Simple question

[Yvan66]

Hi all,
First post very simple question embarrassed to ask but.I have a mercedes sl r230 its a five speed auto.Now when i go into manual how should the gears show on the dash is it 1-2-3-4-5...or is it 1-2-3-4-D ..had a limphome mode up radiator changed topped up transmission oil all error codes gone but wanna make sure i got 5th gear...be kind i know its silly question thankyou.

 

[MancMike]

Manual mode is really only used for downshifting, for more prompt acceleration.

That's why the top gear is replaced with D, i.e, auto mode.

You shouldn't be selecting the top gear, the car will do that when it's appropriate for the engine. So for mine it's 1,2,3,4,5,6,D (which shifts up to 7th if it agrees it's right, rev range wise, etc).

You can verify it by being in 3rd, cruising steadily at high revs, then knocking up to 4th, see the revs drop a notch, then knock into 5/D, if your revs are still high enough, you'll see them drop again, confirming you're in 5th. If you knock it down when in D at speed, you'll see revs rise into 4th.

 

[Yvan66]

Thanks Mike,
Just to recap visually will i ever see 5th on my dash or does it visually only show 4th then drive.

 

[MancMike]

You'll never see 5th gear on the dash. It'll show gears up to 4th, then D.

Knocking up from 4th is telling the car that you're now done with manually downshifting, and to resume fully automatic mode, which may or may not include shifting into 5th, if automatic mode would deem that appropriate.

You can hold "up" regardless of what gear you've manually selected and it'll resume D straight away, shifting to whatever gear auto box deems appropriate. If you hold "down" while in D, it'll downshift to an appropriate gear to launch for an overtake, putting you right in the torque range of the revs. Similar to how the kickdown works.