03 es300 5 speed automatic
 

Hey I'm just wondering if anyone else out there likes to shift through the gears manually and if it has any effect on the transmission? It seems to have way more power and it's fun to drive around town through traffic in 2nd and 3rd. I'm at 172k and everything shifts pretty well I'd hate to break it by driving it this way

Your not hurting anything and actually in someways your help the longevity by keeping the shifts to a minimum and that’s why the shifter is there.

Pretty much all your wear in your transmission happens during shifts when the gear clutches slip a little when they engage the next gear or when when the torque converter is locking up or unlocking.

With that being said, if your playing Ricky racer taking off in first now and reviving the engine to 5k rpm and banging the next gear or down shifting hard and the engine rpm jumps up to 4K rpm to help slow the car, that’s probably not the best for it.

But if your just driving in town and put it in 3rd and are just leaving it there your not hurting anything.

I work 3 miles from home but 2-1/2 miles of that is all down hill. I put mine into 3rd leaving the house, that way I get the advantage of compression braking so I don’t have to ride the brake pedal all the way down the hill and I saved the transmission clutches from preforming two more shifts.

When in doubt, read the owner’s manual.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah mostly just enjoying shifting between one two and three. I don't think I'll be using engine braking and I definitely wait for the engine to be warm before any high revs. I'll just go easy on it. I do notice that it shifts crazy fast in drive and I probably shift like 1/3 of the amount that the pc does in a normal drive. Very interesting. The red line is at 7k mark will pushing it to 5 in first really cause damage down the line?

Not really. Just remember that engines are only good for so many revolutions. If you always ran at 2k versus 6k rpms you only have 1/3 of the revolutions on it.
it’s just like city driving vs highway driving. Highway is just easier on the car.