I am curious if there is any magic to downshifting to 1st gear in an 05 Ody. If I use the hand shifter, it downshifts smoothly and precisely and I can tell it's in 1st. When I'm driving in town (empty road, no traffic) I mashed the gas pedal all the way and it definitely doesn't downshift to 1st. Anyone else know something about this? If I'm on the highway and I hit the gas, it downshifts nicely (and boy do I love to hear the vtec kick in).
Then it's probably operating normally. I was going pretty slowly and it wouldn't automatically drop down to 1st, but using the shifter, I could put it into first and definitely knew it was down lower. Thanks for the sanity check on this.Either force the gear selector in 1st or just floor it....BUT from a standing stop. If your downshifting into 1st succesfully, that means your down to 10mph or less before it allows the tranny to drop into 1st. (if you try to force a downshift from high speed the car/van is smart enough not to respond and wait until the right speed is obtained before shifting to a lower gear)
And I've noticed in every Honda I have owned often starts out in 2nd gear unless you mash it. And once your already going it will not force a down shift to 1st unless your crawling....or stopped.
