Is it normal to coast up a hill from a stop?

Question

Subsequent to bringing my 2001 Subaru Forester in for its 90K service, I've noticed that the revs are sometimes higher than previously realized. To test a theory, I exited off the highway onto an incline ramp that eventually crosses a bridge that goes over the highway. At the bottom of the ramp, I stopped the car. I then let go of the brake and gas and shifted into "D" and watched as I coasted all the way up the hill. The speedometer stayed at 0 and the tachometer was around

1500 rpm. I then called the service techs and they said it was normal. Weird.

Guest · Accepted Answer

When you just start your engine, do you wait untill your tachometr gets to

750-800 rpm? I experienced it quite a few times, when I shatred my engine and immediately start driving. Engine rews, I loose power, and when I set gear to "N" my tachometer shows ~1500 rpm. In this case I stopp engine, wait for 10-15 seconds, run it again and wait untill my RPM gets below 1000 before putting my gear to drive.

tomcas · Answer

Sounds like BS to me. It's not normal and  it's way too high. Open your hood and look for RPM idle spec on one of the stickers. It probably calls for something closer to 800 RPM, in drive.

The_Incubator · Answer

Before my WRX I had a automatic Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am. My driveway is unusually long and steep, I'd guess at least a 15 degree incline, and the Firebird would crawl up that in Drive without me giving it any gas. Of course, it was a 5.7 liter V8 with an obscene amount of low-end torque. There's just too many variables to make it easy to say whether a given model of car should or should not be able to idle up a given hill, as described on usenet.

I do think a 1500 rpm idle sounds too high. My WRX idles around 1500 immediately after a cold startup, and kicks itself down below 1000 once it's warmed up a bit (about 1 minute). I'm assuming this is normal startup behavior, because it's done that predictably and regularly since I bought the car. Somebody let me know if it's not supposed to do that. If it were idling that high all the time I would take it to the dealer.

Nick

Edward Hayes · Answer

I think that 1500 rpm would be normal because; the engine is being asked toprovide more power based on a lower intake manifold vacuum and vehicle speedsensors and to compensate the computer readjust the fuel requirements andrpm. I see alittle of this in my slightly angled driveway. Ed Hayes

Is it normal to coast up a hill from a stop?

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