Automatic gearboxes at 50mph

[Considered1]

Auto’s definitely have a speed/load point at which they can’t maintain a higher gear. My sympathies for anyone with only a few gears. My Volvo had 8 and could never really tell above say 2nd or 3rd anyway.

Really annoying especially on a Sunday following folks at c40mph on National speed limit roads, i’m Sorry i’ve Only got 6 gears and would like to use them, the RS6 needs to be at 45+, so dawdlers please be prepared for a sonic boom!

[parallaxerr]

My S40 auto has the AW55 box and the torque converter clutch locks up at about 45mph in top gear (and in other gears between shifts). So, similarly between 40-50mph it does engage and disengage frequently.

Just the torque converter locks/slips so it feels like a half gear change, if you slightly increase the demand/load as Considered 1 says, then it kicks down to 4th.

All little intricasies that you learn to accept with an auto box. I just read another thread where someone complained of the same box feeling like it had more gears than it should due to the torque converter lock up, all perfectly normal (and sometimes annoying!).

[galloot633]

My 2006 xc90 does this , so I knock it across into manual , just seems to make life easier for the gearbox
Dave

[phil1968]

C70 D5 Geartronic here & I do find it a little annoying that the 'box so readily kicks down when I want to accelerate reasonanbly gently from say 60 to 70 on the motorway, given it's a turbodiesel I'd have thought it'd be more efficient to accelerate on the torque alone. Someone on here mentioned to bring the selector over to manual mode when on the motorway & it will stay in top -I now do that & it will accelerate gently without swapping to a lower cog. The kickdown feature is still there though when needed.