Overdrive OFF???

[cnovalles73]

Ok, without ME touching a THING, the 'overdrive off' light in my shifter has inexplicably started to blink! I hit the switch to turn it off then on which I can FEEL it doing so the overdrive itself SEEMS to be fine but WHY is the light blinking & HOW can I get it to stop???

 

[panda24619]

its blinking because it senses something wrong with the tranny. mine does it randomly then shifts like poop. but as long as it doesnt blink she shifts fine. and its super hard to pull the code because as soon as you turn the truck off it goes off. but my edge picked it up when i was driving once. mine happened to be the torque converter. that or the torque converter solenoid. im hoping its just the solenoid because its cheaper. but you can take it in and get it scanned, but it might not come up. it wont come up with a basic scanner. at least mine didnt get it.

 

[Thermo]

cnovalles, do you do a lot of driving right around 45 mph? If so, you need to be easy in this range. The programming in the truck does not like 45MPH and because of this, if you drive in this area and are easy on the gas, the truck sees it at needing to shift into overdrive to coast (letting off of the gas) and then has to downshift to get the truck going (when you step on the gas). This constant shifting will trigger the TCM to think that there is a problem with the tranny and therefore causes the light on the shifter. This is all the more problematic if you have a lot of weight in the truck or are pulling a trailer at about 45 MPH.

 

[panda24619]

thats good to know thermo. i seem to be driving a lot in 45 before i hit the freeway speeds. people know how to drive here. so ill just turn o/d off and drive like that till freeway speeds. see if that helps.

 

[1997SCEBFEX]

Had the same issue when mine was new and the local Ford Dealer replaced the torque converter as they could not properly diagnose the problem.

 

[cnovalles73]

cnovalles, do you do a lot of driving right around 45 mph? If so, you need to be easy in this range. The programming in the truck does not like 45MPH and because of this, if you drive in this area and are easy on the gas, the truck sees it at needing to shift into overdrive to coast (letting off of the gas) and then has to downshift to get the truck going (when you step on the gas). This constant shifting will trigger the TCM to think that there is a problem with the tranny and therefore causes the light on the shifter. This is all the more problematic if you have a lot of weight in the truck or are pulling a trailer at about 45 MPH.

....I guess that makes sense as 98% of my driving is around town (to/from work, etc) but it's a light as I can get it. Just me in the truck, not towing anything & even pulled the 3rd row out so....now this scares me.

 

[Thermo]

cnovalles, all that I can tell you without taking it to a shop, that you can make the situation a little better by thinking about how you are using the gas. Accelerate down hills and try to coast up hills (ie, use a little more gas than normal going down if you have a hill right afterwards that you will climb, which you will then be a little lighter than normal. This will help the truck try to maintain a single gear. Or, to make things easy, just turn off the OD and call it good since you don't do much high speed driving.