Changing gear ratio, 1.6l 5 speed

Post by **skyl4rk** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:16 pm

Is it possible to change the gear ratio on the 1.6l 5 speed Versa? I would like the 5th gear to be taller than it is now, so that the rpms at highway speeds are a little lower. 4rth gear could be upped a bit too.

Are the gears separate on the shaft so one could be removed and another with a different number of teeth could be added? Or is it one big pig?

Post by **Red Devil** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:27 pm

skyl4rk wrote:Is it possible to change the gear ratio on the 1.6l 5 speed Versa? I would like the 5th gear to be taller than it is now, so that the rpms at highway speeds are a little lower. 4rth gear could be upped a bit too.

Are the gears separate on the shaft so one could be removed and another with a different number of teeth could be added? Or is it one big pig?

Do you want AWD, twin turbos and a full rollcage? Unless there's an aftermarket solution then no.

Post by **skyl4rk** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:54 am

I'm looking for better gas mileage and lower rpm at highway speeds.

Post by **Knightro2** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:05 am

With the lack of aftermarket parts for the V I would highly doubt there is anything out there for you to be able to accomplish this. But, if there was it would probably cost so much it would be cheaper to trade in your V and get a SL with CVT.

Post by **biggie** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:06 am

skyl4rk wrote:I'm looking for better gas mileage and lower rpm at highway speeds.

Simply: its not going to happen unless you have tons of money to build custom pieces to put into the transmission. Like enough money to where buying another car would make more sense.

Post by **VersaMG08** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:18 am

If you want better gas milage, I'd save up and trade the vehicle in for the new 2010 Honda Insignt. That thing will get up to 40+ mpg in the city ahd highway.

Post by **Knightro2** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:22 am

Yea, but it's a Honda.

BAAM! A NEGATIVE Honda comment on the Nissan Forum. We need more of them! HA!

OK, I'm calm now. I think. I dunno...could just be the DayQuil.

Post by **SuperTurbo** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:53 am

I guess your best bet is to find a smaller Final gear ratio to achieve that...

But.... once you do that, the car will be even slower on acceleration....

Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:22 pm

skyl4rk wrote:I'm looking for better gas mileage and lower rpm at highway speeds.

Lower rpm's would be nice, but going 70 at about 3500rpms I got 35.8 mpg on a trip to dallas from san antonio. You get used to it over time.

Red Devil wrote:Do you want AWD, twin turbos and a full rollcage? Unless there's an aftermarket solution then no.

Was that really necessary? Is that going to want to make the person want to come back and contribute to the forums? How do you go from wanting to get better gas mileage and lower rpm's at higher speeds to twin turbos?

Post by **skyl4rk** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:28 pm

I was hoping that maybe the top gear from the 1.8 six speed trans would fit the same shaft diameter, and it might just be a couple hundred bucks to replace the #5.

Post by **skyl4rk** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:30 pm

+ by pig I meant the stack of gears, not that the car is slow.

Post by **morgan** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:54 pm

No it's not one big pig. you could do them in pairs (input and output gears).Getting someone to make them would be another story.

Post by **morgan** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:12 pm

I take back my previous statement about making them. One might actually be able to switch them right over, I don't know though if the reverse idler gear on the 5sp is the same design as the 6sp, its possible that could be another hang up. interesting idea!

Post by **skyl4rk** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:49 am

I have put a few more miles on the car (I just picked my Base up last Tuesday).

I think that every gear could be bumped up by 10%, and #4 and #5 could be bumped up 20%. The spread between 1, 2, 3 and 4 could be bigger.

#1 is what I would call a granny gear.

#2 is a little too tall to be a first gear but is just a little to low to be a second gear.

#3 and #4 are convenient to have if you happen to want to move slow in a traffic jam and just creep along, but if accelerating up to 40mph and faster, you could do with just one of them and skip the other moving directly to #5. I would bump up #3 and skip #4.

#5 is nice at 45mph, good at 50mph, ok at 55mph, but then the rpms go way too high and I wish there was another gear to shift up to.

