when should i shift 1st to 2nd?

i would like to know about my new max's best shift point
when should i shift 1st to 2nd? what's gonna be mph? and rpm?
i'm very new at 5speed manual.and having fun for manual now.. please tell me the best shift point for every gear....

ps. i haven't done any mod yet...and..it's 2k1 AE MAX
thank you

Welcome. It really depends on the situation you are in: If you are ascending a hill, a little higher than normal. If you are on the track, 6,000rpm! But on any normal situation, 3-4,000rpm is good enough. If you have 6-cylinders or more, you dont have to shift beyond that, unlike 4-cylinder cars, which are generally designed to rev higher.

It's really dependent on your situation, like morpheus said. When I'm driving to work I shift around 2K on residentials. Listen to your engine, and don't depend on the tac. so much. Spend alot of time getting to know your Maxima. :D

that's a good point. sometimes i am in a mello mood and shift normally at 3,000-3,500. then there are some days i just feel like getting into it and hit and on ramp and its all over--:D 5,500 in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and it makes me love my car more and more every day.

you will have days you feel like driving fast and you will have days you don't (maybe) just be glad you're driving a 5 spd. Maxima.:cool:

good luck
1st97SE

I don't drive a maxima, but I say just drive, and push it a bit farther each time. Don't go nuts right away. Learn how to contol yourself, and the car. Sure, you could jump on the throttle right off the bat, but then you would still not know how your car would react to coners, heavy braking and such. It's just a paitence thing, and you'll be better off if we don't tell you.

Oh heres a precaution: If youre Maxima is new from the factory, I wouldnt recommend revving the motor past 5,000rpm or taking it beyond 95mph, until the metals in the motor have been properly run-in and hardened. Always remember, the first few thousand miles of your car determines the rest of its life. Push it to the envelope and it will fold sooner than others of its kind. But beyond ~5K miles, its your call.

Some cars take the beating better than others: ex. My former car, '95 200sx was properly run-in, but with HEAVY & HARD driving habits (meaning daily redlining/fuel cut-off, and weekly power-tripped launches), 120,000 miles in 5 years, and even with rare oil changes, the engine never had a single problem. However, tranny weakness started popping up the final few months I owned it.

My father's '94 6-cylinder Camry (run-in) with 150,000 miles in 5 years showed ZERO signs of failure, in either motor or transmission, with a similar driving style.

Of course, many have stated that the recent Maxima's powerplant is known to be faultless. Every opportunity I received to launch a VQ30DE, I did so, and it performed above and beyond without any strain.

:D ....i just can`t stop lol.....well my friend`s 1998 honda si, won`t rev pass 5000RPM in neutral and in park.....it's a automatic by the way, he was getting worried and asked me to ask some of u guys....thx a lot..^^...well no offence to si drivers, honda is a good brand too...^^:D

A Honda is the ONE car you can safely rev hard. That's what their motors are designed to do. Just look at all the variable valve/cam timing mechanics--most of this hardware clicks on halfway up the tachometer. With redlines set near 10K, 5000rpm wont even make a Honda break a sweat. Of course, hitting the fuel cut-off on a daily basis isn't good for any car. But in essence, if you NEVER take a Honda motor up, you have already wasted a few thousand dollars on your car. The technology is there for a reason and if you don't use it at all, it would be comparable to buying a $5000 graphically enhanced computer system solely for word processing. And revving in neutral/parking? That's essentially walking on air.

if your trying to wring the most out of the max, shift 1-2 at about 5600rpm, this will take advantage of the mid range torque these cars have and put you back in the torque to start pulling hard through 2nd. shift the others at 6000-6200.

Originally posted by morpheusxiii
Some cars take the beating better than others: ex. My former car, '95 200sx was properly run-in, but with HEAVY & HARD driving habits (meaning daily redlining/fuel cut-off, and weekly power-tripped launches), 120,000 miles in 5 years, and even with rare oil changes, the engine never had a single problem. However, tranny weakness started popping up the final few months I owned it.


