Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys i have been hearing some mixed opinions lately about the overdrive switch in my car and others.

I have heard that its good to leave overdrive on at all times and i have also heard its good leave overdrive off until you hit around 70km/h.

I have heard having it on all the time is good for fuel economy too although its not healthy for the gearbox?

Is there a definitive answer or is it just one of those "what you prefer" situations..

Thanks.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/
Share on other sites

Personally i never use 6th gear unless im on the freeway; 5th is the highest ill go on a highway.

Overdrive is great when you can keep a nice a smooth speed of over 60kph without having to slow down; etc comming home from work in traffic.

keep it off when you wanna weave through light traffic; feels great and much more responsive.

on the great ocean road; you would not turn on the overdrive.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4235937
Share on other sites

Personally i never use 6th gear unless im on the freeway; 5th is the highest ill go on a highway.

Overdrive is great when you can keep a nice a smooth speed of over 60kph without having to slow down; etc comming home from work in traffic.

keep it off when you wanna weave through light traffic; feels great and much more responsive.

on the great ocean road; you would not turn on the overdrive.

Yer i can see where your coming from, but in my situation, which is not relatively hard driving around the local streets would it be best to have it on or off?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4235961
Share on other sites

Definitely off mate and leave the power button off too; just normal mode.

going round residential roads and looking out for parked cars and street signs you wouldnt want it to jump into 4th gear when the 50km zone suddently has a hill or incline.

if you were in 4th you would have to put the foot down and you may be unlucky enough to hit the kickdown into 2nd; which is quite violent on the engine and gearbox.

I blew rocker arms off my sr20 s15 auto cos it drops down very quickly and the rev's shoot up

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4235979
Share on other sites

Ah yer i have noticed that, put your foot down and then it just downshifts and revs sky rocket up.

Well thanks for your advice man, i will turn it off tomorrow and see how we go :D

Leave it on all the time. Save petrol, engine wear. Now that you know there is a kickdown switch you won't be surprised by what happens when you floor the pedal. You can develop a smooth driving style by managing the accelerator pedal to keep it in the highest possible gear and with practice you can make it go into 3rd or 2nd at will. The only time i would turn it off is if you are going down a steep hill while towing or if you are giving it hell through a winding stretch and you want to hold it in 3rd.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4236235
Share on other sites

Leave it on all the time. Save petrol, engine wear. Now that you know there is a kickdown switch you won't be surprised by what happens when you floor the pedal. You can develop a smooth driving style by managing the accelerator pedal to keep it in the highest possible gear and with practice you can make it go into 3rd or 2nd at will. The only time i would turn it off is if you are going down a steep hill while towing or if you are giving it hell through a winding stretch and you want to hold it in 3rd.

Just to clarify (looking at your other post there sems to be room for misunderstanding) when i say leave it on i mean normally leave the overdrive in operation i.e. do not use the overdrive off switch except as above.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4236653
Share on other sites

ok back to confusion haha!

overdrive is off when the light on the dash says overdrive off

overdrive is on when the light on the dash is not displayed

So basically for local driving it is best to have overdrive on which means the button should be pushed in leaving no light on the dash!

Correct or..

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4237763
Share on other sites

ok back to confusion haha!

overdrive is off when the light on the dash says overdrive off

overdrive is on when the light on the dash is not displayed

So basically for local driving it is best to have overdrive on which means the button should be pushed in leaving no light on the dash!

Correct or..

correct.. thats what i would normally do. i normally just leave it on which means no lights on dash, except up hill and towing

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4237819
Share on other sites

id love to see a comparison. between a full tank off petrol when the overdrive was not used and a full tank of petrol when the overdrive was left on. similar driving on both.

I have a feeling there may be a few suprises.

I would not sue overdrive unless I was going to stay at a constant speed above 80kmh for awhile

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4238219
Share on other sites

Leave overdrive enabled (no light on the dash), let the computer do the work of selecting gears, learn to modulate the throttle pedal so you get good economy and make it kick down whenever you wish.

As stated above only time I'd turn it off is for engine braking/caning through twisties.

Overdrive = 4th gear/top gear

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4238706
Share on other sites

while we are on the topic, what about manually down-gearing?

As in its in drive, slowing down for a corner and push it into 2nd at around 50ks...

Is this practise ok for auto-trannies?

I usually drive with the over-drive off during normal <70km/hr driving. If i get on the freeway/highway then i engage overdrive (or 4th gear). In a manual you dont go into 5th when doing 50km/hr do you? How would putting overdrive on (or not turning it off) cause less engine wear?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/242981-overdrive/#findComment-4239970
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Latest Posts

    • The average previous owner for these cars were basically S-chassis owners in the US. Teenagers or teenager-adjacent. I often tell people that neglect is easier to fix than something that was actively "repaired" by previous owners.
    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
×
×
  • Create New...