Hey guys,

Bought an LX 2015 feet 3 weeks ago (already 950 miles) and was wondering if I should make a full stop before changing my transmission to L or S. Am I supposed to fully stop to change from D to S or L? What about the other way around?

 

No. S is for sport and L is to increase engine braking.

 

The only times you need to stop before shifting are when shifting into or out of park, into reverse, or into drive from reverse (or from neutral if you're rolling backwards). You can shift between drive, neutral, L, and S at will without stopping, though of course it doesn't always make sense to do some of these. You do also, of course, need to press the brake pedal to shift out of park, but hopefully you are already at a dead stop when you do that!

This is true for virtually all automatic transmissions. Some really old ones might be harmed if you switch into a low gear while traveling too fast, causing the engine etc. to overspeed, but that's not a concern for anything at all recent with computer control; they simply won't downshift until it's OK to do so.

If the engine stalls for some reason when you're going down the road, you can restart the engine by shifting into neutral and cranking it without having to stop the car first. Of course, you should only attempt that if you can manage it safely with the surrounding conditions; but sometimes it's a less dangerous option than stopping in the middle of the road or trying to cut across traffic to a shoulder or whatever.

 

where is L?!?! i have a 2015 EX-L navi and never seen it...

 

Probably not on the EX since you have paddles.

 

Awesome, thanks for the replies!