I have a stock 2GNT auto and I was wondering if I should keep the overdrive on or not. I usually drive at least 45-50 on the regular roads and 65-70 on the highway. I accelerate hard off of stoplights and such, and it usually redlines when I do. (Am I running my eclipse too hard?) With the way I drive, should i keep overdrive on? And if so, when? Any answers (right ones :) )would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I say that for when you're cruising around town, stopping frequently, take it off. It's not really doing you any good. All that overdrive really does is engage a "top gear" for lack of a better word, that makes all of your gears a bit higher. I think it's main purpose is to increase gas milage. For cruising on the highway, though, I would use it because you won't be stopping frequently and it might actually save you some gas.

Edit: It's not exactly "bad" to redline your car often. You just have to expect stuff to break faster than normal *cough* headgasket :-)

It's just 4th gear. It doesn't alter gears 1-3. It will certainly save gas at higher speeds as you'll be running at a lower RPM. Click the OD off at 65 mph and you'll see what it does.

If you live in the mountains or hills, you may find that the TCU tries to drive the car in too high of a gear up steep grades. I keep the OD off under 40 mph around town to keep it from shifting too much.

If I keep the OD on, the TCU will consistently try to drive up hills at 1300 RPM. Then I press the gas to keep my speed constant and then the tranny kicks down to 3rd...then the turbo spools...then the car starts to accelerate...decrease the throttle to accomodate that...TCU sees this and shifts to 4th...same thing over again. You do this once and then start leaving the OD off and sometimes keeping it in 2nd (for low speed hills). I always aim to keep the RPM between 2000-2800 on hills.

Corbin

'95 ESI-T
HRC+FMIC+ETC...



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire

>It's just 4th gear. It doesn't alter gears 1-3.

Word. My bad.