Just wondering if cruising at 70 the rpm's are right at or just above 3,000 ..is that right? Seems a bit to high to me. I just bought the car so i am not to familiar with it yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

That sounds close to what I get at between 70/80

 

thanks..appreciated.

 

you're fine

 

its ok

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by lunarone &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you're fine</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is it? I haven't driven a 5th gen in a while, but that sounds a little high to me. I could be wrong...

RC16,
Start from a stop and accelerate to around 70, and then cruise. You don't need to accelerate quickly. Do this with the engine <U>fully warmed up</U>. If you count how many times the car shifts, it should seem as if it shifts to a 5th gear which should really be the torque converter locking up. The difference when the converter locks up is somewhere around 3-400 rpm.

My question is if the torque converter is locking up or not.

 

Hmm, if it's not supposed to do that then mine is gunkified as well, my rpm's sit about there at normal temperature (2/3rds of the way to half) and It'll sit almost dead on at 3k between 70/80

 

There's a large rpm difference between 70 and 80...

But, like I said, I haven't driven a 5th gen in quite some time now. I know the gearing is a little different between 5th and 6th gens, but it's not THAT different. My 6th gen doesn't hit 3000 rpms until 80 mph. At 70 mph, my engine is at 2500 rpm. When I had problems with my torque converter not locking up, my engine was spinning at 2900 rpms at 70 mph.

If you can feel/see/hear the torque converter locking up, you don't have a problem. If you can't, well then you have a problem.

 

mine is 70mph @ 2.6k rmp maybe and 80mph @ lil bit over 3k

 

Hmm definitely will have to take a look on the highway on the way home.....

 

I have 2 and the stock one is both between 2900-3100 or so at 70-80. The other one was like that before the h swap.

 

What is with people using the range of 70-80 mph? Does no one think or realize that's a large rpm difference?

Which is it? 2900-3100 at 70 mph, or 2900-3100 at 80 mph?

 

well in mine I've noticed sometimes my car will reach 3000 rpms at 70 and then after a little bit of driving it will drop to around 2750 at 70. Once I get to around 75 or more I reach 3000RPM. Sometimes it will click back down though and ride at 3000 RPMs at 70? Would that be a dysfunctional torque converter?
I'm pretty sure if the car is fully functional it shouldnt ride 70 at 3000rpm.

 

I'm ballparking it. It's somewhere in there. I do not whoop (yes whoop) out a camera and take a picture of my guage cluster when i'm driving down the interstate.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Homesickelian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well in mine I've noticed sometimes my car will reach 3000 rpms at 70 and then after a little bit of driving it will drop to around 2750 at 70. Once I get to around 75 or more I reach 3000RPM. Sometimes it will click back down though and ride at 3000 RPMs at 70? Would that be a dysfunctional torque converter?
I'm pretty sure if the car is fully functional it shouldnt ride 70 at 3000rpm.</TD></TR></TABLE>

While cruising on a level highway, it should drop back down a few hundred rpms. From what I've heard, the problem would most likely be your thermostat.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wcsh86 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm ballparking it. It's somewhere in there. I do not whoop (yes whoop) out a camera and take a picture of my guage cluster when i'm driving down the interstate. </TD></TR></TABLE>

While I was not looking for an exact number, and definitely not asking for a picture, your ballpark figure was too wide of a range. This was something I stated in a previous post. But I do apologize if I'm coming off as an ***. It wasn't intended.

 

it's cool. at 70 it was at 2900. at 80 it was at 3250. EXACT. according to my accord.

 

My rpm's aren't too terribly different at 70 and 80 , driving home today I came up with 80 at about 3000 on the nose, and 70 being 2600/700 Obviously I noticed a difference but it was ginormous as you make it out to be

 

Yea its not really. and me and muffin man have different engines, so its a little different. i think you're fine..

 

My '96 Auto EX does 70mph at 2900rpm, it seems okay to me. The only gripe I have, with my 5th gen Accord is only during initial acceleration from a red light. Mine requires about 3000-3200 rpm for a brisk acceleration.

PS: I see that some of you with the 5spd manual trannys get a lot lower rpms for the same cruising speeds. Good for you all.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheMuffinMan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but it was ginormous as you make it out to be</TD></TR></TABLE>

The point that I was trying to make was that the torque converter makes about a 3-400 rpm difference when it locks up. Compared to that, I would say it's a big difference, especially if you're trying to determine whether it's locking up or not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by philadd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
While cruising on a level highway, it should drop back down a few hundred rpms. From what I've heard, the problem would most likely be your thermostat.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Any idea where that comes from because my thermostat seems rather functional and seems to reach a little less than half way on the meter once warmed up.. Not sure what you're coming from.. I'd like to fix the issue.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ihatecars &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My '96 Auto EX does 70mph at 2900rpm, it seems okay to me. The only gripe I have, with my 5th gen Accord is only during initial acceleration from a red light. Mine requires about 3000-3200 rpm for a brisk acceleration.

PS: I see that some of you with the 5spd manual trannys get a lot lower rpms for the same cruising speeds. Good for you all.</TD></TR></TABLE>

As for the mentioning of manuals running at lower RPMS, Mine's an automatic and I run at 2750 at 70.Also I might be spurting this to easily from what you've told me but from reading these forums, when someone complains of slow accel till higher RPMs in older cars it's often their clogged EGR valves. If that's the culprit I probably should clean my own out, since I have a similar symptom.

 

A couple other members have mentioned that if the thermostat is reading off, it will basically tell the ECU that the car is not completely warmed up yet. If the car is not completely warmed up yet, the torque converter will not lock up.

At this point, I cannot really say whether or not I think you have a problem.

Cleaning out your EGR ports definitely wouldn't hurt in terms of engine performance.

 

was driving wifey's car tonight...

steadily increasing speed to 70mph on the highway; tach reading steadily increased to the 3rd line between 2ooo-3ooorpms= 2750

no bump up to 3k then went down to that...@ all...

 

Thank you all very much for your insight and knowledge.

 

Thought bumping this might be better than a new post...

I've got a 2002 Accord SE 4 cyl with 140k miles, with all general maintenance done and no mods. Just had the timing belt/water pump/shaft seals done, as well as a radiator flush.

Now, when driving 70 mph the RPMs are around 2750, and the car seems a bit louder than before. I can't tell you my exact RPMs at 70 beforehand, but they weren't this high. And I'm pretty certain that the torque converter isn't doing a 'kickdown' once I hit cruising speed. But it still runs and shifts smoothly otherwise.

I've read that the thermostat can be the culprit of this problem (and a nice cheap place to start my troubleshooting), so my question before I start tearing into things - could a radiator flush cause the t-stat to go bad? Should I have not done the flush? They basically threw it in since they were replacing the water pump.

Thanks in advance for helping out a n00b here...