Hey guys! Ive recently been told by a few people that granny shifting and driving around town in 5th gear (1200 rpms or so) is actually hard on my engine. Can anyone confirm some thruth to this? Thanks in advance!

 

dude, you don't want to be in 5th around town, i rarely get into third. granny shifting is perfectly fine though. just don't go any higher than 4th

 

Not how I would drive, I dunno if it's bad but it seems like it would be annoying.

 

i never heard that it hurts it. like said earlier i dont get above third if i do then the highest i go is fourth.

 

What engine do you have in your car? If it is the LSJ, it is really unhappy below 1500rpm and a little unhappy below 2000rpm. I normally take 1st to ~3.5k, with all the gears after that to 3k before shifting.

 

Hell yes too high a gear at too low of a speed is bad. Of course, define "around town"... if that's about 40 mph then you're okay. But if you're lugging the thing around at 25 mph in 5th... not good.

 

Very true. 40mph in 5th would put you at ~1500rpm. That is about the lowest you want to cruise the LSJ, or really any 4 banger. Well, some truck ones (such as the 2.9L found in GM small trucks) can handle the lower rpms ok as long as you kept it at ~1200rpm or up.

 

Flat straight road = no problem as long as the engine doesn't shudder or ping. If you come to a hill where it does this downshift.

In gas saving efforts Ford has put a shift light in the Focus this is mostly based on how hard you are pushing the accelerator (meaning if you are on a hill it won't tell you to shift into 5th), If I follow that light I'll be in 5th by 32-35 mph, but they forgot to include a downshift light, when you are hurting the engine or getting poor mpg

 

Its not hard on the engine, it will be hard on your clutch tho. Eventually you will burn it out.

 

For best gas milage you dont want to granny shift. we did a test in my buddys mach 1 mustang. changing gears at 1500-2000 rpms go him 9 mpg, changing gears at 3k got him 17, and changing at 4000 got him 13.

Mechanic said its because with such low rpms the car doesnt know wether to idle r not, its like confusing the car. Mechanic said you want to shift at exactly 3k rpms all the time.

 

dont lug the engine. <35mph = no 5th gear. you'll snap input shafts.

 

Just keep the RPM's 1500 and above and you will be fine

 

luggin' the engine is bad on a lot of parts. nearly the whole front of your car. Engine internals to begin with. Then think about the shuttering on your tranny which flows through the diff, drive shafts, and so on. But it's worst on your engine. They are designed for higher smoother RPMs. Same thing with a motor cycle. Just don't do it. With that being said. Take into account some of the other comments above. You don't have to red line every gear just don't cruise through town at 25mph in 5th gear. If you ever forgot you where driving a manual car and tried to stop in 5th you might have an idea of how bad things can get under the hood.

 

^^^stalling is the worst. I do that once in a while when I forget I'm driving stick (daily beater is an automatic). come to a stop and forget to push in teh clutch and leave in gear. horrible violent shaking, feels like the engine is gonna jump out

 

my girl lives in philly and even still if i'm not in the city... first off i shift at 3k granny shifting. slow accel... and i don't actually go into overdrive(5th) until 50-55. maybe if i'm on a long flat road speed limit is 45 i'll go to 5th just because i dont have to put any load on the motor or tranny. but dood don't use 5th unless your crusing or going past 49 mph.

anyone agree other than shift points... just on the 5th gear issue? cruising at 45 or so or above 50...

 

If you are just "cruising", as in not accellerating at all, it won't hurt anything. Everytime you need to accellerate you will have to downshift, then you will up shift again afterwards. Sounds like too much trouble to me. There is another reason not to do this though, DFCO (deaccelleration fuel cut off). DFCO does not activate until you go over a specified RPM. I am not sure about the 2.2 or 2.4 motors but on the LSJ DFCO does not activate until you are at 1500 RPM and at 36 MPH. With that in mind, 40 MPH is about 1500 in 5th. That is the absolute slowest I would drive in 5th gear. Anything slower than 40 MPH and you should be in 4th gear. Anything around 30 MPH or lower should be 3rd gear. You really aren't saving gas or helping the engine by running it at low RPM at low speed.

 

tranny is having more of a pita than anything... also. the motor will run just fine at any reasonable rpm... NOT RED LINE lol ass hats..

 

Thanks for all the answers guys! I will keep her in 3rd or 4th from now on, ill save 5th for highway driving lol.

 

wow, look at all the good advice in this thread
i'm going to pass this info onto my 17 yr old brother who started driving stick

 

This post is full of bullshit.

 

if the OP has the LNF it's a different story, the DI makes it possible to go below 1000RPM VERY VERY lightly on the accelerator and you can get yourself goin on the most ICY of streets, otherwise the torque hits and slams the RPM's thru the roof, the TCS kicks in eventually but on ice it's useless.

 

How is it full of bullshit? You can't give an answer that says it is bullshit if you can't back it up.

 

it's not bullshit it's along the lines of what i was saying just super detailed. but i believe the idle while in gear is 1100 on my ss/sc idk dont pay attention so dont take that into count. however the lowest speed i go in 5th is 55... the highest i go in 5th is like... hmm not so much yet only 143 or so. at like 3 in the morning on a monday morning at that lol i had like a LOOOONG PIECE of I-95 in front of me and i had to pee.

 

I did this once, I hope to never do it again

 

i don't go into fifth at anything lower than about 45. unless it's a VERY flat road. remember that if you're supercharged, more importantly than how low the rpms is is how low the boost is.