Highway cruising gear
 

Hi Everyone,

My friends and I are having a bit of a debate regarding proper manual driving technique and I thought I'd pose it to the experts. The crux of their argument is that on the highway, under normal driving conditions (some traffic, not bumper-to-bumper, but not wide open either) I should be in 6th gear and only downshift as needed to pass and maneuver aggressively. I tend to use 4th as my workhorse gear and only shift up when things are wide open and straight. I think we all agree that it's more fun to keep the revs in the happy 5000 - 7000 zone, but am I unnecessarily damaging the engine by making it work harder than it needs to?

This is first manual car and I've driven it this way since after the break-in period. I haven't had any passengers question my shifting tendencies until the past few days -- though admittedly most of my friends don't drive stick. So who's right? Should the car (1) only be downshifted as needed or (2) only be upshifted as needed from cruising speed?

Thanks!

1 but just for gas mileage. I do think youd put less wear and tear on the engine at hwy speeds at a lower rpm though

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Um, if you are just cruising you "should" be in the highest gear that doesn't lug the engine, I find once I'm at 45 mph I can use 6th if the road is not uphill.

I say should in "" marks because who cares. We bought manuals so we can do what we want with the gearbox. If you want to cruise at 60mph in 4th gear go for it.

I'm usually higher in gear. Like at 45 I'm in 6th unless it's a hilly road then I'm in 5th. 35 I'm usually in 4th. Mainly because I don't like hearing the high revs while cruising. It gives me a headache. The only reason why I would be going 55 in 4th gear is if I expect to slow down right after getting there. It's a habit I formed from my dad teaching me to drive.

All you're doing is unnecessarily wasting gas and putting extra wear and tear on your motor. So your friends are right.

Your friends are right. What you are doing is completely unnecessary and overall is detrimental to the health of your engine. It also burns significantly more fuel.

That is also an improper break in that I would argue is "not good" for the engine.

Where the heck did you get this idea?

if there's no need to accelerate or go up a hill, which is pretty much what I define as cruising like you said... then I agree with most everyone in this thread. Anything 45+ and constant speed can be done easily in 6th. Save yourself some gas money. If I tried to cruise at 5000-7000 RPMs, I'm pretty sure I'd be deaf by now or will have pissed off countless people around my car for being obnoxiously loud while "cruising" (I have an aftermarket exhaust).

As soon as I get to 35mph I throw it in 6th and floor it. Don't need to shift again until I'm under 35. Ideal for mpg and longevity.

Not sure if serious or trolling.....

Go forced induction and 6th gear becomes a passing gear too :)

I don't think you're hurting anything but I agree it's unnecessary unless the traffic necessitates it (i.e. constantly oscillating between 40-60 within each mile or two).

Personally there are very few situations on public roads I feel the need to be above 5k rpm unless I'm feeling childish.

hmm, that's odd. I'm always above 5k RPM from 25mph to the speed limit.

People are being too conservative with this car. It's a true SPORTS car. I redline it all day long. My mpg is about 21-22 combined.

No joke, anytime above 35mph im in 6th. Idk if it's bad or not, I don't know how it could be. But it does make me wish there was a 7th overdrive gear. Turning about 1,500ish at 60mph.

To me, the lower the rpm, the less the friction, the better the fuel economy and less wear & tear. That's just how I think of it, I could be wrong but it makes sense in my head.

When on a bicycle with a derailleur, do you always use the gear that makes you pedal at an insane rate too? This should apply to car, you use the gear that is not going to bog the engine and still let you accelerate. The FRS can easily accelerate at 60 mph in 6th gear.

Driving with the engine at 5000-7000 RPM is the stupidest thing I ever heard, did anyone teach you or you just do what you want? Listen to your friend buddy.

You're not damaging the motor at all, but you are burning more gas than is necessary for just cruising on the freeway.

6th gear is the long overdrive gear in this car, and should be used when you're just cruising on the freeway, so as to maximize gas efficiency. That leaves you LOTS of "gas budget" for getting your foot into it when maneuvering around traffic or canyon carving. If you need to pass, just downshift to 4th, do your stuff, and return to 6th.

But staying in 4th for highway speeds (65-80 mph) is simply running the engine revs higher than they need to be for what you're doing, and just using up more gas than is reasonable for just cruising in a straight line. Save the gas for maneuvers and fun. Save the gas during all the long boring bits.

Hi All,
Thanks for the helpful replies. It's weird realizing that something I've been doing (and thinking nothing about) was wrong the whole time. I like to go about 80 on the highway and I think most people on my commute prefer 60-70, so I am constantly passing people -- I just haven't been downshifting to do it! Time to break this bad habit...

Yeah but flooring your car at 35mph in 6th gear is not good and is definitely not getting you good gas mileage.

I cruise around in 5th at 35mph and down shift to speed up or go up a hill

It's only really bad for your gas mileage. True, we didn't buy this car for the gas mileage, but neither did we buy this car to get only 21-22 mpg out of a 2.0L 200hp low torque car either. That's just stupid.

I look at it like this: I shoot for about 300-320 miles per tank. To get there, I can't have my foot in it all the time, but I refuse to drive like grandma either. So, there's times to be efficient as hell, and other times to just rev her to the limit and shift and get back on the throttle. One saves gas and the other drinks it up.

Use your gas budget wisely and use that 6th gear. It's VERY long for a reason.

Or NA w/E85. :D I pass in 6th all the time now, the extra power is extremely noticeable in any gear.

Bad idea. That is a good way to bend a rod or throw a baring.

^ this

You're flooring it in the top gear. This isn't some CVT. Still need to follow some sort of upward progression through the gears to get you up to speed, and then jump up to cruising gear.

