So this morning on the way to work I was driving down the highway at 60 mph when in my rearview mirror I see a 18 wheeler flying down the highway right behind me in my lane and looked like he/she/it might rearend me. I looked to my left and right and found I could not get over to another lane. I floored the gas pedal and it seemed to take a split second before the downshift kicked in and the car took off. As I was flooring it, I noticed that the tachometer was at 7000 rpms for a second or two before dropping back. I guess the forced downshift at the speed I was going caused the RPM speed to go up super high? So for a few seconds I was at 7000 rpms

So while I would not change a thing, my life is more important then a $16,000 car and a engine and trans can be replaced. I was wondering how much damage could I have caused? I have never seen over 3000 RPM's on an automatic transmission car before. After that event the car drove fine with no new or abnormal noises or driving issues. In fact it drove like before.

I know over reving a manual trans car can cause the valves to float(an get smacked by the pistons) or cause the oil pump to blow or cause the bearings to have issues.

Is there anything I should check or worry about?


I thought the car had a rev limiter?

 

Im sure the car is fine. If there was an issue you would have noticed it immediately. 2az is a tough cookie.

 

I don't think it is possible for an automatic transmission to downshift and over rev the engine, also, should be impossible for the engine to rev that high on it's own.

 

You can't really over rev an auto trans like that. Your fine. You would have noticed almost immediately if you broke something.

 

Car will be fine. Don't be a psycho though, if you see a truck coming behind you and you're already going 60, calm the **** down man. He's not going to run you over, it's ILLEGAL. Jeez man, have a little more faith.

 

OK, so maybe I'm stupid, but there's nothing on the road I trust more than a cop or next, a professional driver. If the closing distance was closing faster than comfortable, I would probably increase speed somewhat, but flooring it seems unlikely to be necessary. However, you were there, and presuming you kept your eye on the situation, you did what you had to do. Unless you have some specific trouble symptoms, I wouldn't be too much concerned about your auto trans !

 

You're fine, fughedda bout it!

 

never over 3000? bet you get pretty good mpg lol. the rev limiter is 6200 or 6300rpm so not even close to 7000. even in neutral you cant get to 7000 before it bounces.

 

thats why they have rev limiters...

 

Sounds like just the gauge got the jitters, possibly just a glitch in the electrical. I wouldnt sweat it unless you start seeing common/significantly noticeable problems. Same thing happens when installing racing gauges (sometimes they jitter).

 

You probably just thought you saw 7g don't be skeeeeerrd

 

I have a manual trans and I run it to the red line all the time. I've never had a problem.

 

Hard to judge without having been there.

I was once (in the 1980's) coming off the bay bridge back into S.F. I looked in my mirror and there was a semi moving at a strangely fast speed. It was faster than the flow of traffic. Red flags popped in my mind everywhere.

Then I heard the horn. Long truck horn. Short staccato Honk HOnk HONK. Long. Short bursts. At the same time my brain wraps around the fact that he's moving waaaay faster than the flow of traffic even though there's no room. Then he reaches the first car in front of him. Everything is moving in slow motion in my mind, as the truck shoves the first car out of the way, then the second, a couple more cars and he'll be on me. I swerve and pull over to the marked off divider area before the off ramp.

The truck clips two more cars and it's obvious that the truck driver is doing the best he can under the circumstances. Finally he has enough room to grind his truck into the side rail and come to a halt.

Really a weird sight. Traffic was stopped, cars and pieces of cars all over, but it didn't look like there were any serious injuries. The people from one car came over and asked for some help. They were in a bit of shock. One lady had small bleeding scratches from broken glass, but was ok. Another lady was fine, but her baby had soiled it's diaper (before the accident? during? who knows?) but I guess her primal instinct was to do something caring for the baby so she asked if she could change the baby in my car... sure...what could I say right?

Eventually ambulances and CHP showed up and I left it in their hands and took off. Plenty of witnesses involved in the accident already, they didn't ask me for any info.

Strange, but I had completely forgotten about that day until I read this thread.

Point being, you see something coming at you in the mirror, you're the guy/girl on the spot. If you have to move, I'll take your word for it.

Random: You know how in scary movies when people run from the crazed killer in the car/truck? Why do they run in a straight line down a paved road? Never understood the logic :D

 

Perhaps I'm an idiot, but why was the truck driver traveling fastest on the road? Well, guess I'll never know, but it seems nothing is negatively evident regarding road conditions. My preference is no-one run into conditions such as these, but if they arise, one is best off engaging their brain to escape the possible downside ! Unfortunately, one can't count on other drivers doing the right thing -- the welfare of you and yours is ultimately your own responsibility !

 

Yes, the car has a rev-limiter and it kicked in long before your engine ever reached 7000rpm. I've bounced mine off the ~6500rpm rev-limiter a few times and it doesn't hurt a thing. I've also had engine management installed that removed the rev-limiter and actually hit 7200rpm. Again, no harm done.

Relax and stay the %$^& out of the passing lane when cruising at 60mph!!!

 

Might have been a case of mistaken identity. You obviously were stressed at the time of incident, its possible you just thought you seen a 7 when it could have been something else? possible eye glitch?

 

I think you're on to something here. When my engine hit 7200rpm all I saw was the tach needle well into the red and near 7000rpm. I only know it hit 7200rpm because I was datalogging at the time and could view the log afterward. It was caused by a glitch in the APR X1 in-line ECU I was using that removed the oem rev limit. With the X1 removed the rev-limiter has never failed to work.