3rd & Drive

[Rizzo]

I'm ashamed to admit that I spent the last week driving my new automatic Yaris in 3rd instead of Drive. I've been told in other Yaris communities that this isn't exactly a rare mistake, but I still feel like an idiot. What I'd reallly like is reassurance that this hasn't shortened my engine's lifespan by a good percentage or destroyed the transmission in some other horrible way.

And if it has, err, then what can I do about it? :)

Thanks for any pacification. If you want to call me an idiot, don't worry about it because I've done that enough for all of us. :brokenheart:

[Lafiro]

wow I cant believe you did that.....
thats ok aslong as you didnt drive at high speeds like 70+ all the time.

[churp]

Several people have asked this question...really don't think anyone suffered any harm. (won't admit it took me 30 miles!!!!):biggrin:

[Rizzo]

Heh... the strange thing is, the rpm was never super high, even on the highway. I don't think it got above 4000.

[spkrman]

your fine.

[fu_im_from_texas]

your fine.

I agree with spkrman. No harm could be done to the engine or trans by driving in 3rd... poor fuel milage is the worst you've caused...

[kaboom]

Heh... the strange thing is, the rpm was never super high, even on the highway. I don't think it got above 4000.
4K rpm is sorta high for a new engine - when i was breaking my yaris in i never exceeded 3200 rpm

[Rizzo]

Okay, thanks for your feedback, guys... Now what I'm curious about is what happens if you don't "break in the engine" exactly by the book (since that seems to be what I've done).

I sort of wish someone had mentioned all this to me earlier. I've never owned a car before and hadn't even heard of breaking it in until after I'd been driving for days. Not that I can shift blame (ha ha), but I'm satisfied with being disgruntled with the salesman at the dealership.

In any case, my Yaris and I are still have long lovely drives along the lake, so despite my ineptitude, we're having fun.

[sambo42xa]

I drove mine in 3rd. on the highway doing about 65 mph while testing the car. What's even dumber is the sales guy didn't know or say anything either!
I did hear it with the high rpm's BUT I thought it was something "normal" at the time and didn't say anything UNTIL I got back to the dealership and went to put it in park and noticed the shifter sliding over to DRIVE.
:bonk:

[spkrman]

Apparantly breaking in a car you should drive it pretty hard. Maintaining RPM is still pretty easy on the motor. Its a pretty rev happy motor, so high RPM shouldn't bother it... even in the "breakin" period.

[Rizzo]

Thanks again. I do love to hear about how I'm not the only one. :)

I'm going to say "learning experience" and stop beating myself up about it.

[AlphaFox]

breaking in your car is overrated, or so many people say...

[Edd]

It's fine, your car has a rev-limiter for a reason. When you reach redline in 3rd, your car will a) bounce off the rev limiter and not accelerate any further or b) shift into 4th, even though you have limited it to 3rd, to avoid over-revving.
In a 4 speed car, 4th is an overdrive, and 3rd is usually 1:1 (the same as 4th in a 5 speed yaris), so you could safely go up to about 150kph (95mph) in 3rd without damaging anything.

[Rizzo]

That's very interesting, Edd. Another thing I had to learn. Thanks. :)

[Canuck]

Did that on my test drive :iono:

Was going 140 kmh on the highway, revving at 5k. Stupid sales guy didn't say anything. When we got back to the dealership, I commented on how nice the drive was, but that it could have used another gear on the highway. Salesguy said nothing. My 19 year old son in the back seat chimed in 'You do realize you had it in 3rd don't you? :laugh:

[Rizzo]

*smacks forehead* :)

[Spades]

i have been told by various mechanics if you intend to drive harshly to flog the piss out of it from the get go to seat the valves properly...if not the valves will seat for the 3k and under rpms you are driving it, and will cause problems when you start driving it hard and shifting past 5k rpm.

dunno if thats true, but every mechanics shop and dealership i have worked at thats what they claim.

I do know its bad to keep your rpms the same for a extended rate of time (65mph on a freeway drive for a hour or more straight) and most mechanics reccomend for commuters that have to drive the freeway to keep shifting from 3rd to 4th to 5th every now and then to keep the rpms changing.

