RPM ranges and Gear Shifts

[hari-bhari]

I know there have been a couple of threads on this, but I couldn't find an answer. I have an I4 auto, so to get decent acceleration I have to take it up to at least 3000-3500 rpm. I used to drive it real hard, taking it to about 5000 every time, but now i have eased off after realizing that this would kill my engine fast. Will 3000-3500 hurt the engine if i keep taking it to that level? I dont want my engine to blow out at 100,000 miles. I notice our 95 avalon xls (v6) that I only need to take it up to 2000 rpm or 2500 (max) to get the acceleration I want, but in the solara, to even get moving to where ppl arent honking their horns at you takes at least 3000-3500 rpm in first and second gear. And still, every once in a while, to pass someone or when going up a hill I have to hit 4000 rpm. So is my engine gonna blow faster? The second question I had was about shifting gears. Is it safe if I'm going up a hill, and don't want to mash the accelerator, to just downshift into '2' while still moving. Also, is it safe to put the car into neutral while it is still moving so it can just roll? And if you are in slow moving traffic, between 20-30 mph with constant stop and go, will it be better for hte engine to leave the car in '2' so that the transmission won't even shift into third and fourth, thus putting less wear and tear on it. Sorry for the long post guys, just want to take care of my baby

[Yanks0114]

Come on man, its a toyota. While reving as high as 5k every time isn't reccomended, 3-4k is necessary to get up to speed. Your car will easily make it past 100k miles as long as you take care of it (IE, regular oil changes). Also I wouldnt reccomend putting it in 2 because then the engine will hold the gear longer and rev higher, that alone is worse than shifting into 3rd. Disengaging the car into neutral won't hurt the car, but when you put it back into drive and they link up, thats not great for your tranny. Leave it in D and just go

Remember, people who know nothing about cars buy toyota and still get 200k miles out of them.

[700t]

You don't need to worry about blowing your engine,it's not even supercharged, blown or variable valve lift. Toyota does grueling tests on all of their engines. So go ahead and take it to 6000rpm every time you take off and have fun.
Few things you should do is regular oil changes and don't rev it past 3000rpm until the engine has had a few minutes to warm up from a cold start.

[Guest]

haha thanks guys. the question now is this: i blew the engine on the 95 avalon by (i think) pushing it too hard. bear in mind this engine had 140k on it, and i had only been driving it for a couple days (back when i first got my license and before we bought the solara). but i was on the highway, floored it for fun, and the engine jus starting making the clanking noise, the completely died. had to switch 4 lanes in like 20 seconds cuz the car was slowing down. wouldnt start back up, had to get it towed, and then we had to pay $3600 (toyota was nice and payed for half) fora 'new' engine that had 60k on it. so that's why im worried....

[Mole]

automatic trannys has one job to fulfill, and that is to shift automatically. no need to do all that stuff in fwys. the only time you would actually pop into 2nd or 1st would be a hill or steep hill where you are not going to go fast.

[hari-bhari]

sorry guys, the post above about the avalon engine blowing was me...so im still worried

[Flipside909]

sorry guys, the post above about the avalon engine blowing was me...so im still worried

You're getting paranoid over nothing.

[hari-bhari]

well can you blame me? we had to shell out $3600 for a new engine when i blew the one in the avalon, and it only had 140k! i dont want a repeat of that

[xyntax]

...I have an I4 auto, so to get decent acceleration I have to take it up to at least 3000-3500 rpm...

Is the 5SFE solara really that slow? I rev mine(2AZ-FE) 2500 - 3000 and it runs up to 40mph quickly. If I go over 3000 it goes faster. Maybe I'm a light driver or something. Your body weight might have something to do with it.

[hari-bhari]

Your body weight might have something to do with it.

haha body weight, i weigh 125 and im 5'11", pretty skinny if ya ask me.

Is the 5SFE solara really that slow? I rev mine(2AZ-FE) 2500 - 3000 and it runs up to 40mph quickly

I'm still not familiar with all these engine codes. what is a 5sfe and a 2az-fe. All I know is mine is a 2000 I4 auto (before they made it VVTi).

[AzN_DrAgoN48]

2az-fe is the I4 with vvti don't have the hp or torque nymbers off the top of my head.


5s-fe is the I4 without vvti.


1mz-fe is the v6 with 200 hp and 216 torque

anyone correct my if i'm wrong

[xyntax]

Oh ok, scratch that "body weight" issue then
Your car has the 5S-FE engine: 2.2L & 135HP
2002 and 2003 I4 A/T Solaras have 2AZ-FE engines: 2.4L & 158HP

I was not aware that the 5S-FE versions were that slow as you have described. Anyone have a similar problem?

One thing though, I complain about my car's performance when I'm driving in the Santa Cruz mountains. Sometimes, it is faster than I expected sometimes too slow that I end up speeding when the road switches downhill. I hate that.

[Jackass-Jeff]

Yea, my 2az runs a lot faster than most people go from a stop going up to about 2500 rpm (it makes sense... just takes a few reads to fully grasp)

My aunt has the 5S, and that isn't too bad... unless it's differently tuned in the Solara and Camry (she has a 01 Camry LE Auto) but I didnt feel that I have to drive to 3000 to get decent accel.

Im sure you can still get at least 100k out of it driving to about 4k. But if you keep the RPMs down to 2500, you can probably get like 500k+ =P