So, I'll start by confessing complete ignorance on how automatic transmissions work, except that they generally work well. That said, I've held the notion that the march thru the gears takes place in two ways: one of it's own accord how ever that works, and the other by moving the selector lever. My assumption is that there are separate hydraulic paths facilitated by valves and the such to make it happen.
It further occurs to me that the manual selection valves, pistons and whatever generally doesn't get a lot of activity and may get sticky and ought to be exercised occasionally so I started doing so, down shifting and up shifting frequently.
After doing that for a while I think I noticed that the automatic shifting became crisper, especially the full throttle down shift. Full throttle at speed used to result in a disagreeable surge in engine speed, then eventually it grabbed the lower gear and went forward. I think it doesn't' do that quite as much as prior to my manual shifting initiative.
Does anyone know enough about the automatic in a Series 3 to comment? Is there anything to this or am I imagining an improvement?