[njyaris]

relax .. your fine dude

[thatboyjer]

well i don't think you could've done any worse than me. When i got my speed i was pretty much really VERY inexperienced with it. While learning to drive it (finding the engagement point was a big pain in the ass) i would tend to overgas it at a stop and go's and like once or twice i would accidently release clutch way too fast and grind 2nd into 3rd, (and once 1st going into 2nd, which resulted in a very loud grinding noise)

but before i realized it, i had gone 500 miles, so by the time i was proficient at driving my car the engine had already been "broken in"

stalling was a big issue too. word of advice, don't let ppl drive your car, unless they drive or have driven stick proficiently. I let my friend test drive my car, who said he drove a manual for like a week and knew how to drive, and he stalled my poor yaris 3 times before he gave up. He couldn't get used to the clutch :o

anyways to sum things up my yaris still drives fine, and hopefully will run great for years to come. I know how it is, it always helps to read about how other people have made mistakes so you don't feel like a complete idiot.

[jdium]

I do know its bad to keep your rpms the same for a extended rate of time (65mph on a freeway drive for a hour or more straight) and most mechanics reccomend for commuters that have to drive the freeway to keep shifting from 3rd to 4th to 5th every now and then to keep the rpms changing.

Who told you this? Good friends huh? There is nothing wrong with cruising at the same rpm for long periods of time, what do you think cruise control is?

[DjT]

Who told you this? Good friends huh? There is nothing wrong with cruising at the same rpm for long periods of time, what do you think cruise control is?

He's talking about the Break-In period - read the manual.

[Kioshi]

From my experience in my 01 Mitsubishi Mirage w 95k+ miles....I drove it to Santa Cruz mountains and had internal problems w/ tranny of losing power on steep grades....so i would shift down to 3 and drive up it. Its some miles and.....going down i wanted power so i drove in 3. Nice little boost but it didnt harm engine because I took it to L.A. couple days later on-stop, no problems~

It can only damage if you drive top speed in 3rd or lower i assume..

[Yarii]

Who told you this? Good friends huh? There is nothing wrong with cruising at the same rpm for long periods of time, what do you think cruise control is?

Back in the old days, when you finished rebuilding a big ol' sloppy V8, you'd drive to Toronto for a coffee (about a 4hr drive) and back, rocking the throttle up and down all the way, and you'd have a worn-in engine ready to race once you got back home.

[jdium]

He's talking about the Break-In period - read the manual.

Really? Where did he mention the break-in period? I didn't see it. If so, then yes, don't do your 1st 1000 miles at the exact same rev.

Back in the old days, when you finished rebuilding a big ol' sloppy V8, you'd drive to Toronto for a coffee (about a 4hr drive) and back, rocking the throttle up and down all the way, and you'd have a worn-in engine ready to race once you got back home.

Why Toronto, is there some special magnetic vortex there that completes "big ol' sloppy V8's"? That's quite a drive for most of us... :biggrin:

[Canuck]

Really? Where did he mention the break-in period? I didn't see it. If so, then yes, don't do your 1st 1000 miles at the exact same rev.



Why Toronto, is there some special magnetic vortex there that completes "big ol' sloppy V8's"? That's quite a drive for most of us... :biggrin:

He said '4 hour drive'. He's wither slow from Ottawa, or a typical Montrealer :tongue:

[tacsniper]

when I first test drove the car I was driving in 3rd gear too... and my friend and I were wondering why does it take 5000rmp to change gears... and of course we were not being gentle the yaris when we test drive it either ;)

[IllusionX]

when i test drove a yaris sedan before i bought mine.. my sales told me to go ahead and push this marvelous engine.

so off i went.. WOT 1st 2nd and 3rd gear all the way to redline. tested several 0-stopsign accelerations and brakings. :)

[shoebox]

Get in the habit of routinely checking by feel, if the selector lever is in or out
(3 or 4). I've been doing that for a while now. I use 3 often in the mountains.