# 1st gear lockout



## McNeo (Dec 17, 2013)

I've got a 1.4T AT and I'm just curious how this works.

Previous cars I've owned have had the "1" "2" and "3" options below the "D" for locking the transmission in said gear. The Cruze doesn't have that, but does have the "manumatic" option of just putting it in gear that way.

First question, does this achieve the same thing?

Second, when going down hill some roads I've traveled have signs specifically stating "Put vehicle in low gear, coast down hill" or something to that effect. Is this bad for the engine or transmission in any way?

Finally, I assume this method is more-or-less what's referred to "engine braking"?

Thanks.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The manumatic is a hint to the car. The ECU will attempt to remain in the gear you select but will up-shift if the RPMs get too high. Engine braking is done by downshifting to force the engine to slow down the car. The 1LT will engine brake reasonably well, but the ECO MT doesn't.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

obermd said:


> The manumatic is a hint to the car. The ECU will attempt to remain in the gear you select but will up-shift if the RPMs get too high. Engine braking is done by downshifting to force the engine to slow down the car.


My 2012 cruze auto will never upshift from the selected gear in manual mode all the way to the rev-limiter(you could bounce off it all day long if you wanted). It also will not downshift from the selected gear in manual mode on throttle input(similar to a manual transmission car). Only automatic shifting that will happen in manual mode is if your RPM/speed drop to low for a given gear it will downshift for you to avoid stalling the engine. 

I live in a very hilly area so I compression brake often. That means manual mode and a lower gear or two than I could be in on a flat road. I usually wont go over 3500RPM when compression braking though since the next lower gear will just seem to make more noise & doesn't add allot of extra compression braking.


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