Hey all. Just wondering if manually turning on and off the overdrive in an automatic can in any way damage the transmission. Due to droning mufflers, I would rather turn off the overdrive to change the rpms if necessary. Any thoughts?
It shouldn't. I do it all the time on my 95 E150's E4OD. And have done so since it was new, and still have never had the transmission rebuilt. 150,000 miles and still going. I do it for a different reason though, to slow it down before braking.
Ford wouldn't put the button there if they didn't intend on people using it. So, no it shouldn't. It will tear up your overdrive band if you drive hard and hit the rev limiter then turn the overdrive back on at high speeds. I only know that because we have many CHP vehicles in our shop coming through with the same problem.. multiple redline hits and turning overdrive on.. the pcm does record that.
I have a 93 atx SHO. The fit hit the shan when I went to pass someone, hit the O/D switch to turn it off. It was terrible, I almost had the person hit me cause my tranny freaked out. The tranny in the SHO is an AXOD-E. Yes I know it is different, but it caused my tranny to flip out. When you talk about a switch, is it electrically controlled? Or is it you actually switching gears so to speak?
I am having to rebuilding my trans now, I haven't taken it apart to see the carnage, but it was because I switched the O/D off and hit the gas damn near at the same time, I thought it was going to blow up!(No Chit!). The axod-e actually shares a couple of the parts from an aode.
A friend called Ford and they told him that it was not good to switch back and forth, but as you know depending on the individual info varies.
I keep my overdrive on most of the time for better feul economy, but when approaching a long big hill, I turn it off before I start the hill so when the climb begins it's ready to go and after I crest the hill I drop my speed back down and click it back on then carry on as usual. I wouldn't hit the gas at the same time as turning it off, I was told thats when damage occurs.