I bought my 2nd MINI. This one is a 2011 MINI Cooper S w/ manual transmission. Today I decided to show off the accerlation of the car and I accidentally red lined it in 2nd gear until the rev limiter kicked in. I quickly shifted gears when it did that.

Does anyone think I may have caused any harm? From my experience with my previous MINI and after talking to a few other owners, it seems that these cars are kind of sensitive.

any thoughts?

 

rev limiter is to prevent damage so no worries.

 

Finally, ...another owner boucing off the rev-limiter like I do every day.
As deafgoose noted, you'll be fine.

- Erik

 

I use the red line for a shift point indicator...

I wouldn't be surprised if our little motors could take 1000 rpm more than red line.

 

lol Deafgoose. Are you exaggerating or for real? I would have never thought that our motors were THAT strong. Although, I heard that the JCW has a bigger block than the S ....so maybe your scenario might be an exception, no?

 

I redline every day since August of 2007. Not joking.

 

^ Not joking.

 

our little 4 cylinder cars are meant to be push hard, i hit the rev limiter alot when pulling off from a light. you are fine hitting the rev limiter no worries

 

I red line not daily, but every spirited drive. As long as you're not missing shifts and dropping a gear too low, burying it below the redline, you're fine.

 

While you can run it to red line, there really isn't much to be gained. There engine are really running out of air flow up there. so it's probably better and faster to shift earlier and get closer to peak torque.

That said, the rev limiter is there to protect the engine. You shouldn't hurt anything by using it. Shifting to 2nd when you ment to get 4th will mechanically overrev the engine, (wheels driving the engine) and there is nothing the rev limiter can do about that. That will cause engine damage. It's not called a money shift for nothing.

 

On some makes of cars, such as Porsche the red line occurrences are stored in the ECU and can be read by the dealer. I don't know about MINI but Porsche can void engine warranties for excessive red-lines.

 

So how does one blow their engine? I thought redlining too much/long was the cause?

 

I agree with Richard, on these turbo motors it seems smarter to shift about 6K so that you're in the meat of the torque band in the next gear.

Engines get blown by running them low on oil, overheating, overusing them before they're up to temperature, by exceeding the redline on downshifts, and in general by abusing them, not by using their potential properly.

However, running at redline excessively will certainly shorten the usable life of the engine.....

 

They can...I accidentally shifted into first when trying to powershift into 3rd and went over redline for a split second. Perhaps the robustness of the JCW internals saved me?

 

I run it to redline all the time, almost every day. I've owned my car for over 6 years, no problems. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Now, if you downshift and severely over rev the engine, which there is no protection for, you could harm your engine.

 

-my Porsche (like my MINI) both have rev-limiters.

My 2 Cents, -it is good to bring the car near red-line every now and then.
I've had POS cars that I couldn't damage no matter how hard I drove them! I don't think we have to baby our cars too much.

 

Did you at least be easy the first 500 miles like the manual says?
Rev limiter does save an engine though, so you should be ok.

 

I wouldn't know. I bought the car with 20k miles already on it. However I had my friend hook up his OBD reader and everything seemed ok from what he could tell.

 

I really doubt that the ECU on a Pcar stores redline (rev limiter) events. It will record over rev events, as will BMW's and Mini's as far as I know. Porsche would be hard pressed to void a warranty because of a hitting the built in rev limiter that is programed to prevent engine damage.

 

^^This...

On my 56, I rarely went above 6k....the motor just makes noise up there...

On the GP however...it sees 7250 daily

 

Power up there or not, the redline is the end of the "safe zone". That's why you can't pass it when driving properly (ie. Not mis-shifting):-)

If it wasn't safe to run at it, MINI wouldn't let you. I've had chips on my last three cars (all VWs) that pushed it up even further by 500-750 extra RPMs even. Red lined them all many times a day for years without a hint of trouble.

Maintain it properly with quality oils and filters, and fill it with appropriate octane high quality fuel and you won't have any problems. Improperly maintained and driven engines blow, not properly maintained engines driven within the manufacturer's predetermined limits.

--Matt

 

I will admit...music blasting...and an aggressive start is not a good combination. Three times I redlined because I couldn't hear the engine and wasn't looking at the Tach...whoops!

 

I have had experience with many small engine turbo cars (my uncles as well as my father have had Porche's and Lotus' all my "car life" and hitting it once ina while wont do damage...the limiter is there to prevent the damage. I have owned a 350z which I redlined a few times and my current mini I havent hit the redline cut off yet (give it time...lol) but im not worried if i do