Highway cruising gear

[Rayme]

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.

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by Spartacus

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!

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.

[Spartacus]

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...

[STV3]

Originally Posted by Pegasus

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.

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

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by Spartacus

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...

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.

[Chauntalei]

Originally Posted by mkivsoopra

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

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

[Darkrune]

Originally Posted by mkivsoopra

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

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

[PBM317]

Originally Posted by STV3

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

^ 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.

[mkivsoopra]

Originally Posted by Chauntalei

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

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

[woode]

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.

[chrisl]

Originally Posted by cjsporl1996

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.

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).

[mkivsoopra]

Originally Posted by Darkrune

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

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.

[Porsche]

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.

[krayzie]

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.