What do the plus and minus signs on the D gear of an automatic transmission mean?
1 Answers
Automatic transmission D gear plus and minus signs represent the manual mode in an automatic transmission. This means that electronic control devices are added to the automatic transmission, allowing the transmission to follow the operator's commands for upshifting and downshifting. When the gear lever is in the D position, moving it to the right enters manual mode. At this point, pushing it up once will upshift the transmission by one gear, and pushing it down once will downshift the transmission by one gear. However, upshifting requires meeting certain speed and engine RPM conditions, while downshifting does not. Automatic transmissions do not require the driver to manually shift gears; the vehicle will automatically select the appropriate gear based on driving speed and traffic conditions. Generally, automatic transmission cars have six gear positions, arranged from top to bottom as: P, R, N, D, S, L.