That's very true... I was E85 with header before going turbo, and 6th gear was actually very usable. :thumbup:

Highest gear for the speed without bogging down the engine. For cruising, anything over 45 is 6th gear for me. If its really flat or slightly downhill, maybe even 40.

For a normal pass, I will go down gears (usually just 1) to get it to 4k or so and then back to highest gear. The car never really sees above 4k RPM on my commute to be honest, past that and its hard to maintain traction and my dump pipe can be heard from 5 miles away making me look like an asshole in traffic.

Cruising around at 50+ in anything other than 6th gear is just stupid. Tracks, back roads, etc are another story obviously.

I don't think I would trust you for advice on what's OK to do with this car...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57094

For what it's worth, I always drive stick shift cars in the highest gear where I'm not lugging the engine, unless I am actively passing someone, or driving in a sporty fashion over a mountain pass, or on a track or something like that. Cruising around at 45+ is pretty much always in top gear in pretty much every car (though I do sometimes have to use 4th instead of 5th at 65-70mph in my Outback when in the mountains, since it needs the extra power to climb some of the hills).

I'm not talking about running full boost at 2500 RPM in 6th gear... What I had in mind was something like cruising at 3000 RPM in 6th gear and just lightly applying the throttle. It'll build a little boost.. maybe not even positive boost. But that's more than enough to be passing cars.

There is an important element of personal preference here, and this is a subtlety that is often lost on today's youth. For all their boasting of acceptance and tolerance, they can be stunningly intolerant of other's choices.

In simple English that means: What you're choosing to do with your car is not "wrong."

However, keeping your revs in the 5000–7000 rpm range will decrease fuel economy and increase wear.

With modern synthetic oils, the wear issue is probably less than it once was, but still…

I wonder what your fuel economy numbers are while driving this way?

In any case, if the increased fuel costs are acceptable to you, then those are just the dues you pay to indulge this preference of yours. If you make an informed choice, aware of the costs, then who am I to say you're "wrong." It's just not optimum for fuel economy and wear. I imagine it's kind of noisy, too, which may annoy others around you.

It's loud and intrusive. I keep things quiet when around others, but I understand that you younger ones may enjoy doing something else. I confess I smile when I hear some kid getting on it, hard, in his Evo, or whatever, around my village. ;)

Cruising around in lower gears at 5000 rpm is entirely too much commotion for me.

Consider that driving around in 6th gear at 5000 rpm would put you at 113 mph. Assuming it were possible to sustain such speed all day, every day, would you not agree that this would result in additional wear and tear? The components of your engine don't care what the road speed is, just what the rpms are. They care about "lugging," too, but that's not an issue at 5000 rpm.

Normal cruising finds me around 2000–3500 rpms in whatever gear is appropriate given the speed limits, traffic, and conditions. I'll try to keep it at the lower end of that range, except that I'll climb grades at 3000+ rpm to avoid lugging the engine.

My engine does not like to be lugged at low rpms up grades any more than my knees like climbing grades in big gears at low rpms on my bicycle. I downshift and get the rpms up for the hills.


So, is it worth the additional wear and tear, accompanied by higher fuel bills?

You choose.

Have fun, keep everyone safe, and watch out for Enforcers. :)

I think the simplest answer is if you try to accelerate but the engine is being bogged down then you are in too high of a gear.

BTW cruising around at 5000rpm wouldn't that be like tracking your car everytime you driving it? Then that's like due for an engine rebuild at 60,000km even on Motul 300V? Hope you have an oil cooler and some gauges. :D

UEL's, 100% catless, N1 catback and I rarely go out of 4th...I'm going to hell when I die aren't I?

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No, but you are making Saudi princes that much richer :D

I have a ton of fun in my car, but I don't drive like a tool around the city and through neighborhoods. I have a combined 29.2mpg right now.

Sports car doesn't mean you have to redline it all the time. You can keep it in the mid range a lot too and still have fun hitting corners aggressively. Pushing the car to the limits all the time on the streets is just asking for trouble in more ways than one. From the sounds of it you are likely really young and will learn.

Had a friend with a wrx that was anti 5th gear on highways for some reason, motor ended up blowing cruising on the highway one day. Car only had about 50k miles on it. Not saying the high rpm was the direct cause of the failure but I'm sure it didn't help either.

Id rather NOT know what his oil temps reach after a short cruise.

+1 to what everyone else has already said.

In a NA car you want to be in the highest gear possible without lugging the engine for the lowest wear and highest fuel efficiency.

In turbo vehicles this isn't always the case as turbo efficiency can change your overall efficiency. My STi loves 5th vs. 6th at low highway speeds.

The kid isn't even out of HS yet. He's lucky he has such a nice car.

When I was his age I was allowed to drive A car. That car wasn't mine, it was my parents', and it was a 1987 Honda Accord with over 100k on the ODO. It was a POS, in short. Well-cared for, OLD (only younger than me by 3 years), POS. And I enjoyed the freedom such access gave me.

Don't abuse your first car, kid (not speaking to @woode here) even if it's a beater, let ALONE if it's a brand new car that's actually yours.

this just seems fucking lazy

It can be bad for the engine to be spinning extremely slowly with a very high throttle setting (in other words, if you're climbing a hill doing 1300 in 6th while floored), but as long as you aren't flooring it all the time at low RPM in high gear, you should be fine.

You are.

Ummm it turned out that nothing was wrong with my engine. In fact I'm boosting my engine this weekend😊

Actually that Accord wasn't bad at all if you ask me (imo it was the first good one, car of the year in Japan when it came out in 1985). It had really cool flip up headlights, double wishbone at all 4 corners, low driving position and the steering felt really good once it stiffened up at high speeds / corners. You were a lucky kid! :thumbsup: