Do you use the "Over Drive" often?

[HumbleCar]

i'm so  whenever i start my latio, there's no OD light indicator.... so this is normal driving mode?

Haha.  That's why I say the ON/OFF thingy is confusing.  As long as the OD light indicator is off, it is in normal driving mode.

[clarence]

OD is not the highest gear. It represent 3rd gear. 

The above information is misleading. 

OD, otherwise known as overdrive represents the highest gear.

If a car like Geely CK, which is using 3 speed auto gearbox, then the 3rd gear is overdrive.

For Latio which is using 4 speed auto gearbox, so the overdrive is 4th gear.

For the latest model Honda Jazz which is using 5 speed auto gearbox, overdrive is 5th gear.

Hope this gives a correct and clearer picture to everyone.

[burnolise]

I just read the owner manual,

"Each time the engine is started, the transmission is automatically reset to OD "ON"."

"Push the OD switch to turn the OD "ON". The OD off indicator light will turn off.

In short, when OD is ON, the OD off indicator light should be off; when OD is OFF, the OD off indicator light should light up.

Arias....think u got confused...the "OD OFF" indicator is to tell u tat ur OD is ON and the panel is reminding u to turn it off...it works on the reverse logic....my old altis also using the same logic display for OD.

http://www.nissan.com.my/vehicles/latio_sport/latio%20hatchback/performance/performance1.html#

http://www.nissan.com.my/vehicles/latio/latio/performance/performance1.html#

[alangohek]

Arias....think u got confused...the "OD OFF" indicator is to tell u tat ur OD is ON and the panel is reminding u to turn it off...it works on the reverse logic....my old altis also using the same logic display for OD.

http://www.nissan.com.my/vehicles/latio_sport/latio%20hatchback/performance/performance1.html#

http://www.nissan.com.my/vehicles/latio/latio/performance/performance1.html#

I beg to differ. The default for Latio according to the manual is "OD on". Pressing the button on the "stick" essentially switches OD to off; the indicator light will be lighted. Pressing the button again restores to default (i.e. OD on); the indicator light goes off.

The "usage" section on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics) gives very good explanation on the usage.

[clarence]

You are 100% correct.   

[burnolise]

I beg to differ. The default for Latio according to the manual is "OD on". Pressing the button on the "stick" essentially switches OD to off; the indicator light will be lighted. Pressing the button again restores to default (i.e. OD on); the indicator light goes off.

The "usage" section on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics) gives very good explanation on the usage.

U r absolutely right...i just checked the latio owner's manual in my car....default is ON and by pressing the button you are turning it off..

[MadMatty]

eh correct me if i am wrong, so essentially pressing the OD button to turn if "OFF" that means we are actually shifting it one gear higher that would propel the car faster?

[iwilly]

there no OD word on my panel it only show green color SPORT word when i press the od button

[CustomGolf]

there no OD word on my panel it only show green color SPORT word when i press the od button

Yours CVT so only sports mode but same effect as OD

[CustomGolf]

eh correct me if i am wrong, so essentially pressing the OD button to turn if "OFF" that means we are actually shifting it one gear higher that would propel the car faster?

It's like dropping 1 gear to get into the power band so that you can accelerate faster.

[burnolise]

eh correct me if i am wrong, so essentially pressing the OD button to turn if "OFF" that means we are actually shifting it one gear higher that would propel the car faster?

To propel the car forward at a faster rate, u drop gear...this is the time when u see ur rpm cheong up and the engine working hard sound....this will burn more fuel but give u more power...

[jaster]

OK, I hope to clear up the confusion pple have with this OD thingy.

By default (meaning no lights/indicators showing on dashboard display) - OD is on. And this is the recommended setting. It means your car is able to go to the highest gear, hence theoretically highest speed for the same engine RPM.

If you press the OD button, something will be lighted up on the dashboard - that means OD is off. The light on the dashboard regarding OD is a warning light (like the door-open light, hand-brake light, high beam light on the dashboard). So, it is a warning that your OD is off, and you should set it back to "on" unless you are sure OD "off" is what you want (just like high beam light).

So, when should you set OD to off? My personal opinion is that you should only set OD to off when you are climbing a slope, AND find that the gearbox is shifting up and down without settling on a particular gear. Because when the gearbox shifts up, there is not enough power to go up the slope, and the gearbox will shift down to provide more power, then find that the RPM is high enough to shift up, then tries to shift up again. So, to prevent the gearbox "hunting" for the correct gear to go up the slope, you should set OD to off to prevent it shifting to the highest gear resulting in insufficient power and then shifting down again.

Hope that clarifies things.

As you may notice, I was only talking about AT cars generally. I have no idea how relevant this OD/SPORT thingy is with CVT cars, because CVT cars generally don't suffer from this "gear hunting" problem.
You also should not think that having OD off lets you accelerate faster, because it doesn't. It just prevents the use of the highest gear. To accelerate faster, for most modern AT cars, you just depress the accelerator harder to make the gearbox shift down.

Experts, correct me if you find anything wrong about the above. I'm still learning as well.
 

[alangohek]

OK, I hope to clear up the confusion pple have with this OD thingy.

By default (meaning no lights/indicators showing on dashboard display) - OD is on. And this is the recommended setting. It means your car is able to go to the highest gear, hence theoretically highest speed for the same engine RPM.

If you press the OD button, something will be lighted up on the dashboard - that means OD is off. The light on the dashboard regarding OD is a warning light (like the door-open light, hand-brake light, high beam light on the dashboard). So, it is a warning that your OD is off, and you should set it back to "on" unless you are sure OD "off" is what you want (just like high beam light).

So, when should you set OD to off? My personal opinion is that you should only set OD to off when you are climbing a slope, AND find that the gearbox is shifting up and down without settling on a particular gear. Because when the gearbox shifts up, there is not enough power to go up the slope, and the gearbox will shift down to provide more power, then find that the RPM is high enough to shift up, then tries to shift up again. So, to prevent the gearbox "hunting" for the correct gear to go up the slope, you should set OD to off to prevent it shifting to the highest gear resulting in insufficient power and then shifting down again.

Hope that clarifies things.

As you may notice, I was only talking about AT cars generally. I have no idea how relevant this OD/SPORT thingy is with CVT cars, because CVT cars generally don't suffer from this "gear hunting" problem.
You also should not think that having OD off lets you accelerate faster, because it doesn't. It just prevents the use of the highest gear. To accelerate faster, for most modern AT cars, you just depress the accelerator harder to make the gearbox shift down.

Experts, correct me if you find anything wrong about the above. I'm still learning as well.
 

Agrees =) I tried it personally and find that by turning OD off does not allow one to accelerate faster.

In fact, i tried to do it once when my car is around 80kmh and the effect is the same as a manual car changing from 4th to 3rd gear. It's different from Honda Civic "S" gear, where it makes the car "revvy" and powerful (which i love it)

Have a question .. how do we know that the gearbox is "hunting" for the correct gear to go up the slope? For manual car, when we feel no power, we simply down a gear.

[CustomGolf]

Auto Box hunting means it switch down and up very quickly, like when you're going up slope and it just drop gear after a short acceleration, it switch up to loose power again then down again, Didn't experience it in the Nissan as much as my last ride, but when I loose enough power to feel that the car is not responding to my stepping in the accelerator, I hit the OD button. Most often going up shears bridge from beach road.