If there were a #6, it should be about 20% above #5, so it could run about 2500rpm at 65mph.

I am looking for better gas mileage, but I also want to be able to cruise 75-80mph on the highway when needed. I am sure that the motor can do 3500rpm all day at 70, but I think the motor would last a lot longer running at under 3000rpm. It would also be more efficient. The motor seems to have plenty of torque.

I am not going to do this until I am a little further along in the warranty period, to see if anything is going to break before I void the warranty.

So the options that I see:

1. Find a 6 speed transmission that will fit the motor.2. Put new gears in the existing 5 speed transmission.3. Find a way to increase all of the gears (larger wheels, replace something internal to the transmission?)

Larger front wheels seems to be the easiest solution, although I have not checked to see what wheels fit the bolt pattern. Going to 14" wheels would increase the circumference about 8%, just going by 13" x 3.14 = 40.8" and 14" x 3.14 = 44.0". Anyone know if some used 14" wheels will fit the bolt pattern?

Option 2 could be to remove #4, swap #5 for #4 and put a new top gear on, maybe the sixth gear from the 1.8l transmission if it has the right number of teeth and the proper shaft size.

Post by **alonsorules8** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:00 am

The 5 gear and 6 gear transmissions are made by Renault, and over in Europe running 3500 to 5000 rpm's with these transmissions yielding thier best mileage. I don't know why that is but with the Clio's, Modus, and Note models in Europe getting 35 to 50 mpg with these gearing setup I think the higher rpm's you run the better the mpg's you get.

Post by **skyl4rk** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:04 am

I made an assumption that mpg at low rpm will be better than high rpm. However, that may not be correct, good point, alonso.

I have a Scangauge on order, should be coming in next week, so I will be able to get an instant readout of mpg at different speeds/rpms.

Post by **boxcarbill** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:33 pm

You have been given a s*** trans as punishment for not buying the automatic. Anyone who thinks higher rpms is better for anything has their head up their @ss.I'm getting 8% more overdrive with 205/70/15 tires on mine.

Post by **alonsorules8** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:03 pm

boxcarbill in Europe all Renault's with manual trans run in the mid range of their rpm bands at highway speed and that is what I was referencing.

The Renault transmissions that come in the Versa are the same used in Europe and get better mileage there than here in the states mainly due to the fact they are mated to 1.5L and 1.6L engines that require higher rpm's to keep they vehicals running at highway speeds.

Like I said in my last post is that I don't why at higher rpm's with this transmission gets better mileage but it does. Maybe just maybe Renault found a way of achieving better mpg at higher rpm's. imho.

Post by **loudmax20** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:57 pm

Well I have noticed that at a avg of 70 mph from Arkansas to Oklahoma I get about 28-29MPG where as around town I have gotten as much as 32MPG but normally around 28MPG so I get no increase from running at a higher RPM than at a lower RPM and I sometimes get better City mileage than interstate mileage. But at 80MPH it runs at 3500RPM in 6th gear on the 1.8L and at 70MPH just a tad over 3000

Post by **skyl4rk** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:52 pm

The Versa 1.6 Base has 13" wheels. It runs about 3500rpm at 70mph.

I think this drivetrain was designed for 14" wheels.

I'm gonna look for some 15" wheels.

Post by **boxcarbill** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:52 pm

I read 14" wheels on the base specs.

I can't do the speed limit (75) because my fuel economy tanks above 3000 rpm. Nothing shortens the life of an engine better than high rpms.

Go with 205/75/14 tires.

Post by **skyl4rk** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:51 pm

You are right, they are 14" not 13". Sorry about the bad info.

Post by **marton_isti** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:20 pm

Yes I can say that is possibile.I own a Tiida in Europe,and it has the same gearbox as the new march
I will post the two partcodes for the longer fifth gear,u need to change only two piieces. tomorrow i have em noted in my agenda
Cheers

Post by **mitchellhuth** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:44 pm

Well, where's the part numbers???

Changing gear ratio, 1.6l 5 speed

Changing gear ratio, 1.6l 5 speed

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