Ok..you just brought up something I'm unsure of. The redlining/fuel cut-off. One day I was hauling ass in 1st and it spun up quick.. I was also giving a guy I was passing the finger so I had my hand off the shift lever.. so, I redlined on my '97 SE 5-speed and all of a sudden, nothing, the engine just cut out like the fuel was cut off.

This is built into the system? Is that what happens? Haven't hit that again but it felt very odd

I'm thinking this isn't a good thing to do, rev until fuel cutoff but I'd like to know if the max is going to save itself from catastropic meltdown. :eek:

Will make me feel better when pushing it if I know its limitations and safety features. :sun:

The fuel cut-off system is built into every production automobile available. An electronically controlled sensor detects when the engine speed reaches a specific point preset by the factory. When it is hit, the mechanism simply forces a cease of fuel delivery, continuously and rapidly, much like the anti-lock braking system. This point is generally marked just after the start of the red-line.

It is fairly safe for an engine to reach this point, even several times within its lifespan. Modern engines are tested prior to production to see how well they can put up with long-term, high speed endurance. Usually, they are held at dangerously high RPMs for hours upon end. The fuel cut-off point is always set at a safe point, so that the consumer may never run into the REAL danger zone. However, I still wouldn't recommend missing shifts on a regular basis, intentionally or not. Heavy wear and tear will break down any machine, but it is OK to use the latter section of the powerband every now and then.

Own example:
My Nissan 200SX was purchased new in 1995 and was sold in 2000. It was properly and delicately run in for the first 5,000 miles, but the next 110,000 miles were a totally different story. So you picked up that it clocked in 115,000 miles in 5 years? I've heard worse, but that's still pretty harsh considering that this rate is nearly double the standard average. By 1998 the rate was actually triple the average, but I calmed down much after that. There was a 3-year chunk in the middle of my ownership where the car would hit the fuel cut-off system or red-line every single day (the start of the 200SX's red-line is where the fuel cuts off). Burn-outs became regular. On a few days, I would cold-start the motor and hold it at fuel cut-off in neutral for 30-40 seconds just to watch the temperature gauge rise. There are other stories about pushing this Nissan beyond its limits such as breathing the car for two years off only an air horn, and not changing the oil for 10,000 miles, but I just wanted to share the bulk of this message to show that pushing the motor is acceptable in most instances. I sold the car in 2000 and to that day, I never had a single problem with the motor.

Originally posted by morpheusxiii
The fuel cut-off system is built into every production automobile available. An electronically controlled sensor detects when the engine speed reaches a specific point preset by the factory. When it is hit, the mechanism simply forces a cease of fuel delivery, continuously and rapidly, much like the anti-lock braking system. This point is generally marked just after the start of the red-line.

It is fairly safe for an engine to reach this point, even several times within its lifespan. Modern engines are tested prior to production to see how well they can put up with long-term, high speed endurance. Usually, they are held at dangerously high RPMs for hours upon end. The fuel cut-off point is always set at a safe point, so that the consumer may never run into the REAL danger zone. However, I still wouldn't recommend missing shifts on a regular basis, intentionally or not. Heavy wear and tear will break down any machine, but it is OK to use the latter section of the powerband every now and then.

Own example:
My Nissan 200SX was purchased new in 1995 and was sold in 2000. It was properly and delicately run in for the first 5,000 miles, but the next 110,000 miles were a totally different story. So you picked up that it clocked in 115,000 miles in 5 years? I've heard worse, but that's still pretty harsh considering that this rate is nearly double the standard average. By 1998 the rate was actually triple the average, but I calmed down much after that. There was a 3-year chunk in the middle of my ownership where the car would hit the fuel cut-off system or red-line every single day (the start of the 200SX's red-line is where the fuel cuts off). Burn-outs became regular. On a few days, I would cold-start the motor and hold it at fuel cut-off in neutral for 30-40 seconds just to watch the temperature gauge rise. There are other stories about pushing this Nissan beyond its limits such as breathing the car for two years off only an air horn, and not changing the oil for 10,000 miles, but I just wanted to share the bulk of this message to show that pushing the motor is acceptable in most instances. I sold the car in 2000 and to that day, I never had a single problem with the motor.

