Is 3200 to about 3400 RPMs normal when going about 80-85 MPH in a manual?
I ask cause in my wifes automatic the RPMs are below 3000 when going 80mph.
Are the manual Maxs supposed to rev higher?

 

2900 RPM at 90 MPH in 6th.

 

that sounds right. I think it has something to do with the automatic overdrive.

 

03 max auto i got 80 with 3000rpm

 

6spd guys benefit from the 6th gear, which brings down the rpms

as for us 5spd owners, yes... the 5th gear rpm is rather high. About 3k rpm at 75 mph. Autos are much lower

 

I agree with above being said. Since mine is auto and it does rev nearly 3000 at 80mph

 

I have an 01' Auto and I'm pulling a little less than 3100 RPM's at 90mph.

 

It depends on the year. For the 2k2/2k3 6-speeds, top gear is approximately 32 mph/1000 rpm. Therefore 80 mph should be about 2500 rpm and 90 about 2800~2900. (Note that you get the same relationship between tach and speedo regardless of the tire size, but different tire diameters will change the actual road speed of the car.)

2k0/1 5-speeds are certainly different, though I don't know what their gearing is. I also don't recall the gearing of the automatic Maximas, although it has been posted in the past.

For a given car/engine, often automatics have taller gearing (i.e. lower engine speed for a given road speed) than manual versions. But there is no law of physics that says this must be so, it's just a result of the engineering tradeoffs. (The torque converter of the automatic allows a taller top gear to be used without too much sacrifice of acceleration time.)

The overall gearing chosen for a particular car depends on many factors, starting with the engine's torque characteristic (torqueless high-revving Honda vs. brute-force OHV American V-8), including the car's power/mass ratio and its marketing demographic (sports car vs. luxo boat), engineering limits (it is difficult to include a large ratio spread in a gearbox while keeping the gearbox small, sturdy and cheap) and, I would guess, what parts are available off-the-shelf.

 

i had a 2k1 auto and now have a 2k1 5spd. For the auto, I believe 3000 rpm is roughly at 90 mph. As for the 5spd, 3000 rpm is at 80 mph

 

So is it possible to change, lower or raise, the baseline RPM level (the idle RPM). Furthermore, is there any advantage in doing so?

 

i am unsure how your idle rpm has to do with your gear ratios on your transmission.

however, yes you can raise the baseline idle rpm, but why would you? Unless you had cams to avoid loping, I don't see the need