Greetings,

I have a bad habit that I developed with Ford products.
I never want my engine laboring, and I don't want my automatic transmission "deciding" when it wants to downshift, so I hit the handy-dandy "OD-Off" button in the end of the Column shift lever.
I enjoy that little "override" feature, and probably use it a little too much.

Questions:

a) Is this hurting anything?
(I never have thought it was necessary to go to the "forth" gear in the AOD automatic...... the C4 and C6 units only last 250K miles (haha)... and I never really liked all that fuss about "big-D, little-D" that some people have NEVER understood.)
Yes, the OD is nice for long range flat road trips, but spare me my tranny's inability to let the engine do some work once in a while.
Sometimes on an Appalachian road trip (mountainous) that thing never seems to know what gear it wants to be in~~

b) The 'button' in the shifter lever seems to downshift no matter what gear I'm in. 4th goes down into 3rd, 3rd goes down into 2nd, etc. Is this working as it was designed to?

Anyone's thoughts or technical data ?

2003 SC 5.4 XLT 3.73 LS AM/FM/6CD P255/75R16 6750GVW

 

Sounds like you need a manual tranny. Personnally, I would never own anything but a manual. I like being in control and I can judge the best shift points given the enviroment better than any computer.

 

You're not hurting anything by keeping it out of OD or shifting it back and forth except for maybe your gas mileage...and that's sometimes debatable too.

 

Yep-yep-yep

I hear ya.
I like how Ford starts "packaging" popular components.

I would have LOVED to have a SuperCrew with:
a: Manual windows
b: Manual transmission
c: A beefier V6
d: overall "XL" trim. (rubber floor mats, vinyl, etc)

Why they don't offer it, I'll never know.
I suppose its all about the demographics.

I have 2 kids, ages 6 and 3... they live in the back seat.
I bought a truck, not a Towne Car....

 

It doesn't hurt the trans to use the od off button. You could leave od off all the time if you are in hilly/mountanous country.

However, for those of us who live in flat country, and do a lot of highway driving, the od gear is a boon for gas mileage as well as reducing wear on the engine.

Why turn your engine at 2800 rpm at 70 when you can run at 2000 without lugging the engine?

 

SO.... When driving in town (40mph or less) and not long streches of roads would it be "better" to shut off the OD? (I don't now but only got he truck 2 weeks ago). I know my truck shifts more then it needs to. I wish Ford offered the 5.4L with a manual tranny (in a F-150)..... I would have searched high and low for one of those!
-Steve

 

That's what I do.....

That thing goes crazy bumping in and out of gears...with an egg under my foot on the accelerator.

Straight road?..you bet,...it slides right into OD. It tachs about 1600 @ 60mph..I can live with that.