Boxster Redlined

[Daniel R]

It is near impossible to do engine damage by revving too high in a tip. The computer will not shift down if it will push the engine past the rev limiter.

As other posters have said, missing 4th for 2nd or worse still, missing 3rd for 1st can cause big problems. The rev limiter cannot help you at all, as it is the wheels that push the revs up rather than the throttle which the computer controls, and you may bend a few valves.

In terms of pushing too hard, the rev limiter will cut in before any damage can be done. At times when I have been racing another car I occasionally flat shift 1st to second, ie. leave the accelerator flat to the floor to prevent the revs from dropping between gears. The motor just bounces off the limiter, sounds scary but no harm done to the motor (the clutch is a different story mind you, it overheats very quickly, hence why I gave up this practice).

Enjoy your boxster and drive it the way it was intended to be driven!

[Jaxonalden]

Just a reminder to all you “red line bangers” that big brother is watching. Our cars record parameters into a downloadable data base. This is taken from the Durametric web site (the laptop monitor snapshot will not paste);

• Notice the section for "Ignitions (Range 1)." This vehicle shows "13958/917h" which means the vehicle has used the rev-limiter for 13,958 ignitions, the last time being at 917 hours. So this indicates the engine was red-lined often and the last time occurred recently since the engine only has 917 hours.
• Notice the section for "Ignitions (Range 2)." This vehicle shows "1/48h" which means the vehicle exceeded the red line one time during 48 hours of operation. This is an example of a possible car a Porsche dealer will not perform warranty work on as this metric indicates abuse.
• If you ever look at an online auction for Porsche instrument panel clusters, you will see many of them for sale. Most of these clusters are not broken; many of them were replaced from lease vehicles to avoid paying excess mileage charges. From the example above, you can see that this engine has 917 hours in the "Operating Hours Section." This should be compared to the odometer to see if the number makes sense. If you divide the odometer mileage by the operating hours you will have an average MPH.
• Example: 12,000 Miles / 917 Operating Hours = 13 MPH
• Most cars will average between 30 - 50 MPH depending on how much traffic it is driven in so the value of 13 MPH indicates there could be a discrepancy

Food for thought.

[landrovered]

I suppose if you wanted to play a joke on the dealership you could go the other way and have an average speed of 237 mph!

[Samson]

Originally Posted by Jaxonalden

Notice the section for "Ignitions (Range 1)." This vehicle shows "13958/917h" which means the vehicle has used the rev-limiter for 13,958 ignitions, the last time being at 917 hours. So this indicates the engine was red-lined often and the last time occurred recently since the engine only has 917 hours.

Hitting the rev limiter ≠ taking the engine to the redline. Instead, it indicates an inattentive and bad driver who doesn't know when to shift... or one who feels that it's faster to not shift for that split second before a braking.

The redline on the tach simply represents the safe cutoff on the high end of the engine operating range, and it is a perfectly good idea to use the entire range when necessary (or when it's not ) The rev limiter is for those times when you go over the redline, and it prevents you from revving the engine beyond spec.

[ARModen]

You need to try that maneuver on the highway. That tiptronic is nuts. I never drove automatics before the boxster and even after 30K miles, the thing still scares the crap out of me when it downshifts at 75mph. I passed a semi on the highway the first night I had it. I gave it as much gas as I'd give the 911 to speed up quick and zip around him. I didn't realize the car would see that much throttle increase as a sign to downshift. It downshifted, probably hit 6K rpm, then upshifted again. Definitely not the smoothest little maneuver but I went from 75 to 95 in a hurry. I still haven't completely gotten used to the changing shift patterns of the tip.

On a similar but separate note, has anyone ever considered changing out the tip selector on the console for an older or new one? The older tips had the gear selector as a toggle on the center console instead of on the wheel. The new PDK's have both. I'm not real comfortable going around corners and trying to hit those little rocker switches on the wheel in the right direction. I'd be much more aggressive with the thing if there were the up/down toggle on the console.

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by ARModen

...On a similar but separate note, has anyone ever considered changing out the tip selector on the console for an older or new one? The older tips had the gear selector as a toggle on the center console instead of on the wheel...

Nope... that's incorrect. The early shift levers merely select between Auto and Man mode. You're confusing Tiptronic with Sportmatic!

Cheers!

[Jaxonalden]

Originally Posted by ARModen

You need to try that maneuver on the highway. That tiptronic is nuts. I never drove automatics before the boxster and even after 30K miles, the thing still scares the crap out of me when it downshifts at 75mph. I passed a semi on the highway the first night I had it. I gave it as much gas as I'd give the 911 to speed up quick and zip around him. I didn't realize the car would see that much throttle increase as a sign to downshift. It downshifted, probably hit 6K rpm, then upshifted again. Definitely not the smoothest little maneuver but I went from 75 to 95 in a hurry. I still haven't completely gotten used to the changing shift patterns of the tip.

On a similar but separate note, has anyone ever considered changing out the tip selector on the console for an older or new one? The older tips had the gear selector as a toggle on the center console instead of on the wheel. The new PDK's have both. I'm not real comfortable going around corners and trying to hit those little rocker switches on the wheel in the right direction. I'd be much more aggressive with the thing if there were the up/down toggle on the console.

Actually it shifted at 6400rpm, that's the peak horse power rpm before it starts to nose over. The Tiptronic is pretty smart, with your aggressive "I gave it as much gas as I'd give the 911 to speed up quick and zip around him" throttle response, the Tip gave you the best performance possible...and that's what you felt.

[Cloudsurfer]

Originally Posted by Daniel R

It is near impossible to do engine damage by revving too high in a tip. The computer will not shift down if it will push the engine past the rev limiter.

As other posters have said, missing 4th for 2nd or worse still, missing 3rd for 1st can cause big problems. The rev limiter cannot help you at all, as it is the wheels that push the revs up rather than the throttle which the computer controls, and you may bend a few valves.

In terms of pushing too hard, the rev limiter will cut in before any damage can be done. At times when I have been racing another car I occasionally flat shift 1st to second, ie. leave the accelerator flat to the floor to prevent the revs from dropping between gears. The motor just bounces off the limiter, sounds scary but no harm done to the motor (the clutch is a different story mind you, it overheats very quickly, hence why I gave up this practice).

Enjoy your boxster and drive it the way it was intended to be driven!

Hitting redline is perfectly fine (provided the motor is healthy and at operating temp). Over-revs, however, are not good. They stress the connecting rods, can actually stretch the rod bolts, and will usually show up as bearing wear in motors that have been over-revved. Furthermore, since these cars have hydraulic lifters, the valvetrain cannot keep up and it is very likely to get piston to valve contact, with its associated consequences.