How bad is it to shift from 5th to 2nd while going 50mph?

This is the first manual trans I've driven, and a few (3-5) times, I've went into 2nd by accident instead of going into 4th (mostly when slowing down to to exit the hwy via an offramp). I've heard the rear wheels skid and RPMs increase to high 5000s.

How bad of a damage would I have caused?

 

Try not to do it again. Send it and good luck! Drive it like ya stole it!

 

I’ve done that a hand full of times before I changed out the shifter bushing,

Nothing has happened as far as damage but not a good idea to keep doing it, something might break

 

Its called a money shift, for good reason.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=money shift

 

My dad taught me in my very first car ($800) how you can lock up the tires and stop suddenly by doing that.

The problem is every other moving part in the vehicle is going too fast to suddenly stop. And you change the effective gear ratio very suddenly. The engine is mechanically forced to a higher RPM faster than it's naturally supposed to do so.

Something will ultimately break if that keeps happening.

 

2.7 or 3.4?
I don’t have much experience with 2.7 but from a quick google search it appears to be an interference engine, so mechanically over-reving it could conceivably float the valves and seriously F shit up. Bent valves and such. If 3.4 you could probably continue to do it, but dont, just don’t..

 

One thing to really help avoid this is to let the shifter do the work. If you just let it center itself in neutral you’ll hit fourth perfect every time. I know that seems obvious and it definitely isn’t the fastest way to shift. If you are new to a manual though, consciously doing this makes a huge difference.

 

3.4

 

Cool, great motor, rev it to the moon, even break a timing belt, no worries. Keep up on oil changes and keep any fluid leaks under control and don’t overheat it and it’ll last nearly forever.

 

I did this several times due to an incorrect shifter bushing.

Go to neutral. Push all of the way left. Go back to neutral. Push up towards third. On my truck that would have been fifth.

Any time the shifter was fully to the right, going to the middle and then down or up would be second or first gear.

 

The first bill you will have is towing the Truck Home because it will not move under it`s own power any longer.

Then you can figure out just what has failed.

 

Are you sure it’s running ok cuz I thought I saw a connecting rod land in my lilac bush....

 

Depends then just how it was done.

I have no idea what gear I am in quite possible I have been in 5th gear slowed way down to make a turn into 2nd gear and never noticed.

Then the RPM and Speed would have dropped to a safe level to pull into second gear.

 

I bet your heart skipped a beat.

 

Toyota kept the rpm limit for the 3.4 very conservative for the stroke of the engine. For guidelines, toyota could have done high 5k rpms and been good but its a truck motor and doesnt need it. Also if you swapped to a forged bottom, rpm could go up to 7k but thats with forged sooo... Either way not great for the engine to be up there for long, just that it can but the springs are not made for it in the valvetrain.

 

Not gonna lie, I knock mine in neutral and let her roll. I’m to lazy to down shift.

 

Why even downshift in this situation? If you are just gradually slowing down just leave it in 5th until you are going a lot slower. You only need to downshift into 4th if you need to accelerate and 5th gear is too high to do that, like going up a hill or carrying a lot of weight or pulling a trailer. And using the downshift as a brake is of limited value. I'd rather just use the brakes. If you are going down a long, steep hill then it would make sense so you don't overheat the brakes.

 

Worst I've done is barely snicked reverse once instead of 4th, and shifted into 3rd instead of 5th ramping onto the highway. Key is to use light pressure and don't force anything. The shifter will align 3rd and 4th for you, gotta get a feel for it.

 

When you hear a loud pop and some grinding it means you have accessed the engines super rpms and you can now go a lot faster.

 

5th to reverse is my favorite, when the transmission sings the song of its people.