tfspiceboy

I'm just curious how often one would use this feature (ECT- Electronically Controlled Transmission). My weekly driving habits would be 80\20, city\highway.

Do you seldom use, never use, daily use this feature?

amf1932

I only used it when I needed faster acceleration. All this ECT did was to increase the shift speeds(engine RPM's) in each of the lower gears. I generally found it unnecessary to use because the car used more fuel when this feature was engaged(light indicator lit on dashboard).

Alan

ZaxEX300

If you want my opinion, I dont think it makes a difference whether the ECT is on or off. Redline isnt in Lexus' vocabulary, but it doesnt even get close in my car. I never use it. If I thought it made a difference Id use it all the time.

amf1932

The ECT was not designed to bring the shift speeds up to redline. All it did was to hold the shift speeds to a higher RPM which in turn brought the engine closer to peak HP. Yes, it made a difference in acceleration to some degree, but I never used it constantly because it definitely had to cut down on fuel economy. The normal shift patterns gives you the best of both worlds.

Alan

Pheonix

The upshift (accellerating) is NOT held to a larger range of speeds than it is normally when you hit the gas quickly (pulling the shift cable & the TPS sensor reads a quick swing). Which is why it doesn't make the car much faster accellerating. The big differance is that it will hold more rpm before downshifts. They are held much longer as the car decellerates which makes it feel ALOT better when you're driving hard.

To illustrate this, the a540-e shift scedule (87-93)

VS the 94-96 A541-e (94-96)

VS the 97+ A541-e


They quit publishing the ECT range of information in 94, because by that time toyota has phased out ECT infavor of more advanced shift schedule programming on almost all of their transmissions.
There is NO power, or performance tuning differance done to the engine when turning ECT on. it's just minutely altered shift schedules.