I drive at 120-130km/h or if you live in the United States (75-80MPH) for about an hour everyday, and about 2 hours each weekend. I live in North Carolina, and this is like normal driving speeds.

Is this bad for the car? that RPM seems kinda high to cruise for long periods of time... but i been doing this for almost a year now, racked about 14k miles and the car is about 10~ months old

Is it possible to get gears for the honda fit to make the RPM's not so high during highway speeds? would it improve gas at all if the RPM's were lower? i still get about 38-42 MPG when i do these hour, or 2 hour trips on the highway, but i don't understand how with the RPM at 3500+ all the time.

what your guys average RPM on the highway? I drive a manual transmission, i think this is apart of the problem.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with sustained high rpms. Just keep an eye out for your oil level. My RSX-S churned higher rpms at the same speed, and that was a 6MT.

 

That's normal. The only way you could change it would be to drop in the gearbox from the CR-Z as you'd have a 6MT. The downside is that while cruising, you'd have to downshift to 5th in order to tackle any hills. The CR-Z does fine because of the Torque from the electric motor.

The L15 will run all day at 3k-4k without complaining. Honda motors are designed to rev and have insanely high tolerences so you have no worries about doing any damage to the engine. The B18C1 in my GS-R was around 4000 at 80mph and I did a lot of highway miles in that car. Absolutely no issues... Other than how noisy it was.

~SB

 

It is hard to adjust to a small displacement engine of any brand after driving American V8s... Honda products like high revs... 12 or 15 years ago a guy entered the Iron Butt Motorcycle Rally and came in at 5th place over all riding a Honda Helix motor scooter with 13 WHP turning 13000 RPM at 70 MPH.... The rally circumnavigates the USA.

 

in my s2000 and previously in my sentra se-r (both 2.0-2.2L high revving engines) i cruise at 4500rpm all day long. these motors are made to handle it.

 

why not just get a larger final gear instead of a whole transmission? I'm sure there's one out there with all the cross-platforming Honda does.

 

On the KWSC High Boost kit Hondata raises the rev limiter to7200 RPM... Even though the Fit has an under square bore /stroke configuration it is a small engine and the piston speeds aren't so high that they are going to melt down. I suppose that if it was a problem they wouldn't use the engine in Formula 4 class race cars.

 

The only real downside to 'high" RPM cruising is the droning noise (I dealt with this in my Element; it was geared about the same - I drove from coast to coast in that car).

It's all comparative. After riding around on the freeways listening to a Ninjette running at 10,000 RPM, or even my current bike running at 6500, 4000 didn't seem so bad. And the Fit AT's engine drone disappears beneath Honda's near-trademark road noise.

 

I will vouch for everything Occam said being the truth.... I sometimes wear earplugs on long drives when I am in the car by myself or drive at the minimum speed limit.... I really need to get into town and have my new Vibrant resonator and 3" Apexi exhaust control valve flanges and short length of 3" pipe welded in place... Even then the road noise is still annoying as all get out.

 

I for one definitely don't question the reliability of the motor when turning higher than I'm used to RPM on the freeway. My previous car was a MK4 GTI 1.8T 5 speed which spun half the RPM of the Fit MT doing 80mph and could chug up hills at 1500rpm like a V8 due to its insane torque band but I can finally say after 1500 miles of ownership that I'm getting used to this little screamers power band... aka rev the nuts off it.

 

There's probably not a larger final drive out there that will drop into the fit's gearbox. The majority of vehicles on this platform are not running Manual Gearboxes. Many are running a CVT like the Insight, Freed, JDM Fit, CR-Z. Gears from the Civic & Accord platform probably would not fit. The only gear I can think of is likely to be the 5th gear from the Auto Fit which might physically fit but then you have a much higher risk of lugging the engine. If you are in a Flat area all of the time, you'd be fine. Any Hills and you'll be shifting down to 4th regularly and dropping your economy.

