overdrive?

[vuduben]

i was just reading over the mx3 brochure and notivced that my MX-3 comes with a 5 speed manual transmission with overdrive. now the five speed i found pretty fast but what about the overdrive. am i mistaken or does that mean that my car acctually has 6 gears. what is this mysterious overdrive and how do i use it, as it is not mentioned in the owners manual. <P>thanx<BR>vuduben

[vuduben]

does anyone out there know about the overdrive systeme...?

[RayRay]

5th gear is the overdrive. An overdrive gear is one that puts out more rev's than takes to spin. I think the 5th gear is about 0.80 on the GS.

[vuduben]

oh thanx for the info, but then wouldn't it be a 4-speed car with overdrive... [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]

[RanMan]

Nope, the term "overdrive" refers to the gear ratio of the transmission. On most 5-speed cars with overdrive, 4th gear is a 1.0:1.0 ratio (meaning that the engine and transmission are spinning at the exact same RPM) and the 5th Gear is less than a 1.0:1.0 ratio (as in 1.0:0.80). This lets the engine turn fewer RPMs to achieve the same speed as a 1.0:1.0 ratio. This improves gas mileage, but makes it more gutless when trying to pass. That is why when you need to pass someone (with a reasonable amount of time), most people will downshift to 4th gear. It changes the gear ratio to a lower one, that runs higher RPMs, but has more "oomph". Hope this helps to clarify it a bit. The Entire point of a transmission (standard or automatic) is to allow you to change gears to keep the engine within the "usable" powerband.<p>[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: RanMan ]

[curtklze]

You dont need to down shift if you have a KLZE under the hood. <P>Just step on the gas and go

[RanMan]

putting a KLZE into an mx-3 that came with a 4-banger is pretty involved (or so I hear), so that is not an option for me.

[OsoSlo z28]

ok then, drop in a bpt

[RanMan]

as soon as I come up with the cash-o-la....then I sure will...till then, 4th gear is my friend.