How often do you redline your car ?

RobAMerc

How often do you guys red line the engine ?
I am not talking about hitting the limiter now just blowing the cobwebs out of it.

rebel.ranter

A poll would be the way to go for this one?

I would calling it "streching the legs" of the car, so to speak. Every couple of weeks I would do a bit of brisk driving, holding on to the gears for a bit longer than normal.

unkel

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

Poll!

I redline all the time, i.e. every time I overtake

Owen

Every day pretty much. That's what it's there for.

RobAMerc

All the time - In every gear.

rebel.ranter wrote:

A poll would be the way to go for this one?

Jaysus your keen - give me a chance.

Your wish.....

prospect

All the time - In every gear.

Only when the engine has fully warmed up.

fletch

Yeh once the engine is good and warm, I would have no qualms about redlining it.

Villain

All the time - In every gear.

Used to do it all the time in my first Suzuki but my Opel Astra bottomed out at 5500rpm which was no fun and my Legacy is Automatic so while I get can it to 6000rpm when I have it set to power it changes gear after that.

unkel

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

I voted "all the time in every gear". But this is not true for the 5th gear, which I have never redlined...

jhegarty

Every once in a while - Its good for it

I don't ever do it... but has never stopped me speeding.....

JHMEG

When the engine isn't fully warm the ECU limits the RPM to about 6,000. Not that I would go past 4,000 when it's cold anyway. When warm it's limited to 8,500. It sees the limiter every day that I drive. If 8,500 was bad for the engine the limit would be lower.

R.O.R

Every once in a while - Its good for it

Voted never as I'm always a bit worried about breaking something in my own car, but if I'm not in my own car.......

They say that Hire cars are the fastest cars in the world, but that's only because they've never driven an ex-lease car that's coming back from a customer for a trade sale ;-)

quarryman

All the time - In every gear.

very rarely do it.

always wondered what effect it would have on the car. Assuming you do it once or twice a day what damage would it cause? Increase the liklihood of a blown gasket? (My knowledge on cars is limited).

SouperComputer

Depends on the car for me. They usually get a daily "clearout" at some stage. The beetle has never seen the redline as long as Ive had it, has good bottom grunt, runs out of puff 5400ish and redlines 6400 IIRC. The Taurus doesnt hit peak torque until 4500, so that you have to work a little harder.

Elessar

Quite shocked at the replies. I never go over 3000rpm in my polo, no need to, anything higher sounds like the engine will just explode.

Plus the red line is red for a reason.

unkel

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

Elessar wrote:

the red line is red for a reason.

Yep. To tell you it's time to switch up a gear

tc20

All the time - In every gear.

Recently bought a 00 Accord auto (2.0), so am still getting used to it. Has a nice snarl to it, for a 4 pot..

The other car is a 72 Merc W114, more suited to leisurely cruising, tho it has a nice 6cyl thrum . . .

RobAMerc

All the time - In every gear.

tc20 wrote:

The other car is a 72 Merc W114, more suited to leisurely cruising, tho it has a nice 6cyl thrum . . .

Any pics ? maybe pm so we dont go off topic.
Also it does not have a rev counter if i'm right ? Hard to know if your red lining !

Owen

Elessar wrote:

Quite shocked at the replies. I never go over 3000rpm in my polo, no need to, anything higher sounds like the engine will just explode.

Plus the red line is red for a reason.

So you're the car I'm stuck behind every morning on the way to work!

tc20

All the time - In every gear.

^ PM sent

Lord Nikon

All the time - In every gear.

Sometimes, not all the time, it costs me too much, and I like my mpg guage to the left not the far right. Mostly when overtaking though.

i'd like to see the replies to this in the Modified Motoring sub-forum

Santa Claus

To the lads who chose "all the time"....best of luck selling a car anytime in the future on adverts (aren't public polls great!)

commited

I redline all the time. It's a company car

Gerry

I'd take it over 5k every day, and into the red most days. Some days, it has been in there quite a bit though
I assume the redline is defined here as "into the red", but not as far as the limiter.
On my saab the hatched red starts at 5500 rpm, solid red at 5750, and at 6000 the fuel gets cut, which means its not a great idea to hit it when overtaking
The power is tailing off after 5500 anyway, so theres not much point. But I have done quite well on private airstrips against more powerful cars where the owner changed gear at 4000-4500 rpm.

