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I know the manual says it gives more power for climbing up hills and that you shouldn't be driving in it above 40mph, but I tries it up to 65mph and my tachometer doesn't redline. It stays at about 4500rpm. Is it bad for me to be doing this?

 
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Dude I've driven in 2nd gear at 45 mph...it is fine...

As long as your car doesn't start shuddering when your in 2nd or 3rd...that basically is the rev limiter keeping your tranny from overworking, and your engine from redlining....but 40mph is nothing for 3rd gear.

 
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no not really............ its like driving a manual and holding your gear in place at
a certain RPM........... just don't mess around with your drivetrain on a automatic.

Drive on normal gear postion (D i guess) and ur car will be FINE........
If not than you might need to look into your warrenty to see what it will cover.
Because you had to get it fix because you messed around too much [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]

 
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You'll be fine
I have to drive a road that is winding and all hills just to get home everyday, and I drive it in D3 - I quite often reach 40mph+... but as soon as I get onto normal roads it goes right back into D

 
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Lets see...on D4 at about 3,000 rpm I would usually average 80mph on the freeway. Then when I see a open lane or I need to pass...I drop to D3 and floor the gas pedal. The rpm go up by like 2000rpm and you gain speed faster. If you floor it on D4 it automatically shifts down to D3 anyways. Half the time, you dont reach near redline and the speed limiter kicks in because your going too fast. The other half, your car is straining so your near redline but the car isn't gonna go any faster so you back off and put it back to D4. Doesn't it just put more wear on your engine and waste more gas?

 
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If you use the gas pedal to kick down, then the car will shift back to D4 at the proper rpm. I think that's better than letting the rev limiter kick in. When that happens you are kinda stuck at about 90 MPH. I believe.

If you are on cruise control at say 70 MPH and you come to a long or steep hill, the trans will shift down to D3 automatically and you will be doing 70 MPH in D3. There's no problem with that. What happens is you run out of torque in D4 so the trans shifts down, the revs go up and the VTEC kicks in (on an EX) and it keeps your speed up to the setpoing you have in your cruise control.

If that was bad for your car, they wouldn't let it do that automatically. If your car stayed in D4 on a big hill, then you might be only doing 30 MPH or less by the time you got to the top, and that sure ain't safe. You could get run over.

 
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I hold D3 until about 110mph...which is pretty much redline, going downhill...you can drive in D3 all day long, its pretty much like driving in 4th gear in a 5-speed...

It won't hurt you if you don't mind the sound of high RPM's...You can't really damage your engine or transmission unless you hold it at redline for too long...Which would be longer than 10 seconds, in a rough estimate...

D4 is only overdrive, its not even really necessary, its just an really LOONG extra gear, its there for fuel economy.

 
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I just called my local honda service center and they said I should keep in in overdrive. I'm guessing that leaving it in D3 puts strain on the transmission and engine.

 
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haha, rofl, ofcourse they would say that, they will also tell you that installing an aftermarket intake and exhaust will somehow destroy your engine...

 
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True, but I assume it is fine as long as it don't redline. I'm just wondering if it puts stress on the car or not?

 
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I use d3 as my passing gear (when no one else is in the car)

the engine seems to have much more power. I do watch our for the redline though and I don't come close. 85 is about the fastest I try to go in d3