Ok guys I now have 1800 mile son my motor and around 110 compression on both rotors. I have been redlining her moderately and have noticed somethign strange. My car was an automatic that I converted to 5spd, WHY DOES A BUZZER GO OFF WHEN I HIT REDLINE? It simply puzzles me why a automatic would ahve this feature unless it was simply built into all ecu's and clusters. ANy ideas?

Also is it safe to drive the car at low rpms when its still pretty cold? I mean I dont have time to sit there and idle every day before work and before I drive home. But its been pretty cold lately so i have just been idling for about 5 minutes and then driving easy and staying around 3k since thats where to cold start system would have kept it anyway. Is this safe?

 

Congrats! It's always good to hear about engines running nicely (and a wonderful change from the normal threads). As for the buzzer, you're right - it's in the cluster, and the buzzer is there anyway for the coolant/oil warning. I believe the redline buzzer logic is in the panel as well, but I'm not 100% on that.

Actually, that's better than just letting it sit and idle. Keeping the RPM below 3k or so until it's warmed up is the way to do it. The only times I really let the '7 sit and idle are when it's so cold the transmission doesn't work properly (in sub-zero weather, the gear oil is basically a solid, and it doesn't let you do much of anything until it's warmed up a bit). As long as you don't beat on the engine when it's cold, driving around won't hurt it a bit (and will actually warm it up a lot faster than idling will).

-=Russ=-

 

how cold is it getting?

When i lived in new york i would start it up and just take it easy on the car, for the first 15 minutes or so. I wouldnt drive hard until i could see the engine temp move or until the heater was blowing hot.

As ive heard aaron state(i think). There is no reason to let the car idle for a while, just get in and drive it gingerly.

-Ben

 

if you drove your car with the auto maybe the buzzer was for the 'hold' feature on the autos. I dont know how long the hold button will hold a gear or if it will hold untill you let go... possible untill and beyond redline.

 

^its not really all that cold at all, just cold enough to make me worry about my car.

^^Thanks, like they say 95% of the time the owner is to blame for the car trouble.. Ive been doing everything I can to baby her through the rebuild. It was patient hell but its over now.

 

I never drove it auto, i converted it before i put the engine in. But my friends MX6 lets him hold as long as he feels like holding. I wasnt sure if auto rex's had hold features. I never took the time to look before converting it.

 

It's quite possible to redline an auto by shifting it out of D and into 1 or 2. S4's didn't have the S5's HOLD feature but you could still shift manually. Put it into 2 and it won't shift up into 3rd even if you hit redline.

It's just a car, not the Space Shuttle. Any car is perfectly safe to drive when cold as long as you take it easy. Keep it below 3000rpm like you're doing and keep the load low. This will warm the engine up much faster than idling it anyway.