I was on an hour long trip for a birthday party cruising on the freeway going about 70.

Saw a clear stretch of road in front and decided to stretch the ole girl out a bit. Downshifted from 6th to 4th but got stuck mid throw, over compensated by throwing the shifter to the left and hit 2nd gear instead at about 65 mph.

Let out the clutch and my engine screamed to 8k! I didn't give it any gas but the engine and drivetrain was probably connected for a good 1-2 seconds before I hit the clutch and brought it back into 4th gear.

I was pretty worried at this point, took a few stretches from 60-110 mph WOT and car didn't make any odd noises and no CEL. I think I'm okay as the car runs like it always has but I do believe I caused some minor damage to the engine.

Just wanted to share my stupid experience and ask for some input from the technical gurus here. Have I drastically reduced the lifespan of my car? Is something going to blow in the next couple months because of this? I have read that most modern engines are designed to rev over redline for like 20 minutes before blowing something major.

Oh and I drive a 08 TL-S 6MT with about 5.7k Miles.

 

i think second gear goes upto 60MPH. but at 65MPH, why didnt you downshift into 3rd? assuming you wanted to accelerate quicker.

 

Sorry to hear that, bro. It sounds to me that there is a very high chance that you might have some bent valves. You'll know if this is true when your MID indicates CEL's which come out to be "misfires in random cylinders", "multiple cylinders", "all cylinders", etc.

Keep us updated on what happens! Hopefully you're fine.

 

Sucks man, I would feel very bad after doing something like that to my car

 

He said he made a mistake...
like a misshift!

Coming from an RSX-S with a redline of over 8K I have over redlined the TL a few times already. It can't help but mess with your mind to think that you did something really really bad and something must be broken but it probably isn't. Just drive nice with her for a few days and you'll feel better.

CEL or something wrong would have indicated a problem. On the TL, if I'm doing 80 MPH I can drop back to 3rd and it'll pump up to about 5K rpm and then I can hit 4th with a little ooommppffff!



On the other hand...you probably ruined that hunkajunk...i'll take it off your hands dirt cheap since it'll probably end up having to be a rebuilt title. (just kidding).

When I let someone test drive the rsx...this punk kid that was interested in buying mis shifted into 2nd and I saw the redline go past 9K...he apologized but I felt like beating his ass. SUCKS! But nothing was wrong with it.

 

aaaaaaahhhhhh 9K its meant to do that

I'm sure its fine, whats the valvetrain good for on these cars?

 

Well..This happened Friday night, and it's now Wednesday, this car is my daily commuter and I've been driving it around, had to drive an hr back from the party to my house as well and so far so good. I've been stretching her out from time to time as well to try to trigger a CEL or something cause I'd rather catch a problem early than let it fester into a bigger issue.

No CEL, no weird noises, no performance changes, no vibrations or cornering issues.

I think I might have lucked out, but I still think I probably took about 20k miles off of the lifespan of my car..

 

If he would have done that he might have shifted into 1st..... Just messing with you OP

 

AT > MT

on a serious note...hopefully nothing happened.

 

Well you're over the first hump.. you are being cognizant of any extraneous sounds and behavior from your engine. You may wish to consider having, or doing, a compression check real soon.

 

Its possible you could have spun a bearing. You are probably fine. If you bent valves I'm sure you would know by now.

 

I thought usually if you have a spun bearing you hear a very loud ticking inside the engine. I have heard a couple motors before with spun bearings and its VERY obvious. He says nothing has changed on the car whatsoever so im sure its fine. If you damaged something internally you would most likely know it right away.

Enjoy and be careful.


James

 

This happened to another member but he wasn't that lucky and blew the motor. I also have a 6MT and if I really want to take off fast, I always hit third......You will never get into first at that speed so you wouldn't have to worry about things like this. The car sounds ok.

 

Doubt anything happens, this engines are rev happy

 

Yes, but a mechanical over-rev is different from a throttle induced one (wont happen).

Only if you cant drive stick!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have heard a couple motors with spun bearings also. Yes the majority make noise. I had a H22 with bearing damage and it didnt make noise. So yes it is possible there could be bearing damage but unlikely. Thanks!

 

I would just drive it and if you ever have a problem then deal with it. Thinking you took 20K off the life of the car seems like a pretty arbritrary assumption. I think you're fine. If there was something major...you wouldn't HAVE to pay attention to a weird noise, I'm sure it would be apparent.

About the mechanically induced vs. throttle...I'm not sure I know the difference!

 

I agree just drive it and don't worry about it. I'm sure it will be fine.

 

i think you should be fine

 

Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

Makes me feel less paranoid.

 

mechanical over rev is due to downshift into too high of a gear, as what happened to the OP. Engine rpms will sky-rocket in order to try and sync up with the speed of the tranny.

throttle over-rev is what would theoretically happen if our cars didnt have a rev-limiter and you just rev that car past its redline. However, since we have a rev limiter, the ECU will cut off fuel delivery at redline which will stop it from over revving.

 

Thanks for the info! Good to know...well I've definitely MECHANICALLY fucked my car over in the past then...pretty embarrassing and hurts the soul...but didn't do any damage thank goodness.

!