Hey guys. Is there anyway to lauch in 2nd in my 4speed TH Auto? It gets annoying whenever I go to take of in the rain and my wheels spin (even when I really don't want them to).

Cheers.

Ill tell you the best way to do it, buy tyres that grip, a 4sp auto shouldnt be spinning, the gear ratio is stupidly long.

straight auto or tippy? if tippy then push the lever across to tiptronic mode and select + until it says "2" on the dash.

Alternatively get an AWD magna.

Nope straight auto. No tippy. It hardly ever loses traction in the dry unless I hammer it. It's only in the wet on certain roads, conveniently in 80km/h zones.

Well i would say you have two issues. Average tyres and a very heavy right foot. I would start with easing up on the right foot as thats the cheapest option. dont care how much power you have or dont have if you are spinning off the mark in the raining you are definitely accelerating way to hard. I have 280kw at the tyres and real crap tyres but i dont spin tyres off the mark in the rain unless i give it too much. most issues with driving and handling can be easily fixed with a slight adjustment to driving behavior.

I can definitely empathise, I was getting this when my old Maxxis's were on the wear markers, it was indeed super easy to spin them in the wet. It is annoying. This was with the tippy five speed. I just accelerated very gently until I was moving and it's really not an issue then - you have a fair bit less power off the line than me, you'll be in the same boat I'm sure.

Just get tiptronic installed in your car like I did with my straight shifting KH auto. Problem solved :)

I was under the impression you can use the limiters to launch in 2nd?

I would say it's definitely your choice of tyres or driving style more than anything else.

Anyway, upgrade to a semi-decent of tyres or drop the speed while launching. I know when I had the 4sp auto that the choice of tyres made a big difference. When I first bought my rims they came with some "Kaiser" branded tyres and it was impossible to launch hard in the wet. Used to drive me nuts. I upgraded to a set of KU31's and until the manual conversion, I could never loose traction - even in the wet and hard flat-out through corners.

Also, launching easier will obviously help. No brainer there. Unless of course your tyres are so terrible that even with a light touch of the accelerator you loose traction.

Well i would say you have two issues. Average tyres and a very heavy right foot. I would start with easing up on the right foot as thats the cheapest option. dont care how much power you have or dont have if you are spinning off the mark in the raining you are definitely accelerating way to hard. I have 280kw at the tyres and real crap tyres but i dont spin tyres off the mark in the rain unless i give it too much. most issues with driving and handling can be easily fixed with a slight adjustment to driving behavior.

It's not like I'm purposely accellerating too hard in the rain and then complaining, I'm just asking if there is any way to launch in second. The reason being, part of my route consists of pulling out from a stop sign into an 80 zone. The road is that real smooth shit and once it's wet its slippery. I mean even taking off in first, spinning, letting off throttle to stop the spinning, then accelerating again will sometimes break traction.

The tyres have pleanty of tread on them (maybe 80%?)

Fitting tiptronic is out of the question because I really don't want to be spending $$$ just so my tyres dont spin on the 1 wet day of the year. sure I can have fun with tippy etc but it's a 99 TH Exec. If someone wants to sell me a wreck for $50 then sure hahah.

EDIT: I'd also like to point out that when I say launching, I'm referring to just accelerating from a dead stop, not racing style launching, for those who think I'm referring to that.

get better tyres sounds dangerous!

get better tyres sounds dangerous!

I dont see the tyres being a problem though. They're fine in the dry. I can go around corners full lock almost and have full grip

Well wet weather usually sorts good tyres from bad ones.

Is't the "L" mode for 'low-range' so that the car launches in 2nd?

If you have no option with the selectors then you really just need to get better tyres or upgrade to tiptronic.
I'd opt for getting better tyres or low profile tyres as this is a good upgrade for safety as well. However, if you're serious you could get a TJS2/KJS1/KH wreck for a few $100's off the auctions, rip the bits out and install tiptronic mode and sell off the rest of the car for parts - you could probably break even or even make profit it it's a verada.

Well wet weather usually sorts good tyres from bad ones.

Is't the "L" mode for 'low-range' so that the car launches in 2nd?

If you have no option with the selectors then you really just need to get better tyres or upgrade to tiptronic.
I'd opt for getting better tyres or low profile tyres as this is a good upgrade for safety as well. However, if you're serious you could get a TJS2/KJS1/KH wreck for a few $100's off the auctions, rip the bits out and install tiptronic mode and sell off the rest of the car for parts - you could probably break even or even make profit it it's a verada.

L seems to take off in first and stay in first until it bounces off the limiter.

Might hunt around for a Verada wreck, or a cheap Verada to replace the TH.

what size tyres and pressure's are you running

I dont see the tyres being a problem though. They're fine in the dry. I can go around corners full lock almost and have full grip
Just because your tyres are good in the wet doesn't mean they're good in the dry. Lots of tyres are decent in the dry but shithouse in the wet, regardless of how much tread they have.

