2002 Corolla 5 speed high RPM @ Highway speed

[BungiFungi]

Hello everyone, I am new here (new car to me) and have a question

I have an 2002 Corolla CE 5 speed 127,xxx in which the RPMs seem too high sometimes, but only at faster speeds in 5th gear, otherwise everything is perfect

~2100 @ 55 mph
~2200 @ 60 mph
~2700 @ 65 mph
~2758-2800 @ 70 mph

This seems way too high for my liking, what is normal?

And the engine is well warmed up and I am certain I was in 5th gear, any ideas? I would really like to be able to go faster than 60 mph (thats as fast as I took it with such high RPMs). I am used to driving a diesel car and large V8 gas engines so maybe that is normal?

[geocrasher]

Thats not high RPM's at all. Gas/Petrol engines, especially 4cyl engines like to rev. They make power at least around 3000 rpm. Climbing a hill at 3500-4000rpm is no big deal. You'll be fine. Hit the pedal and GO

[brusk]

Originally Posted by BungiFungi

Hello everyone, I am new here (new car to me) and have a question

I have an 2002 Corolla CE 5 speed 127,xxx in which the RPMs seem too high sometimes, but only at faster speeds in 5th gear, otherwise everything is perfect

~2100 @ 55 mph
~2200 @ 60 mph
~2700 @ 65 mph
~2758-2800 @ 70 mph

This seems way too high for my liking, what is normal?

And the engine is well warmed up and I am certain I was in 5th gear, any ideas? I would really like to be able to go faster than 60 mph (thats as fast as I took it with such high RPMs). I am used to driving a diesel car and large V8 gas engines so maybe that is normal?

Something there seems to be off. RPMs's to MPH is linear as in every Y amount of RPM equal X amount of speed increase. So iff at 2100 RPM's your doing 55 and at 2200 your doing 60 then at 2300 you should be doing 65 not 2700.

[geocrasher]

Originally Posted by brusk

Something there seems to be off. RPMs's to MPH is linear as in every Y amount of RPM equal X amount of speed increase. So iff at 2100 RPM's your doing 55 and at 2200 your doing 60 then at 2300 you should be doing 65 not 2700.

I didn't notice that, looked right past it. Are you SURE that 5th is higher RPM than 4th? Try it at 50mph.

[brusk]

Originally Posted by geocrasher

I didn't notice that, looked right past it. Are you SURE that 5th is higher RPM than 4th? Try it at 50mph.

5th gear should never be a higher RPM that 4th. I'm just saying that gearing is linear if you doing 60 at 3000RPM's in 5th you know that doubling the RPM's at 6000 RPM's you should be doing 120. If you graphed your speeds and RPM's it should be a linear climb and shouldn't jump around. Maybe you want to double check that.

[geocrasher]

Originally Posted by brusk

5th gear should never be a higher RPM that 4th. I'm just saying that gearing is linear if you doing 60 at 3000RPM's in 5th you know that doubling the RPM's at 6000 RPM's you should be doing 120. If you graphed your speeds and RPM's it should be a linear climb and shouldn't jump around. Maybe you want to double check that.

I agree with you 100%. I was saying do it at 50mph for the purpose of clarifying and verifying that 5th gear spins the engine faster than 4th which is of course WAY off. In other words

50mph 4th gear = _____ RPM
50mph 5th gear = _____ RPM

for direct comparison.

[BungiFungi]

THanks for the replies everyone

I am not quite sure what you guys are saying between the 4th and 5th gear, should I go 50 mph in 4th and 5th and see which has lower RPM?

About the linear increase, it seems like a standard increase in engine speed, my numbers might be slightly off and the car runs smooth as could be I am just worried about running the car at 2800 RPM for a few hours at a time on the highway...

2800 RPM seems too fast to spin the engine at for multiple hours, am I just a worrywart or is that too fast for 65-70 mph?

Thanks again all!