~SB

 

Before it was stolen 3 years ago, I had a 2000 Civic Si with the square B16. It turned about 4 grand at 70 MPH in 5th. One of my colleagues still has his Si, now with 200K miles on it, and he cruises 80 miles of highway at 75-80 MPH every day. Honda 4-clyinder engines can take it.

 

that's normal for the manual trans.

the auto trans are around 2600 rpm at 70mph, if i remember correctly.

 

Taller wheels and tires are about the only way to drop RPMs at cruising speeds.

 

thanks for all the replies. this gives me a bit of peace in mind that many other cars do this all the time. I was just kinda worried because i noticed my mom's accord and such had a much lower RPM at the same speeds.

 

That's because of the increased torque of the Accord motor. One thing you'll find is that hondas (especially the further back you go) have almost always had smaller displacement engines than the competition putting out similar if not more HP. They've had to make up for the lower displacement in higher revving engines and accordingly, shorter gear ratios. It's a trade off which has benefitted honda in the fuel economy game and has (imo) created more fun to drive vehicles.

For Example:
2000 Civic Si - 160hp, 1.6L
2000 Integra GS-R - 170hp, 1.8L
2000 Sentra SE - 145hp, 2.0L
2000 VW Golf 1.8T - 145hp, 1.8L (Turbocharged)
2001 Subaru Imprezza - 2.5L, 165hp

2006+ Civic Si - 2.0L, 196hp
2005+ RSX Type S - 2.0L, 210hp
2006- Sentra SE-R spec-V - 2.5L, 175hp
2007+ Sentra SE-R spec V - 2.5L, 200hp
2005+ VW Golf GTI - 2.0L, 197hp (Turbocharged)
2006+ Subaru Imprezza - 2.5L 173hp (WRX was 2.5 turbo at 227hp)

And as a side note, the 2000 S2000 was producing 240hp out of a 2.0L 4cyl (F20)

In short, Hondas are more Rev-happy than the competition. - and havebeen for a while now.

~SB

 

You could get the JDM GE8s FD. It is a 4.294 to the 4.62 in the NA model. I believe your acceleration will drop ever so slightly in your lower gears, but with the .72 5th compared to the .85 5th here your RPMs should drop about 200~300rpms at around 75mph. And by changing, you should be able to hit 60mph in 2nd versus needing to shift into 3rd.

Here is a spreadsheet shot of the comparison of the gear ratios with stock and JDM final drive.

 

At an indicated 70 mph (Not certain about the Fit's speedometer error) I see the following:

4th (unlocked): 4000 RPM.
4th (locked): 3500 RPM.
5th (unlocked): 3100 RPM
5th (locked): 2500

The torque converter only unlocks when necessary, effectively giving you two gear ratios for each fixed gear, though there it is less efficient while unlocked.

 

3500 RPM for extended periods? Nah. The Fit engine should have no problem handling that. The real question is can your ears handle the drone?

If anything, L-series engines seem very forgiving of a few extra hundred RPM above redline/fuel-cut.

 

I now have over 50,000 miles on my '09 Sport with manual transmission, mostly highway. At 4000 rpm I can certainly hear the engine. But it's the road noise from the wind and tires that seem the most prominent. The engine noise just adds some rather nice harmonies.

With the automatic, you still get the tire and wind noise but minus the engine sound. But this convenience comes at a price: the tall gearing that makes it possible also causes the automatic to take in the neighborhood of 11 seconds to reach 60 mph. With the manual it can be done in around 8.5 seconds--- a world of difference when it comes to acceleration.

Also, the high revs in the sub-5000 rpm range don't hurt the engine. What does shorten engine (and drive-train) life vs. predominately highway driving is continuous short bursts of power from constant stop-and-go traffic and gear changes. This is true regardless of transmission choice.

Still, even in these harsh conditions you should have no problem getting 200,000 miles out of your Honda. But with a steady diet of highway miles--- even at 4000 rpm--- you should be able to get even longer engine life. With regular oil changes even 300,000 miles would not surprise me.