Not shifting as much as one should, how long term?

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Lets say someone drives a manual car and is sometimes guilty of leaving it in 4th instead of 5th or 6th to cruise down a 5 miles of road? We are talking about 3000 instead of 2000 rpms or so. Other than the higher fuel usage, would this sort of thing lessen the lifespan of a well maintained synthetic oil car?
 
I was in 5th at 85-86 MPH for probably 15-20 miles on I5 in my S2000 with top down, since the engine is very noisy at that speed even in 6th, I didn't know until I looked down the instrument and saw the tach at around 5500-5600 RPM. I then shifted to 6th and it was a little less noise and nothing bad to the engine.

The other time I was in 4th at 70-75 MPH for some distance, I then recognized it was more noise than normal, looked at instrument and it was 5700-5800 RPM.

As long as you have appropriate oil in the engine you will be okay.
 
Not hurting anything. I'd prefer the scenario where you're a couple of gears too low and revving the engine a little harder, rather than being a couple of gears too high and lugging the engine. My wife was always a gear too high when we had manual cars, drove me crazy. Hence, we've only had autos for the last 10 years or so...
 
One thing I like about a car is listening to the engine....never understood how one can drive a machine that is dead quiet....that said I do run @ 2500 rather than a higher gear @ 2000...for more engine "punch" from the 4-banger.
 
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Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
I was in 5th at 85-86 MPH for probably 15-20 miles on I5 in my S2000 with top down, since the engine is very noisy at that speed even in 6th, I didn't know until I looked down the instrument and saw the tach at around 5500-5600 RPM. I then shifted to 6th and it was a little less noise and nothing bad to the engine.

The other time I was in 4th at 70-75 MPH for some distance, I then recognized it was more noise than normal, looked at instrument and it was 5700-5800 RPM.


I always thought that one was actually lugging those engines (even the "larger" ones) at those revs??
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What does syn oil have to do with anything? these days syn oils do not offer a whole lot except at the extremes especially the cold.
 
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
I always thought that one was actually lugging those engines (even the "larger" ones) at those revs??
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I haven't gotten to drive an S2k, but I don't think I've ever shifted a Miata motor below 5k rpm (once it was warmed up) or let it cruise below 2500 - 3000.
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And as far as revs, a healthy engine shouldn't have a problem with being wound up a bit. When I rallycross the Jeep, I usually go with the attitude of: if it's not sitting on the (higher than stock) rev limiter, it doesn't get to upshift.
 
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Probably should have bought an automatic, if you are not inclined to shift it in to the proper gear for efficiency.
 
You probably did it some good, maybe clean up the ring packs a bit. That's if they needed it.
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Its a habbit ive witnessed my wife having. If i say something she gets really defensive. She drives the 14 accord and on a flat road you can be in 6th gear on a 35 mph road without being even close to lugging.

If i say something she gets mad, if i dont the higher rpms bug me. Cant justify wasting money replacing it with an cvt accord.
 
I like the fact that @ 2500RPM or so in any gear the engine brakes a bit when I take my foot off the accelerator, just enough to keep me from speeding (35-40mph speed limit in 3rd, 50 in 4th)...something low RPMs in a higher gear would allow me to do too easily....
 
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In my opinion it will certainly lower the lifespan of an engine... but not enough that would be noticeable at all. You've got to consider that doing this occasionally is probably nothing compared to durability tests.

Also, there are plenty of people (usually muscle/sports cars) that change out their axle gear ratio. My mustang cruises in 5th maybe 500rpm higher than a car with taller gearing. Some people put 4.10s in 5-speed cars and never have an issue with engine wear from higher constant RPM.
 
Originally Posted By: dareo
Lets say someone drives a manual car and is sometimes guilty of leaving it in 4th instead of 5th or 6th to cruise down a 5 miles of road? We are talking about 3000 instead of 2000 rpms or so. Other than the higher fuel usage, would this sort of thing lessen the lifespan of a well maintained synthetic oil car?


We have 200k on a 2005 legacy turbo wagon bought new and my wife does this to accelerate the warm up of engine for heat. No ill effects due to that and we run conventional every 4K......
 
I don't think it will hurt much of anything, any negative impact won't shorten the life of the engine to the point that it fails before transmission, electronics or rust sets in.

"Modern" engines don't mind singing along all day. Even the older style engines which people tout as being low speed tractor engines (Jeep 4.0, Ford 300), wouldn't mind running at 3K all day every day.

In the winter I will usually delay shifting a bit in the Focus to get the cat to light off so the thing will idle down. Otherwise, it NEEDS to run at 2500 RPM. And having the engine race to 2500 RPM when I press the clutch in makes shifting interesting when the temperature is -20 and the transmission is full of molasses.



Originally Posted By: HemiHawk

Also, there are plenty of people (usually muscle/sports cars) that change out their axle gear ratio. My mustang cruises in 5th maybe 500rpm higher than a car with taller gearing. Some people put 4.10s in 5-speed cars and never have an issue with engine wear from higher constant RPM.


I plan on gearing my Jeep to 4.56 for 32'' tires. That should have me cruising around 2500RPM instead of the 1700RPM I have right now. The engine should like it better than what it has now and get better fuel economy to boot!
 
Originally Posted By: dareo
Its a habbit ive witnessed my wife having. If i say something she gets really defensive. She drives the 14 accord and on a flat road you can be in 6th gear on a 35 mph road without being even close to lugging.

If i say something she gets mad, if i dont the higher rpms bug me. Cant justify wasting money replacing it with an cvt accord.

I would let it slide. Not worth the aggravation to get into an argument with the wife over stuff like this. Besides, she really is not doing any harm, IMO.

On the other hand, if you are in 6th at 35 mph, your RPMs must be really low... way below 2K. If for some reason you needed to quickly accelerate at that point, maybe to get out of somebody's way, you wouldn't be able to. Personally, I'd be in 4th gear at that speed in a typical 4-cyl engine. Heck, even in my 6-cyl car, I keep it in 4th gear at that speed, but it only has 5 forward gears.
 
People truly find all sorts of ways to worry themselves
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If the automatic tranny is keeping the revs low, it's a worry of lugging the engine too much, shortening its life, if the revs are higher then the there is still worry of shortening engine life. You can't win.
Do people even realize that they are shortening their own lives and perhaps the lives of their family members by worrying about these petty things and having OCD rituals?

Full disclosure that have my own OCDs, but having a family and children, and perhaps getting older, has liberated me from a lot of my OCD impulses and has lessened the ones that stayed and allowed me to concentrate on the truly important things in life.
 
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