High RPMs

The other day my husband was on the highway and our toyota went into high rpms on it’s own. He was driving around 50 mph. When I say high rpms in went to about 5. Any idea what could be causing this?

One more thing… my husband said it was driving normal once he was off the highway driving under 50 mph.

As I see it, there are only three possibilities:

Your husband had the transmission in 2nd gear, by mistake.
or
If you have an automatic transmission, your transmission is slipping badly and may be about to die.
or
If you have a manual transmission, your clutch is slipping badly.

For your sake, I hope that it was the former, rather than either of the other possibilities, but just for the sake of discussion, please tell us the following information regarding your Corolla:

Model year?
Odometer mileage?
Manual trans or automatic trans?
If automatic, what is the level, color and odor of the trans fluid?
If automatic, what are the date and odometer mileage of its last transmission fluid change?

Hmmm…Two days later, and the OP has not answered the questions that I posed.

Are the questions too difficult to answer?
Or, are they stranded on the highway by a burnt-out transmission?

Well I dont know about the people who asked it but THANKYOU for the gret answer . Just now my Mother who was a road trip called and wanted to ask my husband about her RPMs being about 4 , He was at work , tried to call but no answer so I did the next best thing and found your reply . I quickly called my mom back with the information . She immediatly took it too the gas station , and the attendant checked her transmission fluid . For once it was at the right level . Sadly her transmission will need to be replaced , But Thankyou for the great answer . You not only saved my mom from driving into the middle of nowhere and obviously getting stuck out there , but you also made me a hero :slight_smile: Thanks alot guys

                                                                       Kirstyn

You’re welcome!
I am the “guys/people” who responded to your original post.
I would like to point out that, while I have gained some weight over the years, I am still just one person.
;-))

Seriously, however, I’m glad if my answer regarding your husband’s situation was able to save your mother from being stranded with a dead transmission.

However, I am still curious about the answers to the questions that I posed last week.
Please tell us about:

Model year?
Odometer mileage?
Manual trans or automatic trans?
If automatic, what is the level, color and odor of the trans fluid?
If automatic, what are the date and odometer mileage of its last transmission fluid change?

The reason for the last item on the list above is that cause of almost all transmission failure is lack of maintenance. I would be willing to bet a cup of coffee that the transmission in your mother’s car was not serviced every 3 yrs/30k miles. When this is not done, transmission failure can take place any time after ~90k miles, and is pretty much of a sure thing by ~130k miles.

What can you tell us about your husband’s car??

Different poster, not the OP.

Maybe yes, maybe no.
Since both are named Kirsten (or Kirstyn) it is possible that the OP forgot her password and had to create a new identity.

However, I will grant you that Kirsten is a very commmon name among women in their 20s and 30s.
We will have that same situation in a few decades, since it seems that at least 70% of little kids are now named “Jaden”.