I bit the bullet today and purchased a 94 ES300 for $1000. It feels fantastic with it's 192k on the odometer, but the overdrive light is constantly flashing and the tranny will not shift into overdrive. Not only is the blinky light annoying at night, but I'm tacking @ 3700 on the highway and burned through an eight of a tank in 30 minutes.

Anyone else ever have this issue?

(I may or may not post picts of it... it's seen better days and it's cheapo RED maaco paintjob doesn't help, but it's an A to B vehicle.)

EDIT: Searched for overdrive issues and found some answers, but I now have another question - I noticed on the highway it sometimes slipped into neutral when I tried to accelerate quickly. The tac reved up very high and then the trans caught and was fine. (It shifts extremely smooth under normal driving.) Could this be overdrive related?

 

I should also mention that I have an entirely working dash. All needles and numbers light up as they should.

Took some pics.