hi i recently bought an 2012 used skoda octavia and i just want to need the place of the overdrive button cuz i use it alot and i will be very thankful for your help    :think:       

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Overdrive button? Please do explain!

I assume your coming from a much older or more basic car. Most cars these days (Octavias included) have automatic overdrive which you would never notice engage or just have gearing (6 speed etc) that moots the reason for an overdrive. All it achieves is a really long ratio gear setting for highway cruising at a lower rpm. 

Edited 3 February, 201412 yr by 4743hudsonj

Is this a mid 80's Toyota thing?

Overdrive was at one time available on many cars.  It was an extra 2-speed gearbox bolted onto the rear of the standard gearbox.  The lower gear was 1:1 and the higher gear could be electrically engaged to work in conjunction with top gear (that was 4th in those days). On some cars overdrive also worked on 3rd gear.  The driver usually selected overdrive by a switch on the gear lever.

 

As others have said with the more gears, and higher top gear, of modern cars overdrive has been made redundant.  Back in the 70's I regularly drove 2 cars with overdrive - a Hillman Hunter GLS and a Triumph 2.5Pi.

An "overdrive button" is still pretty common on cars in the US. Apparently you are supposed to pay attention and turn overdrive on and off as needed. Press the OD button and a little light comes on reminding you that you have it engaged, and that you should turn it off once you're done with it. I guess. I don't understand the logic behind this, but maybe that's just me? Just put it in D and go, that's the whole point of an automatic transmission.  

 

The rest of the world knows "overdrive" as the last gear in the (automatic) transmission, and nothing you should have to bother with during normal driving. My old 4-speed automatic Volvos had a little light that came on when you put it into 3 instead of D, as to remind you to put it back into D when you were done with whatever you needed third gear for. This was essentially the same thing as the OD button. 

 

And yes, separate overdrive units were common on manual cars too at some point. Especially on British cars, as far as I know. Volvo used a 4 speed manual with a separate OD well into the 90's. 

I fail to see how D on a 4-speed auto gearbox, instead of 3, can be considered an Overdrive.  The definition of an overdrive (OVER drive, that is a higher external gear) is a higher gear than that contained within the gearbox.   That is, an additional gear box inserted into the drive train and hence often possible to utilise in more than one of the standard ratios (e.g., with 3rd or 4th in a 4-speed transmission).  I vaguely recall there was car in the 1970's where Overdrive could also be used on 2nd gear.  3+OD was frequently so close to 4th that it was pointless using 3+OD, except that a change from 3 to 3+OD did not need the use of the clutch. On A  roads I frequently drove the Hunter GLS in 3+OD so a change down to overtake was just a flick of the Overdrive switch.

 

Adding a higher internal 5th gear to a previously 4-speed transmission does not give it an Overdrive, although it eliminations the need for one.

 

It appears that in America they have distorted the meaning of Overdrive (as they have with 'pants' and 'vest', etc.!) to just mean top gear and pressing the 'Overdrive' button prevents the auto transmission from using top gear.  On some cars Overdrive (off) is a term used for mechanically locking the torque convertor to provide a more efficient direct drive rather than through churning fluid.  Pressing the Overdrive button in these cases is a disengage rather than a engage action.

 

I have been asked where the Overdrive button is on my DSG-equipped car.  As the DSG has no torque converter and is far more intelligent in operation than the 'slush' auto boxes I have had to suffer on American cars it has no need of one.