Hi,


Overdrive.
Should you use it?



From my brief understanding on it - and what I loosely gathered around on the web, correct me if I'm wrong, you use it on highways speeds...but when around town, you turn Overdrive off, correct?

Personally I always leave my A4 95 in O/D, but at my age it's ok. There is no way to turn the O/D off other than leaving the selector in "D".

There are differences of opinion on the matter.

Enjoy your 95 I have for almost 15 years now.:happy0045:

you can get lock up convertor on web ,you can keep it in d makes it run a little hotter gives the compression a little more at least it feels that way in my 1990 ,also i use 1 ,2 , d, sometimes lite to lite ,i like the way it sounds :thumbsup:

When I drive on fairly steep mountain roads, I often shift my 700R4 down into "3" to prevent a 4th gear upshift. Because I prefer to keep my engine speed at around 2000+ rpm when going up steep roads. Then when I reach a point where the road levels off, I'll shift back into "D" (overdrive). Just because you CAN run up steep mountain roads in overdrive doesn't mean it's good for your engine. Running up steep hills at engine speeds of only 1500 rpm makes your engine and transmission run pretty hot. If you don't believe me, watch how quickly your engine oil temperature climbs when you're pulling a steep hill.

I pretty much always drive my '95 in OD. Another thing to note is that OD doesn't kick in until (I think) 29 MPH. It varies depending on the year but any speed slower than that it's the same as driving in normal 'D'. Or am I wrong? Manuals and things I've read have said that's when it kicks in so I figured that's what it meant. The older C4s don't kick in until a little higher speed, somewhere in the 30s.

Sometimes I put it in 1st, then foot down completely on the accelerator pedal, keep it down there and shift to 2nd, keep the foot down there and shift to D.........pulls like a rocket!!
Overdrive I like when cruising long stretched-out roads when I do a constant speed.

How high do you take the RPMs before you shift it? Will that be hard on the transmission if you go too high enough times or is that what it's designed for?

It won't hurt the trans to rev high before shifting.

You might flaot your valves if you go too high, but it won't faze the transmission.

I run in OD out on the highway, but drop mine into D when I'm in town.

I generally let my transmission do whatever it wants, but when I'm pulling steep hills at speeds of less than 60 mph, I shift back into "3" (third gear) to buzz my engine up to 2000 rpm or so. So I don't feel my engine lugging. And then when the road levels off again, I upshift into "D" (overdrive) again.

I leave it in O/D. If I want to really use or feel the power I put it in D.

I pretty much always drive my '95 in OD. Another thing to note is that OD doesn't kick in until (I think) 29 MPH. It varies depending on the year but any speed slower than that it's the same as driving in normal 'D'. Or am I wrong? Manuals and things I've read have said that's when it kicks in so I figured that's what it meant. The older C4s don't kick in until a little higher speed, somewhere in the 30s.


In my '82 with a Hypertech chip, my transmission won't shift into 4th until 42 mph and then the torque convertor locks up at 43 mph. Before I put the chip in, it would go into 4th at only 25 mph; REALLY lugging the engine.