Car Forum World

I have a honda civic 03, and it's an auto. I have heard different things about the D, D3, and 2. Can someone tell me what the difference is? I usually drive in D, and I have heard that D3 is for uphill and two is for downhill?

The most logical answer lies inside your owner's manual. check it out to make sure.

I think you're leaving out one other selector position. "1". you may want to have selections of 1, 2, D3, and D which means you have a five speed auto transmission reverse counts too I believe . In "D" you're allowing the transmission to automatically shift gears as needed based on driving conditions. The transmission generally starts in "1", selects "2" when proper, " D3 when proper, and "4" D when proper also. "D" gives you with an overdrive gear percentage.

If you're traveling up a steep grade, you may find the speed bound is at or near the shift point of the auto transmission. As the car slows down uphill and you give it gas to preserve speed, the transmission downshifts, then when speed picks up it shifts back again. This could occur frequently and is hard on both you and the car. In this case, a shift to D3 could keep the car in a lower gear and prevent all that changing till you got past that steep incline. Yes, the car could be going slower if you maintained the same throttle position but then it may go just as fast with more fuel but increased engine rpm. The added engine rpm should not put the engine near it is bound and will not hurt it.

Regarding a down hill scenario, keeping the selector in "D" may have your car accelerating too much just from gravity pushing it which could have you putting on the brakes lots. This could overheat the brakes till they faded or failed which is surely not good going down hill.

In this case, you could just choose "D and let the transmission use the lower gear percentage to slow the car. Yes, the engine rpm will pick up but you may want to feel the car slow noticably. If you get the car going slow enough, you could put it in "2" and feel the speed restricted more.

That's the skinny as I know it for auto transmissions. good luck.

the "D" stand for direct Honda went cool by calling it D2&D3&D as in older cars or dometics it was first 2nd and D

Okay, D is your overdrive gear. D3 is your normal driving gear. two is if you want to down shift from D3 in the event you're going down hill or you want to help make the car slow down a little sooner. 1, if it's there, is for going up steep hills. go slow although, too fast in 1st gear isn't good . Hope this helps.

DUDE,ARE YOU TRYING TO BLOW THAT CAR UP.just kidding you're good. D is for drive use this 99% of the time,if the gear selector goes Park Rev Neutral D D3 D2 D1 or just one you have a three or four speed auto that majority likly has an OVERDRIVE as the top gear an overdrive saves fuel by slowing down the engine at a given mph but the trade off is acceleration and heavy loads or trailers to show some cars have a button that controls the overdrive, it will show a turtle and a rabbit hope this helps

Hi.....
BADMTS and LES are right those D1, D2 &D3 are the overdrive gears provided in your car.
What all they have had told are right.
Also, in some cases if you need a pick up or some extra power like in the street races, you may be able to use this choice in the plains as well, just you must do is
1. Put the car to the D1
2. As the engine reaches a bound, turn down to the D2, you'll get extra power
3. Then turn down to the D3, as engine catches up &
4. finally you may be able to put to the D choice to get the max. speed..

Hope you're having the P, R, D, D3, D2, D1 pattern of gears

And if you're having the P, R, D, D3, D2 pattern of gears, then also it implies the same, just leave the D1 choice out of the above and start with the D2.....

All The Best.......