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I'd agree that by 30mph, you should be in 4th, although if its a flat road, I might be in 5th with no labouring.
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SWMBO's Peugeot 106 diesel : 30mph in 4th? In your dreams unless downhill with a following hurricane. 3rd.
Audi A4 110tdi: 20mph in 4th quite driveable due to all that torque.
Fiesta 1.6? 20mph in 4th possible. Pulls cleanly and slowly. But I usually use 3rd until 30mph.
Agree on revving cars hard at least once a week. 3rd gear, 6,000rpm onto A500 from Reginald Mitchell Way. Makes a lovely sound as Zetec engine gets onto the cam effect over 3,500rpm approx.. Even SWMBO's car responds to a bit of hard driving: I tell her it's to clear the carbon from the cylinder head:-)
madf
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Much easier to stick to 30mph limits in 3rd: and 40 mph in 4th.
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agree.with modern multivalve engine 30mph in 3rd is my choice.plus its easier to creep over 30 when in 4th.
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buy an auto stick it in D for do it and ...do it...cheers...keo.
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"Either way, driving the car without touching 4,000 revs ever would be bad for a car. "
I don't think my Volvo has ever touched 4,000 revs. But then the engine has only done 330,000 miles so far, so perhaps it's too early to assess the long-term impact.
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And you are the guy with the original brake discs on that car aren't you?
I think i am beginning to get a picture of what type of driver you might be Cliff...
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Well remembered!
No, I don't wear a hat, or drive slowly, but I do mostly stick to speed limits, and try and anticipate traffic flow to minimise use of the brakes.
Maybe it is only modern engines that benefit from high rev bursts. I have always driven for fuel economy, keeping the engine at the lowest speed at which it seems happy. I've never yet worn out an engine, and that's with a range of cars going back to 1947 (the cars, not my driving experience).
I suspect it doesn't actually make any difference, but people get the answer they want. Those who like big quiet engines chugging away effortlessly can enjoy that: others like screaming revs and the satisfaction of believing that they are blowing out the cobwebs.
It's changing the oil frequently that really counts, imo.
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Agree with most of the posts so far.
It really does depend on the engine gearing. My Alfa still turns 1500 rpm at 30 in 5th. (3500rpm at 30 in 3rd) and this feels slightly high if I'm in a 30-zone that is level and ½ mile long.
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Back in the 80's I used to live next door to an elderly chap with a MK1 Granada V6 with a manual box. I was always buying old cars and tinkering so her used to ask me to fix the odd thing that needed doing on the Ford. Every six months or so, he'd complain that the car was getting sluggish and didn't start as well as it should, despite being serviced regularly. He used to do a reasonable mileage but at Volvo 340 speed. So I'd take the car for an hour, blast up the A34 at Newbury leaving clouds of smoke behind and hand it back to him. It always worked and he was always very grateful, believing I had a magical touch with cars.
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Remind me never to buy your car Cliff!
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Adam
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It's never likely to be for sale. If I didn't already own it I'd be buying it myself! High mileage lightly stressed cars are good buys.
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I'll take your word for it!
What's the "most stressed" you've had it up to then?
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Adam
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Well, it does 70 at just over 3,000 rpm, so not a lot more than that.
It spends most of its life doing an 80 mile round commute. I just jog along with the traffic flow, at a steady 55 usually.
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Don't agree that labouring is the biggest killer of engines. More so with modern cars as damage from detonation (pinking) is not such a serious issue.Dirty oil and filters, overheating, overrevving and broken cambelts etc.are.
Likely damage from labouring is breaking up/fatigue of main bearings shells if car is used in high gear when climbing hills or towing over a long period of time.
Unless engine braking is needed for control or hill climbing, using 3rd gear is just wasting petrol for open roads in towns.
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Over revving?
On the way home I take some fun twisty bits and on a couple of sweeping straights, I let it sit in third until around 5,000 revs. The limiter cuts in not too far away from 6,000 and the increased power is very evident after 4,000. So how high is too high?
Around town, the inclination of the roads being what they are, 4th in 30 would bog down. I often have to sit around 40mph to be able to use 4th.
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Adam
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I think that over-revving is a difficult thing to define properly, because every engine is different. I wouldn't think that a brief rev up to the power peak every so often would be detrimental. The amount of extra wear on a properly maintained engine would be hardly noticeable in the long term.
I rarely rev mine up to its power peak (5200rpm). Due to the low (ish) gearing and relatively high amounts of torque (considering engine size) I can change into top, which is 4th, at speeds as low as 25mph and as long as the road level and not carrying more than a couple of people, I can still accelerate. Its best changing into top at speeds nearer 30 though because the engine seems a bit happier.
Revving the engine as form of ?Italian tune?, on mine at least, is a bit of a waste of time too. Up to 70mph require engine speeds of around 4000rpm anyway, so the inside of the engine is probably always quite clean. In addition to that, I don't do much town driving and I only use branded petrol.
Apart from neglect, I would say one of the biggest engine killers is excessive revs when cold.
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Lots of people think if they let the engine go over 5000rpm then its going to instantly go pop. Do they think manufacturers are really going to put cars on the market that are so fragile? If they did the warranty costs would be unbelievable, which is why engines are designed to rev to the red line comfortably.
My Corsa gets regular high revs and has never felt better.
Ben
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Likewise. My Megane dCi sometimes gets taken to about 5000rpm when the mood takes me. It always feels smoother afterwards.
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The biggest engine killers are imo: lots of short journeys, infrequent servicing and overheating due to neglect of the cooling system.
When I ran bangers and visited scrapyards, most of the engines had oil the colour of bitumen and the same consistency and radiators corroded to holes. When I looked some 3 years ago at cars for youngest son (8-10 year old Fiesta) nothing had changed.
Revs and well serviced plus good design = no problems.. How many cars have over 200k and still going? Lots of diesel Xantias for a start...
madf
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An aircraft-engineer friend of mine talks in terms of "mechanical sympathy". Sadly, those who have it are in a minority. You know what I mean: feeling the pain of an engine screaming at maximum revs for too long, groaning as driving in too low a gear induces rumbles and jolts, wincing as a cold engine is pushed too hard too soon, mourning the fate of a car faced with nothing but short trips and excessive gear changing. All it takes is to grasp the idea that engines need coddling until they are fully warmed up and that extremes of treatment (or maltreatment) should not last more than a moment.
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