Does anyone leave their overdrive on all the time like I do? Ive read that you can increase mileage by using it properly and all that jazz, but I'd like to know some facts about it. Can you hurt the engine or anything? I havent seen anyone bring this up yet, so thats another reason I started this thread. w0rd

 

I never, ever turned OD off in my 90. I also never used the power and comfort button below the stereo, for i was poor and the manual said they both used more gas.

 

O/D should be off in city driving, and on for highway driving.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Why should it be off for city driving and on for highway driving. What is the reason for this. Im just curious because someone else told me the same thing.

 

Because automatic transmissions are not smart, they will shift into O/D when you are going about 40 MPH. Then when you go to accelerate, it has to come out of O/D and downshift into 3rd, 2nd or whatever. This puts stress, heat, and wear on the transmission, leading to more frequent problems and rebuilds.

 

i get beter gass mileage with od allways on

 

All I see is that OD just lowers my RPM's. My main question is if driving around the city with OD on, am I stressing the engine or what?

 

Lower RPMs mean less engine stress for the most part. Having OD on in the city means the trnasmissionis ****ing more to keep the car in a better "crusing" gear and therefore lowers your RPMs. It causes more stress on the transmission becasue of the frequent shifts.

That said, I always leave my OD on unless I'm going up a steep hill even if I'm in city driving. It's be 10 years and 110K miles and no tranny issues so far.

For the power/comfort button, all it does is tell the tranny to keep you in the same gear longer to get you higher into the power band before shifting or shifts you sooner to give you a more comfortable ride. Keep it in the middle and the car will automaticlly decide which mode to use depending on how hard/fast you stomp on the accelerator. When you hit higher revs, you are causing the engine parts to spin faster and therefore cause more heat and stress.

Just keep the OD on and don't worry about it.

 

OK, Thanks for the info. Gotta love the org...