O/D Light Never Comes On
 

Hi

Trying to figure this out and hoping for some insight.

Have a 2006 Focus ZXW. The overdrive light never comes on. This is the case at all speeds and regardless of weather the button is depressed.

I rather like to know that it is on or off for fuel economy purposes and to protect it at higher speeds.

It appears to be shifting fine. Previously it was shifting a bit late but this seemed to be remedied after adding friction modifier..

Any thoughts as to what might be causing this and how I might correct it?

Thanks

Joe

Really?
 

Nobody has a clue as to what this might be?

Welcome to the site Joe..

Do you feel any lockup when the switch is cycled on/off?

Thanks for the reply.

I`m not entirely sure what you mean by locking. At highway speeds, when I press the O/D button the rpm`s will shift up and down. Presumably from it coming out of 4th gear down to 3rd? My assumption was that this is normal. That being said, I`ve had other cars with O/D and the shift was never this pronounced.

Also - when going up a hill or accellerating, the shifting is rather erratic. I can only describe this as early/late shifts - Harsh shifts - Or hunting shifts.
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I don`t know if this is related the the O/D light.

Anytime the ignition is cycle from Run/On to Off (or Off/On) the 'default' function for OD is commanded ON until cycled off with the button. So even without the OD lamp functional anytime you start up the OD will be On. If you can cycle the OD and feel the shift change the OD is functioning. How many miles on your Focus? Any other warning lamps?

That is very reassuring. I had no idea it would always default to "on".

The car has 190,000km's so that's about 118,000 miles if my math it right.

One possibility just came to mind so I had to go and check...(my stupid moment) It occurred to me that all the dash indicator lights as supposed to go through a test cycle when you start the car. Well, in my case all the lights did, except for the O/D light. I never thought that it could just be the bulb. I'm assuming of course that the O/D light is included in the start up test process....I've never had a dash light go before so I didn't even think of this.

I suppose I'll need to open up the dash to see for certain...

In the mean time I suppose this still doesn't explain the erratic shifting...

Any suggestions? It'll probably be a few days before I can pull the dash for the light..

Joe

Hi there,

I've a 94 Cougar and things may be different than on your car, but here's my 2 cents., maybe it'll help you figure this out (assuming that the lightbulb is not dead :-)

You said that when you press the button, the RPMs go UP and DOWN ... well, the engine should rev up with OD off (because the tranny downshifts from 4th to 3rd) and stay revved up ... you should NOT see the RPM go down again (as if you were shifting back into 4th). Try keeping the OD button pressed and see what happens with your engine RPMs while driving at constant speed (over 60 km/h, to make sure the 4th gear engages if OD is turned off), and let us know what you found out.

On my car, OD off means shfting from 1 to 3 (light on) and OD on means shifting 1 to 4 (light off) - but I guess you knew that already.

HTH ...

Cheers,
cougar_fan

Thanks for the reply. I think I understand what you're saying. Indeed it's shifts down when O/D is turned off so I think it's running correctly in this way.

I'm starting to feel as though it is the bulb, and that the erratic shifting is something altogether different..

If the trans is shifting erratically, the O/D light has nothing to do with it, really. The cancel switch for the O/D only locks out 4th gear when depressed. The funky shifting is just a transmission problem, most likely a valve body concern, which is really all that ever happened to these trannys; other then just a bunch of worn out cluthes or a ground up drum or two.

Hmmm - OK

I have to admit, I've not done a lot of work on transmissions. The extent of my work on them is pretty much oil and filter changes...

How involved would you say a valve body replacement is?

I don't think this is something that I could do without dropping the transmission anyways....I think...

I'm wide open to recommendations here....