Long time 'till overdrive kick in normal?

[95 2WD 4runner]

My wife and I just bought a 95 2WD. It has about 102,000 miles on it. I notice that it won't kick into overdrive until the thermostat needle is at the half way point. This is basically when the engine is as warm as it's going to get and takes almost 10 minutes. Is this normal? Is there some kind of sensor adjustment that can be made?

Also, there's a rattling/buzz kind of sound that sounds like it's coming from behind the dash/tachometer. Is a bad tach cable typical? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

David

 

[toto]

Yes, the delay in shifting to overdrive is common on Toyota products. It won't shift into overdrive until the trans fluid warms up to a certain point. You'll often find a correlation between that and coolant temp as displayed on the dash. That's a feature of Toyota engineering.

That's not adjustable, but 10 minutes does seem like a long time in this weather. Maybe there's a sensor that's not right, but if the "check engine" light isn't on, the computer thinks they're all OK.