Hi guys,

I'm taking my first short thruway road trip in my xA, and wanted to ask what's safe/not safe for pushing the car. In 5th gear I hit 3000 RPM at around 60 mph, and don't know if it's bad for the car to push it to 70 mph for extended driving (will be on the highway for about 65 miles). I'm used to a v6 automatic tranny, so a little 4 banger MT is new to me. I know driving around at 4000 rpm won't hurt anything, but don't know about long term wear & tear...

Thanks for any input!

 

Your xA should be happy at 4000 RPM all day. Our little engines are built for that sort of use.

Tomas

 

I wouldn't say they were built for THAT sort of use...hehehe. I think these little engines were built for city driving and economy, not running at 4000 RPM all day....but 65 miles or even 150 miles at 4000 won't hurt you IF YOU ARE OVER 1000-1500 MILES (break in period).

The 5 speed is geared a little lower (higher RPM) than the auto, but I'm sure plenty of thought went into design and R&D for these types of situations. You should be fine.

On a side note...we travel A LOT with ours, coast to coast...sometimes in just a few short days and it was running around 3000-3500 RPM (auto) for quite an extended period of time and haven't had any issues as of yet. We keep the oil changed at 2500-3500 miles and vary the RPM at times on long runs.

 

I'm with Tomas- my 5 speed seems perfectly happy at 80-85 mph... Don't let it overheat from low oil or low coolant or a plugged radiator, and you should be good to cruise at the legal limit anywhere in the US...

Observing the factory recommended breakin period is never a bad idea...

 

I'm at 4-5.5k RPMs for 3-4 hours at a time...

 

I've been at 4-4.5k RPM for about 8 hours straight. No issues.

Engines are made for this.

Has it ever occured to you that companies don't just piece together cars, but actually research on how to build them correctly, and also do a lot of research and development?

 

I drove from Worcester, MA to Lusby, MD and back in a 24hr period. Had the box revving at 3000+ the whole trip. It was a total of 970 miles. The box should fine, like ^^^ said, Im sure the designers took into account that people would drive their cars for longer than 10min at a time.

 

no worries - it's under warrranty, right?

 

Yea I have had no probles in the city with that RPM rang and when I go to Cali. It runs great at a steady 85mph.

 

ive ran 65 MPH pulling a trailor(800 lbs) at 3800RPM, got the best gas milage ive seen in my car, 38 MPG

 

It's more about what's comfortable than safety. After about 70 MPH, the noise and vibration make my xB (5 speed) feel less comfortable riding in for a long distance. I also got used to driving a big v6 auto which would be spinning a little less than 2,000 RPM at 75 MPH. I'm sure I'll drive faster on my road trips once I install cruise and maybe add some insulation to the hatch.

 

I run mine at 80 for an hour on the way to work, I have the 5 speed manual xb, and its doing just above 4k, but I've run mine for 20-30 minutes at 6k still runs fine thats about 110 by the way

 

i drove at 4000rpm and higher for over 300 miles.......rest stopes ever 2+ hours......it was a drive from atlanta to myrtle beach........no problems for me and its a 5 speed.......i did 6K plus at about 110 to 120 for about 20 minutes and then the car starts to slow down from oil and water temp.........

 

This sort of question came up a short while back in another forum, while I was in Montana, and I responded there...

http://www.clubxb.com/forums/72870-post15.html

Tomas

 

Keep changing your oil on schedule and your car can take it. I don't go easy on mine at all. lol. I'm not worried.

 

thanks for all the input, sounds pretty reassuring.

 

Dont forget this is why the manual gets 1 mpg rating lower than the auto, as the auto spins at a little under 3k for me anyway at these speeds 70and under

 

yeah, don't worry about it. A couple friends and I took 2 boxes 7 hours each way between atlanta and orlando this past weekend to go to nopi. Besides some exhaust drone, nothing was wrong with either box after each trip

 

I don't know about the xA, but for my xB a manual says:
xB — MAJOR TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS p.37
Performance
Max. Cruising Speed km/h (mph) 145 (90)
Max. Permissible Speed km/h (mph) 169 (105)

Also keep in mind that the speedometer indicates a faster speed than actual. When my speedo indicates 60 mph, my ScanGuage displays 56mph. At 80 mph, the ScanGuage displays 74 mph. At a true 90 mph, the speedo would indicate almost 100 mph, but I have not been there. At a true 105 mph, the speed would indicate almost 120 mph, which some people have seen.

The speedo is calibrated a little high so drivers don't go faster than they intend, and is then caused to read even higher by the little 185/60R15 tires used in the US vs the 185/65R15 used in Japan. The ScanGuage takes its information from the engine computer and is more accurate.

 

What exactly happened? Do you have guages to show the temps, and what did they show? High temps by themselves can't slow the engine, but they reflect overheating and expansion and reduced piston to cylinder clearance that cause more friction. This could cause tightness in the cylinders, a slowdown and even some seizing. Common in air cooled engines but I wouldn't think it likely in water cooled.