Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Thought occurred to me today (the only one that did...): Will city driving with the overdrive off save fuel?

Cheers all (and way to go Lions!)

Going light on the skinny peddle, looking a head and planning ahead, airing up the tires will have more effect....

also, not driving has really saved me fuel.

You should have the O/D on all the time. The tranny usually shift into O/D @ about 70 km. Some members may experience it even shifht earlier. I use to drive within the speed limit if possible but with O/D on it works lots of the time. So to me I think it will help fuel economy. Only my 2 cents.

DC

Overdrive is really just another gear. It works a bit differently than the others, but the principle is the same.

If you drove standard, would you save fuel by not using the top gear? The answer is no, because an engine has a specific powerband that it operates best in. In the case of an automatic, the OD helps this.

That said, there are times when disabling the OD is desired, basically, if you were to "gear down" a standard transmission, that would be when you turn off OD. So, just think of it as gearing down in a standard transmission and you will be set.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics)

Mr. Flibble wrote:Overdrive is really just another gear. It works a bit differently than the others, but the principle is the same.

Another two gears, at least on the L300 auto four speed there are definitely five gears. The fourth gear is only accessible via the accelerator.

thedjjack wrote:Going light on the skinny peddle, looking a head and planning ahead, airing up the tires will have more effect....

Hear, hear ~ this is the road to fuel economy ~ drive accordingly.

I gear down a lot, I use my tranny for braking. Does it use more fuel? Not a lot. In fact overall it uses less 'cause it gets to the desired speed faster, thereby spending less time overall in high revs. Listen to your revs. Put the tranny into drive with the O/D button on and take off from a standing start and be mindful what the tach is doing and how fast you are going when you hear the engine compensate for the transmission shifting gears. Lugging the engine only carbons the injectors and causes the motor to run hot. Once you do this you know your engine better because you are listening to her talking to you. Vroom vroom!

Falco.

Once again, thanks for the responses.