Solution: buy better tyres.

Just to reinforce my previous point - check out this tyre test (http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-Autobild-50-Tyre-Braking-Test.htm) for comparison's sake.

The best tyre can brake from 100km/h in 35 metres, and the worst can do it 42 metres. Not a huge gap, but that's in the dry - look at the wet weather results. The best tyre can stop in 44 metres. The worst tyre takes a staggering 72 metres to stop!

If that's not enough to convince you that good tyres are a necessity for wet weather grip, I'm not sure what will.

We drive a powerful front wheel drive with any sort of pressure from out right foot the tyres are going to spin.

Ease up on the accelerator when you take off, or buy better tyres.

Everyone has gone off topic here... The question was simply is there anyway to force the 4 speed straight shift to take off in second. No I don't feel the need to buy new tyres when mine are perfectly fine. On an apprenticeship wage you can barely afford to scratch your nuts.

Everyone has gone off topic here... The question was simply is there anyway to force the 4 speed straight shift to take off in second. No I don't feel the need to buy new tyres when mine are perfectly fine. On an apprenticeship wage you can barely afford to scratch your nuts.
Obviously they're not 'fine' because you are complaining about a severe lack of traction.

If you don't want to buy new tyres, vary your launch to suit the conditions and your car. Taking off in second won't achieve anything that smoothly taking off in first can't.

Hmmm.. if you pull up in D, have you tried moving the shift to 2 after coming to a stop, but before launching? Then launching with the shift still in 2 and changing back to D once you're mobile...

Even if this works, I suspect as others have suggested that you won't be much better off unless you get tyres with better wet weather performance.

Another trick which I used in an EA Falcon is to run the driving tyres at lower pressure than normal. This worked okay in the RWD Falcon, which had a limited slip diff and usually nothing in the boot, but won't work that well long term in a FWD where tyre wear and steering load are much more serious side effects of such a practice.

Scorcher.... What brand tyres are you running?

Everyone has gone off topic here... The question was simply is there anyway to force the 4 speed straight shift to take off in second. No I don't feel the need to buy new tyres when mine are perfectly fine. On an apprenticeship wage you can barely afford to scratch your nuts.

Nearly all tyres provide adequate grip in the dry. As has been said by Red above, its wet conditions that seperate the good from the downright shit. I expect you have the latter. Regardless of the amount of tread on them, if they have the suppleness of concrete, 10 years old, and made in china, you are better off dropping an anchor made of jelly out an open window to slow down

If you cant afford to put decent tyres on your car, either stop using so much of the right foot or catch a bus.

Launching in second will be no good for speed anyway, if you were at a track, second gets you to 170. 0-170 in one gear is very slow.

Just drive to the conditions buddy,, so you are pulling out from a stop to 80k zone as long as you don't do a JohnO and pull out on someone you should be ok to ease her up to speed..
i have cheap tyres with good tread on my TF 4 speed auto and have only had wheel spin problems in the wet when i punch it..

Danny..

I'm going to answer the OP's question now.

It is impossible in a straight shift auto to take off in 2nd gear. For a bit of background, the different gears that you can select tell the car not to use a gear higher than that. If you select 2nd for example, the car will be limited to 1st and 2nd gear.

Many good quality tyres have sufficient traction in the wet or dry, but even my Michelin PilotSport 3's can't gain immediate traction on a quick take-off in the wet. Especially if I am taking off whilst climbing a hill. FWD sorts me out pretty quickly though.

It is impossible in a straight shift auto to take off in 2nd gear.


End of story.
A good driver will drive within the limits of the car, the driver has to do what the car is capable of, not the other way around.
Find a dirt or gravel road and try practicing gentle takeoffs.

PS. Buy some better tyres when these wear out. Doesn't take long to wear the fronts out on a Magna if you are a leadfoot, anyway.

Grunty 3.5 Litre V6 FWD and wet weather always a recipe for offline wheel spin, I always had good tyres on my TJ Exec 4 speed auto and could quite easily break traction in the wet off idle simply because they have plenty of off idle grunt with no TCL or front LSD. Just back off the throttle and get it into 2nd as early as possible. That's what I used to do in wet uphills in traffic where I lived at the time.

Just drive to the conditions buddy:yeahthat: If you think it's dangerous that you are losing traction when pulling out in front of traffic from a dead stop in wet conditions, then don't do it! :nuts: If you can't fit into a gap without so much acceleration that you spin, the gap isn't big enough; wait for a bigger gap. It ain't gonna kill ya. Trying to duck in front of a semi will.

FFS guys. The question was simply whether or not I can launch in 2nd.

Try it and see! It wont be easy to select second when your not moving witg your car and it will be very slow. Case closeddd

FFS guys. The question was simply whether or not I can launch in 2nd.

NO!

The question isn't the only simple thing in this thread.

FFS guys. The question was simply whether or not I can launch in 2nd.

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http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/30993589.jpg

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