

I almost never (creeping downhill in bumper-to-bumper traffic?) move the

handle to select first (it does that for itself very nicely when/if neeed

for acceleration at low speeds, especially when left in Sport mode), with

the possible exception of an especially 'tight' run through some of the slower switchbacks on Pikes Peak, where keeping boost built is more of a

challenge than you can probably imagine. (The alternative mode of using

both pedals at once is actually faster and easier, but more abusive.) As

for when to upshift from 1st for best performance, the unit does that for

itself very well, too; better than can be consistently done with a full

manual set-up -- and very much better than can be done with the automatic's

3-position shifter -- at WOT in 1st gear with redline (and trees, or

clouds!) rapidly approaching...

IOW, I save manually shifting to (or from) 1st for rare extreme driving

situations -- after having played with it and learned it, of course.

If you ever forget if you've both moved the lever AND pressed the button

(which isn't hard to do since Volvo cheaped out on indicators and EITHER

action will cause the single indicator to illuminate, even though the 2

actions have very different effects), and don't want to move the lever back to Drive just to find out, but do want to be sure the car can accelerate

strongly if you subsequently press the pedal, you can just rock the

Sport/Econ switch, which will cancel the winter (hold) mode. Another thing

to remember: if you give it throttle and the car is locked in 2nd when you

expected/wanted/needed it to be in 1st, be ready to floor the throttle,

which will (at appropriate speeds, and hopefully-appropriate steering lock)

still override the lockout of 1st (referred to internally as the

bonehead-proof exception, no doubt).

- Dave; '95 854T, 101K mi

Gordon,

Why not just using kickdown? You're going to lose momentum anyway fiddling with gears manually.

Vadim.

True, second gear is second gear but you did ask if there was any other way and that's why I mentioned another way.

Gordon,

When in Winter mode and the gear selector is in 3rd, the car starts in 2nd gear with no up or downshifting. To have the transmission behave as a manual with the ability to manually shift between all four forward gears is not possible as you would want. You are competing with the overall design of the tranny which includes the control unit, torque convertor, solenoids and everything else that makes the tranny do what it does. The only alternative that I can see would to have a manual tranny to begin with...

But Volvo did recognize the need for this when they came out with their newer crop of cars. My friends S80 as well as my girlfriend's cousin's C70 both have '2' in their gear selector cages.

-Malcolm