I notice a power light appear on my dash. I read somewhere its the Electronic Controlled Transmission?? When its on, i can tell my shift points have changed, but Im curious what else does it do? Does it harm or help fuel economy?
Electronic controlled transmission. This button keeps the transmission in the lower gear to give it more power/revs before shifting up to the next gear. This helps with towing and passing for the most part. Fuel economy is the same or a little lower over the long run.
Correct you can run with ECT engaged with no ill effect. You will not shift into 4th gear/LC OD as often but you will notice more power over all and less MPG as a general rule.
I experimented with the ect button and drove with it on for a week. You get a little more off the line "pick up", if you want to call it that, but the tranny holding the gears longer gets kind of annoying after a while. Been running stock gears and 37's for over a week now and I thought it would drive better w the ect on but I still havent used it dding.
This button only provides a choice of two shift schedules for the transmission.
Normal will provide a (very) little better fuel economy, POWER will move the upshifts to a higher speed and the downshifts to a shallower pedal position (downshifts will be easier to get).
That's it. No engine power changes at all. No harm to leave it in either position.
I've done a lot of towing and IMHO, NORMAL is better for towing because you have more pedal "travel" before it shifts. If you use POWER, it shifts more frequently and it gets annoying.
I find the ECT button to be useful when hauling a load inside (not behind) the 80 up long mountain passes above 6000 feet. It keeps the 1fz-fe in the right part of the powerband with 33's. I also like having it off in most other situations because the 1fz is a torque monster and can (IMO) make more twist with a lot a throttle at lower RPM rather than a ton of throttle at high RPM.
