I have been noticing lately that when I am doing about 45-50 and step on it, there isnt that much pick up. So I decided to put the trans to auto. When I am doing 45-50 in auto and step on it, it shifts back down to 3rd. I have 20k on this car and I dont think I have ever seen this before. Anyone have any ideas as to what is wrong or is this normal and I just havent noticed?

I have been noticing lately that when I am doing about 45-50 and step on it, there isnt that much pick up. So I decided to put the trans to auto. When I am doing 45-50 in auto and step on it, it shifts back down to 3rd. I have 20k on this car and I dont think I have ever seen this before. Anyone have any ideas as to what is wrong or is this normal and I just havent noticed?

Honestly, might be worth it to swap your fluid and filter in your SST. I noticed a huge improvement in response, as well as overall clunkiness once I put fresh transmission fluid in (had about 17k and figured it would be good preventive maintenance) . I'm running SSP's Pro Red Fluid and am loving it. Firmer shifts, cooler overall trans temps, and like I said above improvement on shift shock/clunkiness.

So I decided to put the trans to auto. When I am doing 45-50 in auto and step on it, it shifts back down to 3rd. So what's the problem? Automated gearboxes are supposed to d/shift when the throttle is floored. And 3rd gear for ~50 MPH sounds right to me.

I'm guessing the MR is slightly different with shifting, but the GSR says this for most efficient gas mileage (if i remember correctly):

1st - 2nd: 15mph
2nd - 3rd: 25mph
3rd - 4th: 35mph
4th - 5th: 45mph

now, when you do this in the GSR, you usually wind up between 2k & 2.5k rpms. If you want to accelerate and get some power, you want to be above 3k rpms in the GSR, otherwise there will be some delay until you get up there..

If you want power, I'd say take 1st to ~25mph, 2nd to 40+mph and 3rd up to 60+mph

EDIT: of course, you could take these gears to 6500rpms if you really want some power, but for a little more power, you can use the ~25/40+/60+..

have you tried to see if the lag goes away in sport mode?

I've noticed that normal auto mode was always kinda laggy when at WOT, but sport seems to downshift alot faster

I am going to change the SST fluids. It just seemed like there was no pick up at the 45-50mph level. Also, I noticed this today. I floored it in regular mode and it stuck at 3rd longer than usual. Maybe I am being paranoid, if I did a log with the AP, would that help?