[booze3800]

Don't worry about it, lol for the people like me with the 3 speed auto 75 mph is 3500 RPM. so it's hard to cruise any higher than that when you have to hear the motor turnin that fast. I usually travel the interstate between 60 and 65 mph in the right lane of course haha.

[fishexpo101]

Originally Posted by BungiFungi

....

2800 RPM seems too fast to spin the engine at for multiple hours, am I just a worrywart or is that too fast for 65-70 mph?

Thanks again all!

Don't worry about it - 3000 RPM is nothing to this engine. The power curve actually has a sweet spot at around 3500-6000 RPMs. Max torque is at 4400 RPMs, max HP generated at 5600 RPMs.

That said - assuming that you are in 5th gear with OEM transaxle, tires are the OEM size (185/65-14).

Your engine speed should be as follows:

2086RPM @ 55MPH

2275RPM @ 60MPH

2465RPM @ 65MPH

2655RPM @ 70MPH

There might be a slight variances due to gauge resolution, but looks like most of your numbers are within the ballpark.

Running the 1ZZ-FE engine at 2500-3000 RPMs is like idling a small block Chevy. No stress at all on this car/engine - like you said, you're just used to lower RPMs.

When I tow a smaller trailer on long grades - I routinely hit 4000+ RPMs for hours. No issues at all, over the 200K+ miles that I've driven my Corolla.

Just make sure you wind out out the engine a bit when shifting, since its sounds like you are used to shifting at lower RPMs, as that low RPM lugging can be harder on these higher revving engines than bouncing off the redline.

[geocrasher]

Originally Posted by fishexpo101

Don't worry about it - 3000 RPM is nothing to this engine. The power curve actually has a sweet spot at around 3500-6000 RPMs. Max torque is at 4400 RPMs, max HP generated at 5600 RPMs.

That said - assuming that you are in 5th gear with OEM transaxle, tires are the OEM size (185/65-14).

Your engine speed should be as follows:

2086RPM @ 55MPH

2275RPM @ 60MPH

2465RPM @ 65MPH

2655RPM @ 70MPH

There might be a slight variances due to gauge resolution, but looks like most of your numbers are within the ballpark.

Running the 1ZZ-FE engine at 2500-3000 RPMs is like idling a small block Chevy. No stress at all on this car/engine - like you said, you're just used to lower RPMs.

When I tow a smaller trailer on long grades - I routinely hit 4000+ RPMs for hours. No issues at all, over the 200K+ miles that I've driven my Corolla.

Just make sure you wind out out the engine a bit when shifting, since its sounds like you are used to shifting at lower RPMs, as that low RPM lugging can be harder on these higher revving engines than bouncing off the redline.

This, times 1000. Let it rev. Now, its a totally different car, but my 4cyl Montero gets BETTER mileage at 3000rpm for the same speed at 2500rpm, because its power band is up in the 3100rpm range. You're going to get BETTER performance and BETTER mileage by letting it wind up. Its what its made for!

[landphil]

These guys are right, let'er rip. Idling or lugging an engine is actually more harmfull to an engine then some revs. BTW, those speeds in 3rd gear is where some acceleration is at.

[dwebb01]

I think mine revs at about 3000 at 80. Here in Colorado, many sections of Interstate highway are at 75MPH, and I usually do 5 over. I wouldn't worry about it, 4 cylinders like to rev. Heck, my Mom's V6 Avalon likes to rev. FWIW, I used to drive an 86 El Camino with a 3 speed transmission. At 80 it was at 2900RPM and I would drive like that for hours and it never hurt anything. Gas mileage wasn't any better doing 65 either.

[geocrasher]

I once had a 1990 Toyota pickup with the 3.0 V6 and a 5 speed. Drove up a big summit in 3rd gear around 4500rpm the whole way. Got horrible gas mileage, but didn't complain any

[finkle1359]

My 7th Gen reved the same range. Still confused how 3000rpm at 75mph with my 95 5 speed can get better gas mileage than the 2300rpm auto in my 2000 at 75.

[BungiFungi]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to damage anything

You all have a very kind community here