I am showing 75mph. I have been driving alot of different cars lately. It just seems like the Maxima is revving way too high for only 75mph. Anyone else show the same specs?

 

73.

Our fifth gear is really close to fourth, too short if you ask me.

Useful for passing though.

 

Drive a Honda Prelude and you will say differently. My brother cruises at 4K.

 

Is your car a manual?

 

I noticed the max revs higher but it depends on what car you compare it too. A friend of mine has a 94 dodge intrepid and it is at about 2300-2500rpm at 75mph. The wife's 4 cyl. honda accord is at about the same rpms as the max at the same speed, if not a little bit higher.

 

Perfectly normal for an A32 5MT.

 

Approx 70mph

 

How would he be in 5th if he was an auto?

This is A31/A32 we're talking about, only 4 speed autos.

 

Yup, one of my complaints about the Maxima. I can only imagine the gas mileage I would acheive on the highway if I didn't cruise at 3-3.5k rpms.

 

A31 isn't a Maxima at all, its a RWD Cefiro with an RB series motor.

The 3rd gen chassis code is the J30 (oddly enough).

Sorry to be nitpicking....

 

It's nice not having to downshift at 80 to pass someone in 5th.

 

But its always nice to throw it in 3rd for a little drama.

 

haaaa,.....been there many a times.....

 

5th in the 4th gen max is .795 instead of .74 as in the old Stanzas and 1st/2nd gen Altimas using the same 50 series manual tranmission, for some inexplicable damn reason. The .74 5th gear set is directly swappable and would bring the RPMs down from ~3000 at 75 mph to ~2790 or so.

The stock 5th gear is better for passing power however and puts 7% more torque at the wheels.

 

at 3,000 i am around 80....

 

When I cruise my Expedition it is at 1,800 rpm at 75mph, that is nice.

My friends new 06 GT does 100 mph at 3,000 rpm.

The 4th gen does have a touchy 5th gear, but it does not accelerate hard and wind up fast. Even by downshifting into 3rd gear, it does not seem to "move".

My 3rd gen flat out screams in 3rd.

 

Out of curiosity, what does the VE turn at 80 in 5th gear? For comparisons sake...

 

I have not driven it in about 4 months. But I do remember being in 3rd at 4k and running it up to under 110 mph by the top of 3rd. I want to say it cruises 2,500 rpm at 75. I know it is well under the big 3.

 

Oops, I meant to say 70. Oh well, you got the picture.

 

My 3rd gen flat out screams in 3rd.


i used to have a 90 se auto and a friend of mine had a 90 se 5 speed at the same time. i agree we used to trade some days and drive each other cars and his third gear was the shiat. anyways on my 95 se 5 speed at 75mph is about 3000 rpms

 

Woww...

 

Not trying to thread jack, but is this process very difficult and would it involve very much time? Is there a write-up of it anywhere that you know of? Thanks

 

3k should be around 75-80mph. Anyone that says diff take a pic no way out of a few hundred thousand made 4th gens that you will have a special manual trans that does 70 mph at 3k.

 

72-75MPH at 3k RPMs pretty much straight up center of the tach. Mine is def closer to 70 than 80. But I have 225 50 R16 tires not 215 55 R16s

 

I hate the fact that we rev so high at highway speeds. Pretty dumb design if you ask me. It ranks among the highest irritants with my car...it feels like the car is struggling doing 3100 at highway speed compared to our 2 5-speed automatic Hondas.

 

Because the VE has the old .74 5th gear and we have the .795 one.

No. But the first time I opened my 5-speed transmission I had never seen the insides of a transmission before. You gotta take it apart (30 minutes or so) and find a used transmission part shop and ask for Altima/Stanza manual gears. The one I go to locally had the .74 5th gear set for 80$ cash. The transmission shop will mount the gears on both mainshafts for about 50$. Then you put the tranny back together. You can get an FSM online. It's actually pretty easy, so long as you make sure everything goes back where it belongs and don't loose any of the stupid ball bearings.

 

lol...you make it sound so easy

Judging by his question I would assume he isn't as mechanically inclined as you'd think.

 

that seems like a very practical mod, not something I would just go out and do, opening up the transmission is not for beginners, but if I needed a new one or a rebuild anyway (which alot of us Max owners do/will), then why not?

one thing though, are there any other direct swaps with an even taller gear?

 

mine is about 77-79 at 5k in 5th

 

I hope you're doing closer to 130 at 5k in 5th. And all of your pics show automatic in your cardomain.......

 

ooh i got

 

on the highway today going to work, i kept this thread in mind and checked out the rpm/mph ratio.
I was doing 83 and my car was at 2600rpm
mind you this is an auto not a 5spd.

 

@3000 rpms my car is running 74mph in 5th gear....

@3000 rpms my car is running 92mph in 6th gear

 

I believe mine is at 80 when it hits 3k RPM

 

I think you should go out and try it again...you should be clearly over 3k RPMs at 80 in 5th gear....more in the range of 3300 or so....unless you have significantly different tire size from stock

 

 

I cant say the low gearing of 5th bothers me too much. Its nice to have a crusing gear around when you are doing 50. Its a small drop in RPM's so cruising and passing is still a breeze, no real need to downshift into 4th. Would there really be a significant improvement in gas mileage if the RPMs were at 2.5 instead of 3 when doing 75? I dont think the difference would be dramatic, the key is keeping a steady foot and no sudden urges to push pedal to the metal. I bet the people with intakes and exhausts are a lot more irritable of these higher RPMs because of the added noise. Thats why Im loving the stock intake, listening to music is just so much better.

My biggest irritant is the bounciness of the stock SE supension at high speeds. Every bump on the road feel like an obstacle. It may be my tires though, I havent checked the pressure.

 

My intake is as quite as stock below 25% throttle, so thats not bugging me, but my friends 94 gt mustang cruises at 1800 and he gets significantly better fuel economy than me on all highway driving. Makes me mad to see a 5 litre v8 getting 29mpg when my 3 litre v6 barely pulls off 24.

 

That has nothing to do with the rpms though. There's plenty of us who have gotten 28-30 mpg even cruising at that rpm. It's either the way you drive or the car may need some maintanence. Best mpg I ever got was 33.5 crusing in 5th at 2300 rpm or so. Cruising at 70 will generally net me roughly 27-29 mpg.

 

I wonder how its possible for Corvettes with the 6spd to get like 28mpg highway with their huge 6liter engines....I know they run a real long 6th gear...but still...6 liters man! thats twice the size of our engines that get the same mileage as us!