Transmission questions

I have a 2014, 4 cylinder with 265/70/r17 tires and an automatic transmission.

There is a hill next to my house that goes up for .4 of a mile. The transmission shifts between a low and high gear four times to get up to 55 mph to the top of the hill. Is this typical? Could this be the nature of a 4 cylinder or perhaps this particular transmission? Doesn't seem right.

 

I have a 2014 4cyl with 265/75/16 tires with auto. Going up a hill like that my tranny drops down and holds the gear until I either reach the top or I back off the gas pedal a bit..

 

I think that would be normal for a 4spd 2.7L with larger than stock tires. If it bothers you a lot, you can always take it out of D and shift it into 3 so it wont upshift till you get to the top of the hill. IMO this is the nature of the beast with the auto 4 banger

 

My exact setup with my 2018 and my truck behaves the same way.

Tscott, are you sure you’re not unconsciously slightly backing off on the gas pedal?
If you have it, use the ECT button and see if it stops doing that.

 

Same here. I manually shuffle the gears to minimize it.

 

This.

Solved by this.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

I don't have ECT.

This morning, I put it in 2nd and maintained 3500 rpm to the top of the hill. I like that much better.

 

Try it in 3rd. That will keep it from upshifting to 4th and prevent the converter from locking up (it unlocking is likely one of the downshifts you feel, good for a few hundred RPM)

Just to see if it gives adequate response, but maybe doesn't have to use as much throttle.

 

The torque converter will lock in 3rd as well.

 

Ah. Thanks for that.

 

I also lock the transmission down when going up longer hills. The overdrive highway gear is way too tall for the 4-cylinder to pull any meaningful grade.

 

Update. ......

I figured out that if I slowly accelerate going up the hill, it will stay in 3rd at an RPM of around 4,000 - 4,500. Is that too high?

 

down shift to 3rd

 

I regularly drive up a steep & short grade nearby, and I always slap it down to 3rd before the incline begins. The 2.7 is happy to rev. If I have no load, 3rd gear pulls it fine. Sometimes if I'm loaded and the grade is steeper it will go down to 2nd but again it revs up just fine, no problem.

 

Ok, I'll downshift to 3rd. Thanks all for the replies.