before i get flamed by everyone here saying that i'm an idiot driver, all i can say is that this was my fault... anyway

I was taking 3rd gear up to around 6000 RPM and i shifted around a corner... and i hit 2nd by accident... luckily i pushed the clutch right back in after 2 seconds so i minimized any potentail damage. I heard a big CLUNK and the tach was reading 8k. Afterwards, the car seems fine still, but it just left me with a dirty feeling knowing that i .... misshifted.... sigh. Hopefully I didn't do any damage at all. Anyone know what kind of damage I may have done? The car seems to drive normally.

 

You didn't hear any other funny noises, right? And it's revving fine, no smoke or anything, right?

Seems like your engine is OK, but man don't keep beating up your car

 

If the engine is built well enough there sill be little or no damage do to it.... If it is running fine now you probably did not cause any damage to worrie about. You will probably will want to have your engine checked out for excessive wear when and if you plan to make a major upgread like adding a turbo or supercharger setup.

 

So it begins...

 

I'm sure once the mental trauma of what happened wears off, you will be fine.

That MUST have been weird to experience, though.

 

I think you dodged a bullet here my friend!

With the incredible torque of the VQ engine there is really no need to shift at the redline, unless you are on a track and are willing to take the risk of engine damage.

I don't think Nissan warranty would cover such damage. Keep that in mind!

Enjoy the ride~

 

Nope, they wouldn't. Nissan would never cover damages due to driver error.

 

There still can be minor engine damage.

What usually happens when the car is so over reved is that the valves float.

One or more valves may have contacted the piston. The result in bad cases are bent valvestems and busted pistons. (Dead Engine)

In light cases, the valve my be slightly bent, what this means is that the engine still seems to run fine, but that valve no longer seats properly. The result is lost compression in the cylinder.

Again in mild cases this loss of compression is slight. Sort of like what general where and tear will cause. HOWEVER, this is usually only in one cylinder. What this means is as you pile on the miles on your car the effect will get worse. Your compression in all six cylinders will be more and more uneven.

If your really worried about what might have happened then gat a compression check of all 6 cylinders. This is a very simple test, provided it is easy to get to all 6 sparkplugs.
I do not have a service manual so I do not know what the absolute reading should be but I do know that they should all be within 5% of each other on a new car.

If one is a little lower, then you might have "kissed a valve and piston" No immediate worry but it will be a more pronounced rough idle and lose of power as the car ages and gets lots of miles on it.

Oh ..... And DON'T do it again.....

 

What i have been told to do is to shift with the typical "thumbs up" position from 1st to 2nd. Then with "thumbs down" position (invert your hand) from 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th and so on. This way you will have a tendency to push away to the next gear rather than having to pull in when shifting with your "thumbs up".

 

Thankfully you guys have reassured me. At the next oil change I will get the compression checked out. I did feel like I was losing revs as the SLIP indicator came out as i came into 2nd so maybe Nissan foresaw this and had some sort of fail-safe... hopefully. The car seems absolutely fine, except I noticed the sound of the engine more than usual... i.e. light intermittent whistling sound of the engine at low RPMs. But i'll go back out there today trying to feel like nothing happened and see how it performs.