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How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks

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pres
05/14/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Programming it out of the PCM is always the best way to do it. If only I can find the damn DRL control so I don't have to keep switching the blasted things off every time I start the car.
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Elhigh
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
This is yet another example of how new cars suck and old cars rock.

Just sayin.
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A strolling player
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Zero Bucks

The pedal on the right.
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MissingPieces
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Fuck Nancy Pelosi! This bitch ask you/ us to consume less, cut back and "be green" all the while she flies from coast to coast on a taxpayer funded 747. Not to mention telling ILLEGAL immigrants that they are the true patriots and that the US is a mean plac with unjust laws. FU N the A, nutjob!
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beercheck
05/13/09

@MissingPieces: Easy there. Eeeeeasy.
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MushyHeirloom
05/13/09

@MissingPieces: I'm all for a good rant when it's ontopic.

This rant doesn't even have one. It has... three?
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Six2
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Stupid GM! My old saturn manual had warning lights. The dash would always say "UPSHIFT NOW" even tho the only way of getting enough power to get up a hill on the interstate was to flog the thing.

Part of the reason cars are so expensive to buy and maintain is all this unnecessary crap tacked on. Give me crank windows and manual door locks any day.
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MushyHeirloom
05/13/09

@Six2: My Volvo has one of those. Fortunately, it works as intended, as the only time it ever comes on with the AW70 automatic is when you've missed and put it in 2-Lo instead of D.

No, that's a lie, it comes on when you disable the overdrive. So I do sometimes, just to piss it off.
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beercheck
05/13/09

@Six2: You're seriously knocking GM for this?
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HurtsSoGood
05/13/09

@Six2: Our new Corolla had hand crank winders and manual door locks. It's still just as good as an LE. Lots cheaper, though, even more so with the $1200 rebates they were putting on them back in February and March.
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Cognitive Friction
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
This still sounds better than the Skip Shift program on my Hyundai's automatic trans, which basically functions like a roulette wheel during every gear change...

Where will it land - First gear? Fourth gear? Reverse? Who fucking knows! Whee!
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Paul Y. don't drive too fast.
05/13/09

@Cognitive Friction: Every Ford I've ever driven does that, too.

Automatic transmissions operate by means of Voodoo, however, so this comes as no surprise.
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MushyHeirloom
05/13/09

@TV's Paul Y.: The CD4E and AX4N in my grandfather's Mercuries seem to do well, though the former is so fucking slow regardless that it could throw itself in fifth once the revs were high enough and you'd assume it was just being a gutless POS again.

The tach tells no lies, though. Kind of a pain having it in a car I don't care about.
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Nytmare
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
I've never been able to figure out how skipping a gear saves gas. Wouldn't skipping a gear be less efficient?
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Das ASHloch (achtundsiebzig)
05/13/09

@nytmare: I think on these cars with a wiiiiiide and deep torque band, it does work. On my V6 (200tq), it's marginal--you don't want to skip any shifts while accelerating briskly, but for puttering around at 10-50mph in casual traffic, it saves some effort and I suppose some clutch wear (but it doesn't seem to save any gas).
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Citroen_SM
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
If you can afford such a car, will you really care whether it's $40 or $7 to get rid of this annoyance? On a 98 Integra I could see this useful, but not on a 50K+ sports car.
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something_unique_and_descriptive
05/13/09

@Citroen_SM: It's been around long enough that you'll find it on used cars in the same price range as that '98 'teg.
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tenbeers
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
You can also have the feature edited out of the PCM when getting a custom tune.
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TTopJohn
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
In a way, we should love CAGS. It's super easy and cheap to defeat, yet saves us $$$$ in potential gas guzzler taxes.
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engineerd
05/13/09

@TTopJohn: Great attitude, my new friend.
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Maymar
05/13/09

@TTopJohn: I've always looked at it as a feature that encouraged you to hoon.
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MushyHeirloom
05/13/09

@engineerd: And the idiots who can't disable/drive in a way that avoids it, well, they save gas for the rest of us.

