Question about the tachometer

[Riley1123d]

I was wondering, my car red lines at 6000.. yet it goes up to 8000. I was lead to believe that even a few hundred past red line for as little as a few seconds can cause some serious damage, so my question is why do they have the meter max at 8000 if you'll never see your car get that high?

[Riley1123d]

*I dont think this is a technical question, but if it is feel free to move the post* haha..

[XenoWolf]

Your right as far as going anywhere over your engines redline causing damage (usually severe damage..).. and as far as the tach going above it.. i doubt anyone has a definate reason to why it does. Most cars i've seen have thier tachs going above the redline.. my guess is that the device that reads your rpms (no idea what its called) is probably used universally on different cars.. with different engines. So the tach gauge spins the same distance on each car for every rpm change.. and all the manufacturer has to do is create an overlay on the dash telling the driver where the redline is... and fill up the rest with red. Id imagine they'd do that so they dont have to build/recalibrate a new device (again.. no idea what it would be called.. lol) for every model.. and every engine option with that model.

[Themeneea]

maybe it makes the car look faster :)

[Riley1123d]

yeah actually I just realized today that my car goes up to 8000... yet my moms cherokee redlines at 5000 an the meter goes up to 6000.. my dads liberty red lines at 6000 but the meter goes to 7000

[XenoWolf]

Your car.. meaning your engine or your tach? I hope to god your not taking your GA up to 8000 rpms.. lol

[Night Wolf]

yeah, I noticed that too, I think it is more for loos then anything........ my old GA redlined at 6200rpm I believe (Q4) but the gauge went to 8k, IIRC my fathers '99 GP and '88 Fiero were the same way....

....now, the tach in my car (which isn't installed yet) redlines at 5krpm but goes to 8...... oh, wait, that's an aftermarket Sunpro with user adjust redline :D (still need to get that installed, then it'll make manually shifitng my automatic colum shift lxury car fun)

[RocketFast321]

I wish gm could have fix the tach on my mom's malibu so that it red lines at 5k but no it redlines at halfway between 5 1/2 and 6 and the tach goes to 7. I had yet to hit the redline on that car it always shifts at 5k. Maybe I should not drive it like that since the LIM is linking a little bit. Oh well I'm going to have fun with it as long as it still runs.

[Riley1123d]

Originally posted by XenoWolf
Your car.. meaning your engine or your tach? I hope to god your not taking your GA up to 8000 rpms.. lol

NOOOOOO I don't take my GA to 8000rpms.. i'm just saying that the guage goes up to 8000. My car red lines at like 6000, I've never had it over 4000.. well.. a few times but thats just accerating fast, and making my friend eat his words.. long story.

[XenoWolf]

Haha alright.. just clarifying :D

About the only time I had it over 4k was doing a few practice launches on the local stretch to get a better feel for how she performs.. needs more high-end power :cool:

[BloodRedDimond]

lol i dono if this is a good idea , but i can sit there and slam the gass , it limmits at like 4500 and backs down i dono thats my limiter in park , on a 03 GT V6

[RedGASE97]

It`s just like the speedometer. It goes up to I think 110 or 115, but I cant get my car past 100. Just outta curiousity what happens if you constantly run your car in the red (other than something really bad)?

[RocketFast321]

As I remember the lifters start to float because the engine is spending so fast.