Redlined
 

:bonk:

So basically I am moron who can't drive. I was accelerating in 3rd to merge on to the freeway and some how instead of going into 4th and I down shifted into 2nd. I don't how I actually messed up the easiest shift in the world but I did. The car went over red line (~7800rmps) for a quarter of a second as I released the clutch. I slammed the clutch down as fast as I could when I realized what I had just done(while releasing a string of expletives). The car had been at least been warmed up for 15 minutes and just had it oil changed last week. Aside from obvious Learn To Drive idiot, anything I need to do short term for the car or to look for? The car seem fine on my two hour drive home.

:bonk:

If it really only went to 7800, you're probably fine. That being said, mechanical overrevs are bad; don't do that again.

sums it up nicely.

Consider doing a leak down/compression test in a week or two, better safe than sorry. Over revved my AP1 to 10k+ once. Car was fine but I didn't feel safe about the car until after the car was properly checked.

Would it be best if I had someone besides the dealer do this?

Is there a reason why I should wait a week or two to do this?

Considering there are people here who have their redline raised (ecutek, OFT) too 8K+ on a stock block. I wouldn't worry too much. I had an over rev once much greater than yours and I laid 172 hp at the wheels the following year, plus I've got almost 45k KM after said incident. I'm not going to say what the number was for fear of warranty getting voided (top 4th ->5th but decided last second I wanted 3rd for a corner - off ramp...whoops). But I also hit the clutch as soon as I realized what happened. I was so worried, like you I babied it home as gentle as possible, listening for anything abnormal. And as said above don't do it again! :)

Damage? probably not.
Logged over-rev on the ECU? probably, but I'm not sure how the stock ECU works, may or may not be able to be wiped.

Best to have independent shop check it out, and then try to find out if there's a counter in the ECU for these things. If there is a counter, try to see if you can reset it. Worst case, engine warranty just went poof.

I am curious as well if our ECU's record over-revs. I know other manufacturer's do such as Porsche, but I don't know about ours. Any ideas? Not that I have ever done it, but I have "friends" who have been too aggressive on their downshifts during spirited weekend driving on private paved areas.

It would be nice to know where the "red line" is in the rpm band mechanically. Manufactures often lower the red line paint to create less problems with the car over a whole consumer base. The same is done for fuel tank sizes.

I thought this car had a rev limiter?

Rev limiter cannot save you from a mechanical overrev.

And the dealer told me that these cars DO have a max RPM "watermark" stored in the ECU.
Dont know if it can be cleared.

Gotcha, if the ECU is similar to the WRX then you can clear the code by disconnecting the battery terminals.

I guessing this also does wonderful things to the security system and head unit?

oops, such a free revving engine it is an easy mistake to make and not just by selecting the wrong gear. One can make a similar mistake selecting what you think is going to be the right gear. Judging how low a gear to shift down to can be tricky because above 5,000 rpm the engine pulls well and is very noisy, even with the intake pipe noisemaker blocked off.

Just be aware that 8,000 rpm may be lunchtime for this engine