Esteem Overdrive issue. Please HELP!

[jorge0608]

Hello all!

I have a very interesting problem with my 1998 esteem. Whenever I accelerate with the overdrive ON my car jerks and I cannot seem to accelerate properly. If I turn overdrive OFF, the vehicle accelerates just fine.

Once I get going on the freeway I turn the overdrive ON and I have no issues. This only happens when I am accelerating or going up a hill with the overdrive on. The car just had the transmission serviced, oil change, radiator flush, It's not due for plug and wires for at least 8000 miles more.

Any suggestions?

thanks!

[jim_naisium]

The overdrive (OD) is functioning normally, it is not meant for hills or start-off acceleration, you should only have the OD on when you are on flat roads or going down hill.

Basically just consider the OD gear 4th gear and this will make more sense, if you were in a stick shift car and tried to go uphill in 4th gear what would happen?

To be really over generalizing this when you start out in 1st gear it has a 3:1 gear ratio, then it shifts into 2nd a 2:1 ratio then finally into 3rd with is a 1:1 ratio where the input and output shafts of the transmission are spinning at the same speed.

Then when you hit the overdrive button it puts the transmission into a less-than 1:1 ratio (0.something:1) and then the output shaft of the transmission spins faster than the input shaft, OD is really good for going fast but not good for starting off or going up hills.

The Esteem/Baleno is better about it than some other cars but it still doesn't like it.

[thejerkson]

Originally Posted by jorge0608

...accelerate with the overdrive ON my car jerks and I cannot seem to accelerate properly...

It sounds like your car won't shift out of overdrive which is obviously not what it's supposed to do. I don't have an automatic but I looked in the service manual and attached the relevant troubleshooting portion. I hope it helps.

[anotherjeff]

I leave my overdrive on all the time? Is that bad? I occasionally turn it off when I'm going up hills because it feels like I get more power.

[jim_naisium]

My personal preference is to leave the OD off until the car is up to speed and is in 3rd gear but even then I don't hit the button until the car is doing over 55 mph. Leaving it on all the time shouldn't hurt anything, you are correct that turning it off to go uphills gives it more power, the gear for OD is not a good gear to be in for going up hills, pulling things, or if you are carrying a heavy load 3rd gear is better for doing those things and then turn OD back on when you have gone over the top of the hill.