gentlemen, i drive a 94 auto that is bone stock. i drive only around town on surface streets with the car in drive. the car upshifts and downshifts quite a bit due to speeding up and slowing down. i had a fellow sccoa member tell me that is wasting a lot of fuel due to the computer richening my fuel each time the trans goes into od[fourth gear]. i realize ,that by not using fourth, i am saving wear and tear on the trans, but is the computer richening the mixture? i am confused since, in od with my driving style the rpm's are at 1600 and in fourth they drop to 1100. you all know the cost of fuel so a mile or two extra per gallon can be a cost saving. any comments?
Ummmmm...if you don't use 4th/OD, and the system supposedly goes rich when it goes into 4th/OD, how can you be worried about wasting fuel? You can't get there from here
'in od with my driving style the rpm's are at 1600 and in fourth they drop to 1100' - Can't be done. As you said, OD
is 4th... You must mean 1600 in 'D' (3rd) and 1100 in 'OD' (4th)...?
AFAIK, '
L' is 1st - '
D' is 1st, 2nd & 3rd. -
OD is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th. '
R' is for the rock you are likely to hit when backing up and '
P' is for sissies. Seems like you are confused what OD/'overdrive' is and what it is used for.
I don't agree that you are '
saving wear and tear' by avoiding OD or whatever. If you're using the trans, it is obviously seeing wear.
I stay in OD, letting the trans decide when to otherwise shift, except only when on a steep grade and/or traffic force the system to 'hunt' back and forth for a gear...then I drop down. I'll hit the other positions every few months just to exercise the internals and monitor trans operation.
The test is your mileage? What is the low average MPG for you? Mine is 17.
Keep the tires inflated - I run slightly above spec. Don't treat the trunk like an attic and stick to some sort of routine maintenance schedule and you'll be doing the most you can towards better mileage.