Toyota car and truck forums

Hi there everyone,

My wife and I own a 2004 Toyota Corolla, and she is very sensitive about the RPMs. We're safe drivers, and try to treat our car well so that it will last as long as possible.

Anyways, my question is really about the RPM's. We try not to do any hard acceleration, but my wife has nagged me about accelerating too hard when we merge on to the freeway. She thinks she has heard something along the lines of not going above 3,000 rpm, so whenever I go above that, it is trouble. My view is that the redline is around 8,000 rpm, and 3,000 isnt anywhere near that, so going above it should be no problem.

I think I hit 3,400 and she didnt like this. The transmission works fine and switches gears fine, so my concern is whether or not hitting 3,400 consistently when merging on the freeway should be a major issue. Is 3,400 a major concern? What high rpm other than redlining it should be a major concern for us?

Sorry for the simple question, but I have a little wager with the wife here and would really like to see what your viewpoint is. Thanks!

Frankly, she's in the wrong on this - way in the wrong. Indeed, 4,000 would not be even remotely dangerous. Its worse to put a heavy load on the engine in too high a gear than it is to rev it to reasonable levels - and 4,000 rpm is certainly reasonable. If you hit the gas hard and make it really work at 2,500 rpm, you're putting a lot more stress on the engine than if you treat it the way it was designed to be treated.

I second toyodave's remark - lugging the engine, ie. running the engine with lower RPMs will much worse for it than running it to redline. Actually, just the process of starting an engine will put more wear on it than running it to its redline. Pressure from the valvesprings is reduced at higher RPMs than at lower RPMs. Sounds like she is reading too much into the numbers from the owner's manual - I believe they list the normal operating range (ie, city driving, highway cruising) to be between 2000-4000 RPMs. This was not ment to say that you cannot exceed these RPMs - just that the optimum power and performance can be found in this range.

Granted the Corolla is not a sports car - but running it to the upper reaches of the tachometer will not hurt it one bit. You may use more fuel in the process - but better to use a few more ounces of fuel than get hit from behind because you were shy of the go pedal. I'm also one to believe that you shouldnt "baby" a vehicle too much, just keep up on the maintenance, and drive as the conditions warrant. Couple of WOT (Wide Open throttle) applications and runs up and down the rev range also helps clean off accumulated carbon deposits inside the engine and is essential to proper engine break in.

In fact, it is not uncommon for Toyota to do durability studies where they take an engine and run it to redline over many hours, then breakdown the engine and look for evidence of wear. Many times, they find that there is minimal wear on the internal components. So when merging onto the highway or need to accelerate very quickly - give it some go pedal - you wont hurt the car one bit.

Thank you so much for your help. I told this to my wife, and she understands it pretty well. She is from Korea, and I guess many of the cars have a different system and arent supposed to go above 3,000 RPM. Korea also has a problem with cars getting weaker over time because some people only take their cars on local roads and never get time to drive on the freeway, probably causing the build-up of carbon deposits.

While I know this is an older message, I wouldnt worry about punching it.

I have an 04 that is right at 100k miles. It is a 5 speed manual, and I push it hard everyday. Merging on the freeway I am usually pushing it above 3500, and depending on the length of on ramp, probably up to 5000.

Oh, and I'm assuming this is the 1zz-fe powered Corolla. If so, the redline is 6500 rpms, and you dont really gain much if any above 6000. Unless I'm in a really tight bind I rarely ever go past 5500.

(as a note I do run synthetic oil...for what its worth)