question about shifting - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

norcalcam · 01-04-2008, 03:36 PM

i have a 93 V6 camry. its an automatic. when going on the highway, i have to manuely shift by pressing the overdrive button, or it wont shift to 4th gear. whats up with that? it seems like i shouldnt have to press the overdrive button for it to shift. any help?

marc780 · 01-04-2008, 03:54 PM

You are right, you should just be able to leave it in overdrive all the time. If this were my car, i'd try a fluid change (the pan has a drain plug like the oil). I wouldnt try to flush it - that might do more harm than good - just a change. Thats about all you can do without tearing the transmission apart, and it might buy you many more miles out of this transmission.

If a fluid change doesnt help, you have a decision to make: 1 -to drive it how it is and live with the problem (and it could continue to work for many many miles) or 2- to take it in to the shop, or 3 - swap it with a rebuilt or junkyard one.

norcalcam · 01-04-2008, 04:09 PM

ya i know. but it shouldnt have to be in over drive the whole time. i think it should shift to 4th gear by itself, because usually you only use overdrive to save gas when going on ther highway.

islandboy57 · 01-04-2008, 05:18 PM

That's the purpose of the O/D button. It locks out 4th gear/overdrive. It's not a big deal and there's nothing wrong with your car.. I'm sure the majority of Camry owners drive with the O/D button engaged so they don't have to bother. You'll notice that on newer Camrys (and cars in general) the O/D button automatically resets to being on everytime you turn on the car. I leave the O/D on all the time on my mom's gen 3.5, and drive with it off on my gen 5.5 until I'm over 40-45 MPH.

norcalcam · 01-04-2008, 05:28 PM

ok thanks. does it still have power though?

360glitch · 01-04-2008, 05:32 PM

Why exactly would you not want to always have overdrive engaged?

94CoupeV6 · 01-05-2008, 04:17 AM

If you are just cruising around town it can be nice at low speeds so the tranny isn't changing gears constantly. Other than that, it should always be on.

I believe in the manual it says for speeds under 40mph to turn OD off for better gas mileage since it doesn't shift all the time but I could be wrong.