Red Lining

[aswearing]

not exactly a desirable practise, but i accidentally red lined while enjoying my drive home.

has anyone else done this?

[pgarner]

ive done it a couple of time when i had cheap floor mats in the civic they were bad for sliding up so when i changed gear the mat was holding the clutch pedal on the floor so when i was putting the power back on it was bouncing into the limiter around 7500 rpm redline was 6900

the mats were quicker disposed of into a burning skip

[aswearing]

i hate the sudden loss of power that throws you forward. which hurts at 60 mph

[HDi fun]

Red lining should be OK with a warm engine that's been fully serviced.

[fingers]

I do it all the time.

[waynne]

Redlining really does reduce the life of your engine. Peak power tails off before the redline so all you are doing is making a lot of noise.

Thinking about it though the noise is fun

Modern rev limiters stop sudden damage to an engine and if you get the engine balanced your red line will be higher.

Here was a once in a lifetime engine killing opportunity which taught me something interesting. In an Astra 1.4 increase your speed, drop down to 3rd where the revs will go beyond the rev limiter preset effectively disabling the rev limiter. It was an interesting exercise to note that the Astra rev limiter stops an engine reaching the rev limit but cannot reduce an engine to below that limit!

Dont try this at home though unless you really do want to blow up your engine.

[HDi fun]

Of course it can't. The car is hauling the engine above that limit mechanically.

[fingers]

Originally Posted by waynne

Peak power tails off before the redline so all you are doing is making a lot of noise.

I don't think my van has any peak power , it just screams and goes no where.

[HDi fun]

Changing down at 100 mph to 3rd gear is daft. Unless you drive an aston or Ferrari. If you had either then I'd like to think that you'd do like I would and place an order with the AUTO box ticked.

Manual boxes are old and outdated - yes you can get your engine to over-rev by selecting second gear at ninety miles-per-hour. That's a brutal way to prove a very childish point.

[pgarner]

Originally Posted by HDi fun

Manual boxes are old and outdated - yes you can get your engine to over-rev by selecting second gear at ninety miles-per-hour. That's a brutal way to prove a very childish point.

yes manual boxes are outdated but i like them. have droven a few auto cars and vans at various times but hate them. i just sit there and go i want to change to change gear and go for the clutch. this is not a good idea with a merc people carrier as the handbrakes in place of the clutch.


HDI the master of diesel can you answer a question for me a read that for part of a diesel mot the engine has to be taken to 3 times it maximum speed to test for smoke levels. i take it this means if your car has a red line of 4500 rpm then the engine is reved to 13500 surly this cant be right is it?