Normal everyday driving, What RPM to shift at?
 

I just bought my wife a 04 RX8 and i must say i am very inlove with it myself haha. Shes brand new at driving it and i understand that the rotary engine is much diffrent and it also redlines at 9000! wow!

She wanted me to find out if shes just driving to work or around the neighborhood at what RPM should she shift at? She tells me she shifts at 3000 and when she is staying at a constent speed she keeps her RPM's in between 2000 and 3000, Is this correct?

The reason i ask this is because not only does the RX8 have a totally different engine but we watched a "Test Drive Video" on the Mazda website and the video showed the person keeping his RPM's at 4000 and shifting at 4500.

Try not to be to harsh on me, Its an expensive peice of machinery and a beautiful one also, I would hate to see her ruin it.

Thank you for your help and wisdom

Shift where ever it feels comfortable in the gear range to do so. However, it is good to take the car up to redline once in awhile, both for the engine and that lovely feel/sound of the rotary. ;)

Shifting at 4000-4500 or even higher is not an issue. I find between 3000 and 4000 for around town driving is fairly smooth. Also, a redline here and there would certainly not hurt : )

Many folk here will tell you to redline it daily. What that really means is you want to go full throttle for an extended period of time to get the rotors up to self-cleaning temperature and pressure.

I shift between 3500 and 4000 for around town... and normally I can squeeze 20+mpg when doing so...

These guys are right about the daily red-line though also... I just shift at the lower rpms cause I'm cheap. :o:

3-4k. Redline every other day.

3-4k for me too.. when i feel like going slow.
I redline every chance i get!!!

in the owner's manual ,there is a page that has suggestions for what RPMs to downshift and upshift. I would suggest just getting used to driving it and you'll know when to shift.

I tend to keep revs around 3000 during dull driving. Down near 2000 is too low - no torque, no acceleration. If I'm in traffic where speed varies, I feel much more comfortable in the 3k-4k range than lower.

The owner's manual suggests some shift speeds. I forget what they are, but they're at the low end of what's reasonable.

Ken

They also suggest 5w20. . . anything to get those MPGs up I guess.

yea i dont use that oil either.. i use 5w30

anywhere bwtween 3-4k along with a few redlines

3000-4000 depending on driving condition
and 9000 a day

3-4K, and I try to redline at least once everytime I take it out after its warmed up. Around 3700RPMish, extra fuel ports open up and more gas is used.

Thanks so much guys, I had no idea you had to readline once a day thats very interesting. Should I redline once a day in only first gear right?

It's a lot more fun in fourth. :D:

First is OK, but if you're on the gas you won't be up there for too long. I'll usually do my redline in second as I get onto the highway on my way to work. If there's nobody ahead of me on the ramp, and the road is dry, I'll do it in 3rd...but not all the way to the beep.

You don't need to get all the way up to the beep. In fact, there was an interesting thread here recently about how 9000 rpm is not all that good for the apex seals or max power, but 8500 was good. Just get above 7500 so all the ports open. IMHO, getting to 7500 in 3rd with power on is better than 9000 in first or second with light throttle.

Ken

I think it also helps to load your engine also, so instead of taking it to redline gradually or while in neutral, you'll need to accelerate hard.

Not sure what the theory behind it is, but I posit a guess that the high heat cooks and brittles the deposits and high speed scraping action of the rotors via centrifugal force on the rotor housings somehow cleans it out and the loading helps increase pressure of the apex seals on the housings for a deeper clean.

1st and 2nd gears are practical for the daily maintenance redline (or greater than 7250 RPM). One of the best places to do this is on an on-ramp merging into a highway.

FWIW: I shift between 4k and 5k once warmed up for normal driving. I shift between 2500 and 3000 and do not load the engine (spirited acceleration or inclines) before warming up. Note that you can overload your engine when your RPM is too low. With the stock Renesis, I don't recommend shifting below 2000.

Good luck and enjoy.

Yes... the engine should be under heavy load for to get full benefit of "cleaning out" the carbon deposits. Revving the engine while stopped won't cut it.

I find that under about 2800rpm, there's almost no power. So I shift at around 3500-4000 most of the time.

i shift between 3.5-4k and i redline it about once a day

I redline 3-5 times a day and shift between 3.5 and 5k the rest of the time...my motor runs strong so far.

At the very least its 3k for when I'm at a constant, and I'll shift every 4k. I think the main reason was because it helps keep the carbon build-up away. Speaking of which, that is why the " a red-line a day, keeps the carbon away " exists. Keep in mind this is after I hit 140 degrees on my temp gauge.

Oh, a side note, We red-line at 8500 rpm, I remember reading somewhere that its best NOT to shift at 9k, because there is a wobble within either the rotors themselves, or its the apex seals. Either way though, they're both bad. So shift just as the beeper goes off :icon_tup:

I shift around 7-8k in first gear (once the engine is warmed up), and about 5k for all gears after that.

Shift at 3,000 and keep it below 3,000 for maximum fuel economy.
Shift at 9,000 for maximum fun.

shifting changes with how fast you want to accelerate.

how fast do you want to go? you'll quickly realize when you are too high in the rpm range for the driving you want to do.