Do the 5th gens have a rev limiter that limit how high the engine will rev when in park or neutral?

yes..put your foot all the way down and watch the tach bounce.

I was just wondering if it had one lower than the one at redline. I was reading that some cars will limit the RPM to not much over 4000RPM when in park or neutral and I was just wondering why would it make a difference whether it is in gear or not. Does anyone one know the reason why? The only thing I could think of was to keep someone from over revving it due to fact the RPM might climb faster (since there is no load) and it could maybe get past the redline rev limiter for a moment.

There are two limiters, one for RPM (in or out of gear) and one for MPH (usually around 110 MPH). Here is the Top Speed limit for the 4th gen.

Top Speed Data!

Koz

Yes many German cars prevent neutral and park revving to prevent neutral drops. It's 4k on the S5.

I was kind of curious how high you can rev the engine in park (without causing any damage) because I was revving it up the other day to listen for something I heard the other day under hard acceleration. I only took it up between 3500-4000 rpm a few times. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't hurting anything doing that.

I figured that the newer vehicles including my 5th gen would have some sort of rev limiter to prevent any damage from over revving (in neutral or park) or do not all vehicles have that?

Also what is the reason for having the rev limiter set down around 4000rpm for neutral or park when it is probably over 5500 when in gear?

Is it just to prevent someone from actually dropping it in gear at anything over that? Because I can't see running at 4,500rpm in park being any different than 4,500rpm in gear. The only logical reason I could see for limiting it around 4,000rpm would be to prevent it from revving up past the redline limiter momentarily due to it possibly revving faster. (due to no load).

Is this reasoning correct or is there actually another reason?

You can not neutral drop a Toyota. The trans will not engage until the revs are low enough to not cause damage. Also, If you are moving forward you can not engage reverse. I have not tried this but this is what I was told.

Koz

then what is the reason for limiting the neutral or park RPM to around 4000rpm if you can't neutral drop it anyway? But then maybe our 4 runners don't actually have the park or neutral rev limiter due to the fact that you can't put it in gear at too high of RPM anyway.

I only took mine up between 3500 and 4000RPM in with no limiter. I know I didn't make it to 4000RPM so I don't know if ours limits it at 4000RPM or if even at all in park or neutral, it might just let it go all the way to the red line limiter then. I'm sure someone on here has tried though.

The rev limiter is there to protect the engine from over revving and going boom (in or out of gear)! The speed limiter is there to protect the vehicle (and you) from becoming unstable at speeds over 100 mph (this is due to poor aerodynamics and high center of gravity).

Koz

I thought that's what wifes were for.........

Since I was trying to figure out if we had a rev limiter when in park or neutal I was on YouTube and saw a guy with a new FJ Cruiser who was revving his all the way to almost redline and he was either in park or neutral. So since they have the same engine as our 5th gens I'm guessing we don't have a park/neutral rev limiter that is set lower than the redline limit either.

I'm thinking the cars that do have it, use it to prevent people from dropping it in gear and ruining the transmission, and that maybe our transmission won't engage until the rpm is low enough and that is why Toyota doesn't have a lower rev limiter. I'm sure if they were worried about engine damage from revving it up in neutral they would have a limiter set lower than redline to protect the engine.

I'm not saying I would just go out and sit there and redline it all the time (especially not on a new one like this guy), But I guess I won't worry about having hurt anything when I was revving mine up when in park between 3500rpm and 4000rpm listening for a noise.

Relax dude. If at operating temperature, nothing happened.

Every vehicle I have owned has hit the red line almost every time I use the vehicle. I have never had any kind of engine trouble (and have gotten well over 100K miles, even with a supercharger). Up to eighty percent of engine wear occurs on start up. This is the time it takes the oil to reach the vital areas of the engine when engine oil has drained down for several hours and/or cold.

Koz