Driving in 4th gear at 3,000 RPM at Highway Speeds

RED2001GT

RED2001GT

Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Mar 18, 2003
270
2
18
#1
I accidently drove my Mustang on the interstate highway for over 7 miles in 4th gear at a constant speed of 70 mph at 3,000 RPM's while in cruise control today. When I noticed this, I shifted up into 5th gear.
I would like to know whether or not I could have done any damage to the transmission or to the engine or to anything else by driving in 4th gear for 7+ minutes while the car was in cruise control and while the engine RPM's were at 3,000 RPM? So far, my Mustang still drives fine and the engine and transmission seem to work okay after this incident happened.
Do you think that I did any damage to anything?
 

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#4
geoffsgt said:
No biggie.

I'd be more worried about how you managed to do that on accident than how it affected your car. :rlaugh:
Click to expand...
I'll tell you how: I had the radio on and the CD was playing loud and I didn't hear the noise of the engine revving high while the car was in 4th gear until after I reached 7 to 10 miles of highway driving. It wasn't until my eyes saw the RPM needle at the 3,000 mark while the speed was at 70 MPH while on cruise control. That's when I noticed that I was still in 4th gear. I up-shifted into 5th gear when I noticed this mistake.

I'm afraid of ruining the transmission, the gears or the engine by something like this occurring. It happened by accident.
 
#7
Ever seen that video where the guy does a 3 minute or so long burnout in 2nd gear at the redline? He's driving a white GT, and at the end when it finally overheats, he spits on it? Yeah.. they can take far more abuse than THAT.

You're fine. I've ran at 4000+ for 10+ minutes canyon carving with no probs.
 
#8
No problem at all. My POS Jeep Cherokee ran 3100 RPM for a few miles doing 95-100mph with 150k or more miles.

My buddies 99 GT with 4.30's is cruising around 3k all the time, lol.
 
#10
worst you did was unnecessarily waste maybe 1/2 a gallon of fuel



i spent a solid 15 min. the other night running deep into the triple digits from a complete stop, hitting redline every single gear then slamming on the brakes and doing it again. several times. (gotta get some practice in)

i then left maybe 5/32nds worth of tread in an empty parking lot, spent another few minutes doing donuts in 2nd gear, then i practiced my launches for several more minutes


i think you'll be ok:)
 
#12
well...I have an 04 GT convertible... I rarely put it into 5th gear. In order to stay above 2000 rpms I have to go 83 mph to get it into 5th. If I am doing 70mph my revs are about 1700 in 5th. In fact my crusie control will drop out in 5th under 1800 rpm's. So how low of RPM's are you in 5th at 70mph? And is it bad I run 4th until at least75 mph?
 
#14
Damn 4:10s im running around 2600rpms at 75-80 not fun ! And I do that for 2 hours each morning to work and then again after work !! I think youll be fine.. Install a tach light if your that worried about the RPS hitting that high....If a neon yellow or red light dosnt get your attention, I want what your smoking !
 
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