epkim

Need some advice:

Since premium gas prices have been killing me lately and I find myself turning into a 80 year old driver. When I first got my 6MT I shifted around 2.5-3k to break in the car, and now that I'm in Chicago and premium gas is running 2.45 a gallon I'm shifting at around 2k. My friend says that keeping the revs under 2k isn't good for my car because it puts strain on the engine. He drives a RSX-S and I don't know how valid his statement is.

As far as I know higher rev = more gas, I don't know if that's completely true. So is my low rev shifting okay for my TSX? I'm getting a little over 400 miles per tank, so I don't mind driving like this.. of course I occasionally redline to beat that riced out civic reving his engine at me :P

rb1

Well, it's not good to "lug" an engine, but an engine will typically tell you when it's lugging (it won't sound good, and you can't accelerate to any significant degree).

Light throttle at low RPM isn't going to hurt anything. If you need to accelerate at anything more than leisurely pace, you should shift later.

You aren't going to save that much gas by shifting at 2000 vs. 2500. The main way you can save gas (in town) is by envisioning your brake pedal as something that pours gasoline down the drain. Any time you brake (downshifting counts too), you are wasting the gas that got you to that speed in the first place.

Of course, this line of reasoning seems silly. You HAVE to brake. But anticipating stops and coasting as much as possible to stops will do as much for your mileage as any fiddling with shifting in 2000-3000 RPM range. Sure, if you were doing WOT jack-rabbit starts to the redline every time, we could look at the shifting angle, but not in your case.

Junkster

good call rb...
Breaking suddenly or harshly during in-city driving eats up alot of fuel which isn't being used to drive the car...

Don't forget idling, that's a killer as well.

Junkster, who thinks rev counting is only so effective

gocubsgo55

hence why highway mpg is better than city... smoother ride despite the engine working harder.

iamhomin

epkim, don't even bother shifting when it reaches 2k, it won't save much gas. If you want to be stingy with gas, remember to accelerate and brake smoothely. Those are the main factors.

biker

Search for sauceman's milage tips thread - he has everything in there and then some.

toddstuh

Short shifting will save you gas and the lower rpms aren't going to necessarily strain your engine.
Yes, it would strain the engine if you were trying to pull the car loaded with 4 people up a hill in 6th gear at 1500 rpms.
If you drop the revs too low, the car will groan letting you know you're going too slow for that gear.
if you watch your tachometer and keep it at 1500 or above, the engine will pull just fine.
City driving overall isn't good for your car and that stop and go city driving is whats killing your gas mileage. It takes alot more energy (gas) to get all of the mass of the car going from a dead stop. It takes less to maintain that speed due to the kinetic energy stored in the car. That's why highway driving is better fuel economy wise than city driving is.

When i'm in traffic I try to use second gear and creep slowly at a constant speed vs stopping and starting from 1st every 20 feet if possible. This works pretty well and the engine doesn't seem to complain.

Gas prices unfortunately are a fact of life. Just be glad you're not paying $8.00 a gallon as they currently are in London !!

epkim

Thanks guys, that's pretty useful information. Now I know why I spent a quarter tank of gas and only drove 50 miles. All these damn redlights and stop signs all over the place. And I haven't been on the highway for some time now. I guess I'll just have to live with high gas prices.

toddstuh

I knew I'd read this somewhere and just recalled that in the TSX sales brochure they state that the TSX is producing almost 90% of it's torque at only 2000 rpm. That's actually pretty sweet !