Is it bad to hit your Rev limiter?

[SteveSRT8]

Rev limiters are set to hold RPM well below the average that would cause damage. Add to that that most are "soft" limiters that deliberately stagger the injectors shut off to even out the shock. Actually far more gentle than you would think.

My sig car has been bouncing off a slightly raised rev limiter for almost 100k miles, and runs better than ever. Unless you have a stick and downshift to force the engine to over rev it is nearly impossible to damage a healthy engine by hitting the rev limiter occasionally.

 

[Bamaro]

Only if your rev limiter is your wife sitting next to you telling you to take it easy

 

[NissanMaxima]

Thanks folks! A few more questions:

1. so is my 2015 corolla likely to have a rev limiter?
2. if so, does it still engage if the car is in park, and idling as was the situation for me?
3. does the rev limiter prevent hitting redline in this situation or actually shut down the engine? The reason I asked is that the car did not shut down and I don't know how many rpm's it actually hit, but it was pretty loud for those few seconds before we figured out the floor mat was depressing the gas pedal.

Thanks again.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I believe the rev limiter is part of the ECM software.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: NissanMaxima
Thanks folks! A few more questions:

1. so is my 2015 corolla likely to have a rev limiter?
2. if so, does it still engage if the car is in park, and idling as was the situation for me?
3. does the rev limiter prevent hitting redline in this situation or actually shut down the engine? The reason I asked is that the car did not shut down and I don't know how many rpm's it actually hit, but it was pretty loud for those few seconds before we figured out the floor mat was depressing the gas pedal.

Thanks again.


1. Yes.
2. Yes it should.
3. It is not going to shut the engine off.

Having said that, I'd wait until the engine has reached normal operating temperature, not the coolant temp but the oil temp, before bouncing off the rev limiter.

What you did can't be undone, the odds of you doing damage are slim to none in a one time event. I wouldn't worry about it, especially since there is nothing you can do to change it. Going forward, check the floor mat.

 

[SteveSRT8]

I don't know how Toyota does it, but my sig car has a 4000 rpm limiter in park. As opposed to 6600 rpm in gear...

 

[Andrew1972]

The engine no.....just a tad more wear on it.

The driveline, engine mounts, cv joints, axles...., transmission mounts etc you put a lot wear/stress on it.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My 208K Jeep 4.0 is pretty familiar with the rev limiter.

An Inline 6 full bore at 5K rpm is a pretty cool sound.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

The fact that the engine has a rev limiter should answer your question. How much longevity do you expect out of any engine ran at high RPMs?

 

[Cressida]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
I don't know how Toyota does it, but my sig car has a 4000 rpm limiter in park. As opposed to 6600 rpm in gear...


You mention your sig car but I can't see anything to figure out what it is?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Cressida
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
I don't know how Toyota does it, but my sig car has a 4000 rpm limiter in park. As opposed to 6600 rpm in gear...


You mention your sig car but I can't see anything to figure out what it is?


It is a 2006 Chrysler 300C SRT8

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Rev limiters are set to hold RPM well below the average that would cause damage. Add to that that most are "soft" limiters that deliberately stagger the injectors shut off to even out the shock. Actually far more gentle than you would think.


This is truth. I would hit the rev limiter occasionally with my '07 Corolla with a 5MT. The first time I did it, trying to find the limit, it was a total non-event. The engine scooted up to about 6,200 rpm or so and then it simply stopped accelerating. No er-er-er as it "bounced off" a limiter, no violent loss in power as it cut fuel and/or spark. It just...sat there at 6,200 rpm until I did something.

I was floored.

So was the engine!

Har!

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Rev limiters are set to hold RPM well below the average that would cause damage. Add to that that most are "soft" limiters that deliberately stagger the injectors shut off to even out the shock. Actually far more gentle than you would think.


This is truth. I would hit the rev limiter occasionally with my '07 Corolla with a 5MT. The first time I did it, trying to find the limit, it was a total non-event. The engine scooted up to about 6,200 rpm or so and then it simply stopped accelerating. No er-er-er as it "bounced off" a limiter, no violent loss in power as it cut fuel and/or spark. It just...sat there at 6,200 rpm until I did something.

I was floored.

So was the engine!

Har!

Was the Corolla DBW, perhaps they just trim the throttle as the limiter? The Focus has a reasonably fast er-er-er limiter as its got a cable still. My old Neon had a terribly slow errr-errr-errr on the limiter so it felt like it was slowing down which wasn't cool for autocross.
Anyways, the only cars I've ever seen having a problem with bouncing off the limiter for prolonged periods in autocross have been old Civic's that have 200k+ miles and have been thrashed by young guys for the last year. Perhaps its just the PCV system getting overwhelmed with oil but some of them smoke a lot more at the end of the day than at the beginning....

 

[y_p_w]

I've done it before. As long as it's properly warmed up and you don't make a habit of doing it daily, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

The car I did it on was a 1995 Acura Integra GS-R. Redline was at 8000 RPM but fuel cutoff was at 8100 RPM. Reaching fuel cutoff meant I made a mistake, as I should have shifted before reaching that point.

 

[Hokiefyd]

The Corolla was DBW, yes. It could be that they trimmed the butterfly for the rev limiter. I think it's most common (even with DBW) to trim fuel. I think a near-instant change in airflow through the engine would have made the engine pulse a little bit, but maybe not.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
The Corolla was DBW, yes. It could be that they trimmed the butterfly for the rev limiter. I think it's most common (even with DBW) to trim fuel. I think a near-instant change in airflow through the engine would have made the engine pulse a little bit, but maybe not.


The typical strategy used by many mfgrs is to stagger the injectors when cutting off fuel. This holds the rpm perfectly and still evens out the power pulses to make it even less stressful on the engine

 

[ls1mike]

I am sure I sound like an A-hole when I come into these topics but...My old 98 Z28 6 speed... I can't tell you how many times I bounced that nitrous fed LS1 off the rev limiter as the RPM gauges in them are SLOW(my next two F-bodies had shift lights that I installed.

)...You will be fine I ran that car to 156,000 miles and the next guy got it to 210,000 before it started to get tired from a life at the Track, numerous 100 shots of N20 and using the throttle like an on and off switch. Ah good times. I was 23 when I purchased that car.

 

[Tomioka]

I give my truck a few WOT redline runs once in awhile. It spends most its life revving below 2,000rpms in avg driving conditions. Boy when that tach goes past 2,000rpms that five-three just unleashes all its power.

 

[circuitsmith]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
This is truth. I would hit the rev limiter occasionally with my '07 Corolla with a 5MT. The first time I did it, trying to find the limit, it was a total non-event. The engine scooted up to about 6,200 rpm or so and then it simply stopped accelerating. No er-er-er as it "bounced off" a limiter, no violent loss in power as it cut fuel and/or spark. It just...sat there at 6,200 rpm until I did something.

I was floored.

So was the engine!

Har!


What gear did you do it in?
I hit the limiter in my '06 Matrix 5MT in 1st and it bounced a couple times.

 

[4ever4d]

I have a theory that it isn't what you would want to do often as proof by all the puffing, mosquito killing rice burners around my area!