That's why I don't mind Prii, as long as they're doing the speed limit or higher (and not trying to become a permanent fixture on my thick-as-fuck aluminum rear bumper).
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Mad_Science
05/13/09

@TTopJohn and FstrPssycw: Here here.

I've got no problem putting up with minor annoyances like this if that's what it takes to get a rip-snorting stickshift-equipped 6.2L V8 under the hood.

By "minor annoyance" I mean the 15 minutes it'll take me to disable it. I'll choo-choo-choose my own gears, thank you very much.
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HurtsSoGood
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
You mean I can save gas by skipping gears at low throttle? I gotta try that. I already figured out I can usually go from 3rd to 5th (or 2nd to 4th) in my Scion xA if I'm not on the Thruway.
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tenbeers
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Or start off in second.
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MushyHeirloom
05/13/09

@tenbeers: Damn straight.
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jduffy13
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Does this void your warranty?
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Ray Wert
05/13/09

@jduffy13: One would assume that yes, it probably would.
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Pessimippopotamus
05/13/09

@jduffy13: Perhaps. Wouldn't disconnecting an auto-shift program on a tranny make it more reliable?
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CaveTroll
05/13/09

@jduffy13: I don't know if it voids your warranty, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal if you're doing it to a pollution-controlled vehicle.
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engineerd
05/13/09

@CaveTroll: If it's not part of the pollution control system, there's no problem with deactivating it. GM may void your warranty for tampering with the harness, but the feds won't be after you for crimes against polar bears.

Since this is only to get some mpgs and not control emissions, I don't think there would be any issue with it.

@Ray Wert: Especially if your GM dealer is also a Nissan dealer.
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Mobius
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
Or drive everywhere at full throttle.
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Das ASHloch (achtundsiebzig)
05/13/09

In reply to How To Disable GM's Manual Skip Shift For Seven Bucks
You know, all this time I was thinking the skip-shift was a feature of the auto tranny. I just couldn't conceive of how you could do that to a manual. Now I know. It's no less creepy and invasive, but at least you can do something about it.

But wouldn't it have been easier to just enable a lock-out of even-numbered gears until the car is at cruising speed? 1-3-5-6. That's how I'd probably drive it most of the time, anyway (for daily driving slogs)
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tenbeers
05/13/09

@Ash78: Shifting from 1 to 4 doesn't entail a non-intuitive u-shaped arm movement.
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P161911 probably shoudn't have
05/13/09

@Ash78: I'm pretty sure that all this really does is block 2nd gear. So when you are pulling down into 2nd you get 4th instead. You could do a 1-3 shift still with CAG operating. At least that is how I remember it working on my 94 Vette. It was a big enough hassle that I bought the little plug thingy to deactivate it, but not a big enough hassle for me to crawl under the car and put it in. It operates in a narrow enough range, if you remember to just give it a little more throttle it will go away. You learn to drive around it.
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Das ASHloch (achtundsiebzig)
05/13/09

@tenbeers: Very true...I take it for granted because I skip all kinds of shifts in suburban commuting (I can do the 3-to-5 shift pretty quickly these days). You get over the awkwardness pretty quickly.

So my next question is: If the skip-shift is enabled, can you go 1-3 instead of 1-4 and just bypass the computer thing that way?
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Das ASHloch (achtundsiebzig)
05/13/09

@Ash78: Nice, P161911 already answered my follow-up before I asked. Thanks
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tenbeers
05/13/09

@Ash78: Sure, you can go into 3rd all day, it just directs the shifter into the 4th gear gate when you try and pull it down into 2nd.
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tenbeers
05/13/09

@P161911 now with M POWER!: doh! I'm too slow on the draw, must be those IPSC skills!
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philibuster
05/13/09

@Ash78: I do the 3-5 a lot. 4th sometimes seems unnecessary, since I goose it in 3rd to get to speed, then I just want to cruise.
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something_unique_and_descriptive
05/13/09

@philibuster: I do the 5-2 heel toe so often I don't even think about it any more.
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