TommyWOo

Well, this question might be stupid, but as you might know, mine is a used one, so I have no idea if it's normal or not.


You know, the traffic in the city is very bad, so I face the jam frequenly, sometime, we just move 10 meters per minutes. One day, when I'm in the queue waiting for green light, I started moving at 1st Gear, then release the accelerator, then stop. I found when my engine drops to 600~800 RPM, my car moves like a patient with Asthma.

I guess it's because the low RPM engine output is not very good which is expected, so I did a test in a free place. Kept it in 1st gear, let the engine to run at 600RPM, it moved at 8KM/Hour, engine didn't stop, but the car didn't move smoothly. If I push it to 1500RPM, I felt better


My tire is 225/45/18 Z1, same size like the OEM one. So, I guess it's not the problem in tire.




So, can I say this is a normal result even for a new car? I like to use 7000RPM or more, but it's mission impossible in the traffic jam. So, currently, I prefer using my Miata for daily work, and RX8 for weekend.




BTW, I also tried a Ford Focus (1.8L 5MT) of my friend, it doesn't have the problem, might because the Ford has a higher RPM at around 800RPM?

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

car idles at around 800+/- 50 rpm.

Coming from NYC I know how traffic jam feels, and I never had a problem driving around.

no offense here but do you really really know how to drive a stick?

different car has different output/power band, you can't compare based on rpm. just like you can't compare Computer CPU based on MHz numbers.

TommyWOo

Sorry mate, do you mean RX8 also idles at 800 +/- 50 rpm? I know Piston engine does but I heard Rotary was different.


Actually, my RX8 idles at 600 RPM (After warm up), and as far as I heard from the maintenance center, all RX8 idle at 600 RPM which is different from the other cars. They said it's because Rotary needs less RPM to keep engine running in idle state.


I have owned 5 cars so far, but this is my second MT. (The first MT is a cheap chevy with a borning engine, so I have forgot how it runs).

If it's just my case, I will find some way to tune the idle RPM to higher.

jamesf

iTrader: (1)

Sounds to me like you're experiencing the car bogging? I think most manual transmission cars do that if the RPMs are low enough and the clutch pedal is out. If you give it gas, and let off it and then let the car keep going, once the RPMs drop enough (prolly around where you're talking about), if you dont have the clutch pedal pushed in, it will bog like that.

That sounds like a user issue, not a technical issue with the car.