Overdrive on/off button?? Do any of the tacomas have this feature

I love my new tacoma... but one thing i am really bumed about is not having a way to disable overdrive!! Every truck i have ever driven has always had a way to disable overdrive.. even some cars have it!!! Whats up with this?? is there a reason for not having it???

 

Just drop it into 4th. Same thing.

 

+1

 

x3

 

x4

 

xX

 

It's not quite the same thing... There is no way to use 5th gear w/o the possibility of Overdrive kicking in...

BUT,

For most situations where you don't want overdrive, shifting to 4th is your best bet. It will use 1-4, no 5th, and no overdrive...

 

what they said

 

We concur

 

Try the other gears ie 1st to 4th ,

OZ

 

what is the overdrive do on or off i was wondering

 

Its like another gear.

 

i kno that but why would i turn it off what is it for?

 

Towing a trailer.

 

For the purpose of most automatic transmissions the "overdrive" refers to the highest gear. Anything higher then a 1:1 ratio is generally considered to be an overdrive gear (5th being 0.72:1 on the Taco). All the button does is electronically prevent the tranny from shifting up into that top gear. Like everyone said dropping into 4th gear does exactly the same thing. It is used anytime you need more power but the tranny isn't downshifting on its own (climbing long hills for instance).

Cars have the button when your truck doesn't because the shift lever on the car doesn't give you the control to choose any gear like the Tacoma does. Generally you just get "D" and the "OD" button is the only way that you have to force the tranny to downshift that one gear.

 

5th = overdrive gear = they are the exact same thing, not seperate


its not 5th gear, then overdrive (6th gear)


putting it in 4th is the exact same thing if you were to place the transmission in D and used a button to turn off overdrive.

if a 5 speed auto was in Drive normally and was an equiped with overdrive, that 5th gear is the overdrive gear. if you hit a button that turned off overdrive, the highest gear the transmission would shift to is 4th then.

its a 5 speed. the 5th gear is what people would call overdrive

overdrive just means your running a gear in the transmission numerically lower than 1.00. because, by doing so your drivetrain output is moving faster than the engine input...ala it is overdriven.

there no such thing as an overdrive kicking in, thats just a misconseption of what it really is. in reality your just shifting to a higher gear.

some of the older transmissions had the highest gear at a 1:1 ratio. this was like a direct drive off your engine (maybe thats why they call it drive i dunno) but at some point someone had the idea to put in a taller gear after that direct drive gear for the economy and at somepoint someone called that overdrive. but again, its just shifting to another gear.

overdrive is not like the same concept of an afterburner where something is happening additionally to something.

 

5th is overdrive, there is no 5th + pverdrive.

The poster above is right, it is just a gear that is higher (i.e. numerically lower) then a 1:1 ratio.

On our trucks you can feel the torque converter lock (and unlock) when going up hills etc. before it will shift into 4th.

As others have pointed out, shifting to 4th is the exact same thing as turning off OD.

Shawn

 

So, it's recommended to throw it into fourth when towing a trailer?

 

Yes

 

i used alot of 4th and 3rd gear when driving down the mountains... worked really well and saved my brakes, didnt waste any gas either.... i actually got better gas mileage than i do in the city