Most people who've bothered to respond to this thread have a sensible approach towards revving the engine. I suspect this isn't an accurate representation of Irish drivers though.. most of them prefer to labour the engine, and are afraid of it exploding if its revved past 3k.

If you aren't into cars, fair enough. I think you should know or be instructed to rev the car sufficiently to avoid labouring the engine. This will help preserve the investment you've made in your a-b machine.

If you are "into" cars, and don't like revving the engine, sorry, you aren't really into cars.

mike65

Every once in a while - Its good for it

Never, cos I've never needed to and, b the engine would proberly explode. When I get the new timing belt (and kit) fitted I might treat myself!

Mike.

Rovi

I voted 'Regularly', in that the electrickery runs it to the red line before shifting the autobox up to the next gear when partaking of spirited overtaking and the like.
Speed limiter prevents it hitting the red in top (5th).

mik_da_man

I don't do it "all the time" but do it every day.
I don't go bouncing it off the limiter but why only use up to 3500 RPM when your engine can easily go to 6000+ ??

It's like buying a bar of chocolate and only eating 75% of it in case the last 25% might make you sick!

Mik

l33t-krew

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

tbh its just different cars.

My peugeot for example shows 4k as been redline and the car dosent feel right going high so I change at 2.5-3k.

My MR2 however redlines after 6k and only goes solidly red at 8k.

I rev it high but not extortiantly. It says in the manual, loweve revs are worse for the car than high revs

So I will rev when im in the mood (and I only drive the car when im in the mood) at 5-6k

I love that car

Shame I have to sell it :eek:

Captain Slow IRL

All the time - In every gear.

I haven't redlined my current car - no power after 5k anyway! I'll open it up every so often, to clean the exhaust out though;)

colm_mcm

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

No harm, wouldn't be hopping it off the rev limiter or anything, but would be up there when overtaking.

zilog_jones

All the time - In every gear.

I have no rev counter in my Fiesta so don't know where the redline would be - what I get instead on the instrument panel is a silhouette of a car, possibly to remind me that I am driving a car (though the silhouette in question looks more like an Escort...).

It's a pushrod too, so I'd say it wouldn't be very high.

colm_mcm

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

the picture of the car on the instrument panel was cutting edge in the late 80's.

unkel

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

Gerry wrote:

I suspect this isn't an accurate representation of Irish drivers though.. most of them prefer to labour the engine, and are afraid of it exploding if its revved past 3k

Indeed. A quick guessculation would show that a 1.0 petrol car never going over 3k rpm will use not much more than 25-30BHP :eek:

dubtom

Every once in a while - Its good for it

My last 2 cars have been auto's, I wouldn't screw any car unless i was on a track.I find I can still speed if need be without the engine screaming. It seems to be the done thing now,exit the petrol station,tyres schreeching, tearing the b****x out of the pimped fiat uno. I didn't realise it was actually GOOD for the car,respect.:rolleyes:

OKenora

Every once in a while - Its good for it

LOL, can't redline mine, give her that much beans in 1st or 2nd gear and it simply kicks in traction control wasting your power, or screams the engine for no real reason other than it makes a lot of noise. 3rd to 4th change is best about 3000revs as well. With 100mph coming at 3000 revs in top gear I don't want to redline it there either.....0-60 is a good bit under 8 secs without ever crossing 4000 revs. In theory top speed is 166mph at redline, get me a long straight private road and a spare engine and I'll test it (probs only about 145-150 in real life)

For the "I always redline it" people, you do realise most cars have less power at the redline than just below it and redlining it in each gear is slower than changing a few revs earlier ? So screaming your engine is doing nothing but wearing it out quicker, change before redline for max power use to keep the car in it's power band and not simply at it's max revs. MAX REVS NOT EQUAL TO MAX POWER and it's power that accelerates you, revs simply limit the top speed.

It's like buying a bar of chocolate and only eating 75% of it in case the last 25% might make you sick!

But if you knew the last 25% would definitely make you sick, would you still eat it ? Thats the same as redlining all the time, it will make your car sick far quicker than a change 500 revs earlier.

Poll needs another choice anyway

OPTION: I never redline. my car has enough power to stay within power band without it.

Munurty

When it takes 18 seconds to get to 60mph and max power is at 5000rpm you need to rev a bit to get anywhere in a one litre:)

mik_da_man

OKenora wrote:

But if you knew the last 25% would definitely make you sick, would you still eat it ? Thats the same as redlining all the time, it will make your car sick far quicker than a change 500 revs earlier.