Ok.. great, so when I'm flooring it and redline, I know there's a safty system in place in case I miss a shift or something. However, I'm thinking this doesn't stop somebody from downshifting at too high a speed and revving the engine way over the redline and blowing it.. am I correct?

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. This is the only real danger of manual shifting. It's happened more than I'd like to know. My only suggestion is to have an 'itchy' left foot, meaning get ready to depress the clutch pedal at any sign of unusual car behavior. The first thing that usually happens when this dangerous gear change takes place is the tires squeal, due to the sudden slowing. If the clutch hasn't been freed by this point, the motor should be howling like a banshee, at a much higher pitch than is normal. The engine may or may not survive, but after an incident such as this, an engine diagnostics servicing is a must.

humm.......i had that too, when i was racing my friend`s I30t, i floored it and my max just went super fast until it some how redlined itself at around 6000RPM~143km/h, i dunno what happened it just shut off like i turned the engine off during acceleration...?..humm.,it went to idel(600RPM) at around 143km/h....man i was in second gear.....!!!....by the way this is an auto so i couldn`t possibally
step on the clutch....!!, anyone tell me y?....this hasn`t happened for 3 weeks since this happened

Now THAT is odd. Then again, all automatics are. They are unpredictable because they are programmed to run with safe behavior, yet they are trying to obey their driver's inputs. I've taken up a '97 Maxima SE auto before, but nothing like that has ever happened. In drive, it shifted smoothly to second at a good 6 grand, but it didn't hit the redline since it is programmed to shift slightly before that. However, you can override this characteristic by taking control of the lower gear shift control. In 'L', when fully accelerated in 1st gear, the motor will actually hit the red-line at around 6,500, and meet the fuel cut-off point as well.

Food for thought:
We've always known that manual transmissions provide the most direct control. Automatics have never received much attention, other than they can draw consistent E.T.s on the strip. Performance torque converters are available and offer much needed power transfer. Unfortunately, there isn't much else for these computer controlled gearboxes. What if that computer could be harnessed in a way to provide a service that no stick shifter could offer?

What I am getting at is an aftermarket version control system to provide the unique, "clutchless, semi-manual, auto-stick" offered in a handful of sports cars today. Some scoff at these gimmicky jokes of the automobile industry, but they sure make the automatics fun. A driver can choose to pretend that the car has a race inspired sequential shifter or relax with the full-auto mode.

Perhaps the aftermarket kit would come with a small electronic chip-box similar to the various 1/4 DIN sized turbo-timers and wastegate valve controllers, and on this unit would the driver be able to select automatic or semi, while the shifter is on 'D'. Also included would be 2 remote buttons, capable of being wired to and mounted on the steering wheel on opposite sides for up/down shifting. Or optionally, they may be interfaced into the standard buttons on a Sparco steering wheel. One may even get clever and mount them on the automatic shift lever. Even better, this company would offer a full-blown paddle kit for the true F1 feel.

I know this sounds like a bit much for 'just' an automatic (especially because most enthusiasts own manuals in the first place), but heck, this industry has everything these days. Might as well add another idea. Most autos only come in 4-speeds, but thats 6 more gearshifts than you had before (combined up & downshifts), and on top of that, more and more automatics are becoming 5-speeds. This, combined with a tweaked performance torque converter, would formulate an interesting driving experience.

haha, yeh i hope i had that on my max....:D

7000 Rpm If Equipped with JWT Ecu.
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5spd 92SE