manual button

[Red94Svx]

can some one explain what that really does? and does the mileage stay the same? and well it make your tranny last longer to keep it on?

[K_Dub]

Folks have covered this topic up and down over the years if you do a search for more info. The short version is that it holds the trans in 2nd gear if the selector is placed there. It's designed to do low torque starts for snowy conditions (rather than just spinning the tires in 1st) but as far as I know it is detrimental to the transmission to use it constantly as it prevents the car from starting in 1st gear or upshifting to 3rd when needed (simple answer, but a lot goes into that). It won't help your mileage either as it takes more power to get moving in 2nd gear than the normal 1st gear start.

I used mine a lot when my TPS was causing bad 2-3 shifts because it kept me in 2nd while driving in the city. Since fixing that problem I haven't touched the manual button in over a year.

Edit:
Found a good thread that shows the page from the owner's manual here

[b3lha]

This is the definitive answer, extracted from the USDM TCU maps.
Manual mode tries very hard to keep you in the gear you have selected with the stick.

In position 2, it will not downshift to 1st, and will only upshift to 3rd if you exceed 90mph.

In position 3, it will start in 2nd, so as not to stall the engine, it will upshift to 3rd as soon as possible, then it will hold 3rd up to 143mph provided you don't hit the rev limit first. As you slow down, it will hold 3rd until you're going really slow and about the stall the engine.



On the JDM and IIRC also the Euro/Aussie cars, it does a similar thing for 4th gear in position D.