Well my car has a broken red line for a while before the solid one.
I hit that area most days.
However the solid red line is @ 7000 (ish) and I dont hit that
And I like choclate and I would prob chance eating the last 25%

OKenora wrote:

Poll needs another choice anyway

OPTION: I never redline. my car has enough power to stay within power band without it.

Well It's lucky for some who have high powered cars - Not all of us have that luxury

Mik

Gerry

Heh, people have different definitions of it. The redline is the end of the rev counter, as far as I'm concerned, that or revving the engine until the limiter cuts in.
Before this is the solid red part, and before that, the hatched red part.
The owners manual for my car says its ok to bring it into the hatched red part momentarily.

OKenora - yeah, theres no point in revving it as far as the limiter in most cases, as the power peak has passed.
I'm not sure the OP meant "do you rev the car as far as the rev limiter, every day" - moreso "do you rev the car nearly as far as it".
If you don't rev your car past 4k rpm, you aren't getting all the power out of it.

onemanband

My car has a cool system whereby the redline moves as the engine gets run in. Typically starts at 5,000 rpm when cold and takes about 5-6 mins to move up to 8,500 rpm.

Rarely gets redlined though.

l33t-krew

Regularly - It happens in my normal driving

hmm.

My definition of red lining is to take it up to where the cross hatching starts.

No need to go higher :cool: considering it starts red lining at 6000rpm:p

JHMEG

Gerry wrote:

theres no point in revving it as far as the limiter in most cases, as the power peak has passed.

Yeah, but, there'd be even more power lost by doing a gear change!;)

Try do 0-60mph going 1st-2nd, then try doing it upshifting slightly earlier and going 1st-2nd-3rd.

maidhc

All the time - In every gear.

Gerry wrote:

If you don't rev your car past 4k rpm, you aren't getting all the power out of it.

I bring my car up the red line occasionaly, but never when driving normally as it is little use doing so in a diesel.


For those who say that no harm can come of it I wish ye luck. Any machine is more prone to breaking when it is under stress, and a machine will be under more stress when it is being hammered. A newish car is probably well able to do it, but I wouldn't be doing it to a car that has a bit of work done. Its just about being sympathetic to the car.

blastman

I hardly ever redline (as in the end of the red or bounce off the limiter). But the redline in my car only starts at 8000rpm. It would be rude not to rev it, though, considering the fun starts at just over 5000 rpm!

RobAMerc

All the time - In every gear.

Gerry wrote:

Heh, people have different definitions of it. The redline is the end of the rev counter, as far as I'm concerned, that or revving the engine until the limiter cuts in.
Before this is the solid red part, and before that, the hatched red part.
The owners manual for my car says its ok to bring it into the hatched red part momentarily.

Ok I will try be more clear... The "redline" is when you rev the car until the needle goes into the part of the rev counter that has a "Red Line" beside it.
The rev limiter is something that cuts in to stop the engine blowing up due to over revving. I cannot see where the confusion is to be honest.

Slaanesh

I redline at 12,500 rpm sometimes. Very loud though.

Gerry

JHMEG: correct, but if you aren't going for the last tenth, its better to just change gear.
Another time its worth revving to the limiter is on the track, lets say you are coming up to a corner, and you get to the redline in second. Theres no point in going into third, as you'll waste more time changing back down a second later

blastman - do you have a honda with vtec or some other variable valve timing setup? Those cars love being revved

I wonder though, how many new model celicas are out there with vvti or vvt-li that has never activated

blastman

Got it in one, Gerry

Gerry

RobAMerc wrote:

Ok I will try be more clear... The "redline" is when you rev the car until the needle goes into the part of the rev counter that has a "Red Line" beside it.
The rev limiter is something that cuts in to stop the engine blowing up due to over revving. I cannot see where the confusion is to be honest.

Ok, heres a picture of my car:



The solid red starts at 6k rpm, this is also when the limiter cuts in. But this all varies between cars.

barryfitz

I have no redline, Does that mean i can rev it to infinity! In fact I have no Rev counter, Does that mean my car doent need to be monitored and I can do what I like:D :eek:

Gerry

Yep

onemanband

Slaanesh wrote:

I redline at 12,500 rpm sometimes. Very loud though.

What car has a redline starting at 12.5k rpm??