i recently purchased my first st the mk8 fiesta and i’ve noticed when driving it’s really high revs for example i can go 30 mph and my car willl tell me to gear up and i can do 6th gear at 30 mph and be at 1.5k revs is this normal?? and then doing 30 in 4th it’s around 2.5k ish revs i’m assuming it’s so you can put instant power down but only reason i’m asking the car is on 29,000 miles and my gear box has blown and i’m thinking this is putting strain on the gear box but if it’s normal it might have just been the gear box itself. can anyone confirm this ?

Hi Xav,

I'm not really clear what you mean here, but here's a list of mph per 1000rpm in each gear, with approx maximum speed at 6,500rpm in each gear shown in brackets, which may be helpful:

1st.           4.7.     (31)

2nd.          8.7.    (56)

3rd.          13.1.    (85)

4th.          17.4.    (113)

5th.          21.6.    (141)

6th.          26.0.   (144)**

**In road tests, wouldn't pull 6,500 in top unless downhill😀

Others will have their own views, but I use 3rd for 30 zones (so just over 2,000 rpm) both for control to avoid drifting over the limit (once bitten, etc!) and for response if necessary. 

It's a torquey motor so will happily bimble along at 1,500 under very light load on the flat/slight downgrade but I usually keep at 2,000 or above.

It's no different to any other car - putting it under load in too high a gear for the speed, or conversely habitually revving the nuts off it in too low a gear, is never going to do it any good.

I haven't seen many instances of gearbox failure on these as yet, but plenty of comments about "clunky" gearchanges etc, and it's not the slickest box imo.

As for the gearchange indicator, most people ignore that and go by what the rev counter, their ear and driving  experience are telling them.

38 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Hi Xav,

I'm not really clear what you mean here, but here's a list of mph per 1000rpm in each gear, with approx maximum speed at 6,500rpm in each gear shown in brackets, which may be helpful:

1st.           4.7.     (31)

2nd.          8.7.    (56)

3rd.          13.1.    (85)

4th.          17.4.    (113)

5th.          21.6.    (141)

6th.          26.0.   (144)**

**In road tests, wouldn't pull 6,500 in top unless downhill😀

Others will have their own views, but I use 3rd for 30 zones (so just over 2,000 rpm) both for control to avoid drifting over the limit (once bitten, etc!) and for response if necessary. 

It's a torquey motor so will happily bimble along at 1,500 under very light load on the flat/slight downgrade but I usually keep at 2,000 or above.

It's no different to any other car - putting it under load in too high a gear for the speed, or conversely habitually revving the nuts off it in too low a gear, is never going to do it any good.

I haven't seen many instances of gearbox failure on these as yet, but plenty of comments about "clunky" gearchanges etc, and it's not the slickest box imo.

As for the gearchange indicator, most people ignore that and go by what the rev counter, their ear and driving  experience are telling them.

yeah i get what your saying when i get my gear box fixed monday ill msg again and see what my revs are at 30mph in 4th to see if it matches you if so then its fine im assuming its just the car 

15 hours ago, Xav said:

see what my revs are at 30mph in 4th to see if it matches you if so then its fine im assuming its just the car 

Ah, so your point was you thought the car was revving higher than you'd expect for a given speed?

You don't say what you had previously, but the ST gearing is lower than, say, a Fiesta 100 or 125 ecoboost.

Only other reason for excess revs for a given speed would be clutch slip.

yeah i had a 100ps eco boost before and yes im on about over rev as i’ve never had a st seems strange but maybe you might be right all i can do is see when i get it back and just go from there but it will just sit at higher revs for example on my ecoboost i could do 70in 6th and be at 2.5k revs but in the st i can do 70 in 6th and be just over 3k revs and i dont know if it’s because its the power so when i put my foot down it just lifts or what it is but all i can say is when i get it back i’ll just have to see but thank you for your input on this just gives me a rough idea 

5 hours ago, Xav said:

 ecoboost i could do 70in 6th and be at 2.5k revs

That would be about right. Just for completeness I've included the 100/125 mph/1000 rpm figures (the 140 version has lower overall gearing, very similar to the ST):

 

                 1.5 ST                                   1.0 100/125

1st.           4.7.                                               5.4

2nd.          8.7.                                              9.5

3rd.          13.1.                                            14.5

4th.          17.4.                                            19.6

5th.          21.6.                                            24.6

6th.          26.0.                                           29.3

It could also be a case of getting your head round the rate at which the ST puts on revs/speed compared to the 1.0. I don't have figures for the 100 version, but in Autocar's road test the 125 took 13.2 seconds to get from 50-70 in 6th. The 1.5 ST did it in less than half the time at 6.4 seconds.