Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Economy/Sport Transmission

Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. Something like, oh, 6750rpm in the first two gears when your right foot is firmly planted, regardless of the O/D selector's setting.

In my '95 GL V6/ATX, locking out O/D never did anything more than just that: lock out O/D. Shift patterns never changed, regardless of what throttle setting I dialed up.

If there's any differentiation between Sport and Economy settings on North American cars, it's likely in the adaptive logic by which the PCM 'learns' your driving style and produces shift points to suit.

Basically, if you want to be on the right-hand side of the tach, your right foot has to give the command. As long as nothing's wrong, the CD4E should click off at-or-near redline shifts (in 1st and 2nd...3rd runs into the speed limiter before hitting redline) under WOT every time.

This is exactly what I'm saying . Hitting the O/D button turns off the O/D , thats it . The trans/computer has certain learning capabilities to adapt to your driving style . The Euro sport/econo button couldn't possibly give you more revs ... if you hold your foot to the floor , it shifts at (about) redline . You don't WANT more revs . Besides , at that rpm , you're out of your powerband anyway .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Allen

O.K. lets say your not drag racing your car, and your on a road track. You want to take a corner in a lower gear to get more power through the corner. How do you accomplish that without moving the gear selector, taking your concentration off the track, or loosing speed to make it drop into that gear? You can't, that's what the sport/economy button is for. You can't hold the pedal at 60% throttle through the whole track to keep it in the lower gears. If you have a sport setting it will hold them on it's own without the pedal being so far down.

It might still be in a 95 Contours programming but with the change over to the 96 and OBD2 it was more than likely removed. It might still be there on some of the early revision PCM's which where referenced from the Euro models, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Ford America doesn't think people in like to drive agressively in 4 door cars. They obviously haven't been on the interstate in a while.

I am going to have say something here..............I have a V6 ATX Mytique w/ that silly OD button. I keep hearing that all it does is deactivate the Overdrive.
After having driving my misty quite aggressively over the last 2 years, I have concluded that statement is WRONG.

I have noticed shift point changes between 2nd and 3rd of at least 500 rpm, especially in the higher rpm range (>2000). This is not some vague impression, this is a continuously validated observation. I have also noticed that shift point change decreases in the low rpm range. I have also noticed similar behavior when shifting from 1st to 2nd.

Those are my findings.

Regards,

Fastfolch
'98 Mysty
kkm
FMS wires
Bosch +4's
2.25 inch custom exhaust
15x7 wheels

The OD Disable button ONLY disables the Torque Converter Clutch.
It does not disable 4th gear.
You will get three upshifts with the OD Disabled.
You just don't get TCC Lockup with 4th gear.

That is absolutely wrong, unless you have the fabled "Torque Converter Lockout" button instead of the "O/D Lockout", because, the O/D button on my '95 GL V6/ATX controlled just that: overdrive. Fourth gear. Plain as day.

The 'third' so-called 'gear change' when you have overdrive locked out is actually the torque converter locking up. Yes, it locks in 3rd. That's when you're at 3.92:1 final drive (1.00:1 gear x 3.92:1 axle).

For empirical data's sake, take the car out tonight and let me know what revs you're reading under steady state throttle (torque converter locked, no acceleration) at 60mph with the O/D button engaged and disengaged. Once you have those numbers, we'll walk through the calculations.

Interestingly, my 95 SE ATX would never shift at redline at WOT. It would shift at about 6200. If I had O/D button pressed, I could get maybe 6400rpm.

o/d on my car is 4th gear...if i were on that road course and needed to downshift for the corner best i could do in the atx is click it out of overdrive and let the engine help do the braking

also i've found that my car is comfortable to about 90 mph (barely) in 3rd gear (or o/d off)...when i click o/d on i can get up to 112

I have heard that Ford tachs are notoriously inaccurate - you might have been hitting redline, but the tach was slow in trying to catch up to the engine speed.