Manual transmission
 

I have been driving my car for about 2 hour so far under guidance.

Can anyone give me some tips I should follow when using manual transmission?

I am having troubles with going in reverse and going from not moving to moving (gear 1).

Once I am actually driving, I'm fine.

There's an easy way to learn a manual: find a deserted road or a parking lot. Put the car in first gear, and then let out the clutch slowly WITH OUT PRESSING ON THE GAS AT ALL. If you do it right you can get the car moving slowly at idle.

Do this 150 times.

Contact me in a week for lesson 2: starting on a hill.

Wouldn't doing that stall the car?

Only if you take your foot off the clutch.

The idea is to keep it semi-depressed, just a tiny bit above the biting point. Without touching the gas pedal, it will start to inch forward.

you bought a car without knowing how to drive it?

As much as youve talked about that car, you should have practiced bef0re buying?

:winkwink:

Riding the clutch?

You do it at just the right point where it catches but is not let off all the way.

Its pretty neat once you figure it out, but while you are learning you feel like its impossible. I tried to teach an ex g/f one time... biggest mistake of my life.

Been drinking? :glugglug

Nope. totally sober. I did catch the typo though hehehe

No pot.

No beer today.

No nononoononono. Let the cluth out ALL THE WAY. The idle control will give it enough gas to get the car going. Try it.

Let the car IDLE.

DO NOT touch the gas.

Depress the clutch all the way.

Put the car in first.

Let the clutch out very slowly until it is ALL THE WAY OUT.

You will be going like 3 miles per hour.

Stop, repeat 149 more times.

First manual car. I had nothing else to practice with.

nope, you'll get the hang of it after a while. let the clutch out slowly and the car should start to crawl. if it stalls you let it out to fast.

I learnt the method that I mentioned when learning the 3 point turn. Without depressing the gas pedal, the idea was to learn clutch control and learn how to inch the car forward slowly. It could then be depressed... find the biting point... depressed... find the biting point... etc. I never let it go, but I see what you mean.


I guess we're in a completely different ball park here. :glugglug

Eh, my first car was manual.

Youll get the hang of it.

And then you wont even notice youre doing it. Once you do it becomes second nature.

Yup.

Right now I don't think I can drive alone without getting into an accident. Still need my parental supervision. :)

Take's practice... I was a valet during college for 5yrs and that's how I learned. In Aug, I bought my first manual :2 cents:

practice on small streets, with stop signs and shit late and night... it took me about 4-5 days..

just slowly let the clutch up till its a the biting point the car will start to move abit if ur not on a hill.. then feed it a bit of gas and then slowly let go of the clutch

Damn. I thought this was going to be a thread about masturbation and STDs. :(

Buy a Ferrari with F!. Handles just like a stick shift, and you still have a hand free for a crack pipe.

If you can't find em........Grind em....:Graucho

Your transmission and gears are going to be fried!!!

I wouldent be shocked if you have not caused damage yet to the car:eek7 :eek7

learn on a hill going up hill when you can start with out rolling backwards you are ready for the road.

Nbritt

Shit you don't want to be driving in San Francisco for awhile..:1orglaugh If you lived around me I could teach you in 1 to 3 hours. The best way is find someone that has a manual and ask if you can ride around with them.....( That's if they know how 2 drive) ** And watch'em **. Last resort call the dealer or person you bought it from, ask'em to drive you around, you may have 2 pay someone. And who ever said find a ** BIG ** parking lot (this is good), some company, on the weekend so you don't crash into someone else's car, And stay FAR away form all unmoveable structures and objects.:Graucho

Your doing it all wrong...Press the gas pedal until its about 10,000 rpm on the tac then let out the clutch..try to be atleast a foot behind the car in front of you

STAY AWAY FROM HILLS!!!!


I told you it wasn't gonna be that easy at first Eru! It takes plenty of practice. If I were you I would have someone rent a manual for you to practice on. You could burn your transmission out with all the gear crunching you are doing right now. I bet it sounds pretty scary everytime you shift right now... if the car doesn't stop cold.:1orglaugh

It will take some practice. Jimmy's advice was pretty good. It's all about developing clutch control! Don't worry about mistaking 4th gear for reverse, you'll figure that out soon.

hey man, you'll get it down packed within a week, it took me 3 days to get the nag of it, the trick is to while you slowly let out the clutch push in the gas a little, so more less when half the clutch is out you should have a little bit of the gas in just to get it moving

you can't go fro 3rd to R without going intro neutral for a few seconds.. well on most cars...

I could teach ya to drive anything with wheels bro....

to start off whatever pressure you release of the clutch , apply to the gas... picture it like a balance , and youll never miss.


on a side note last year I bought a car I didnt even know what a 5 peed.. I had never driven stick before. I taught myself in one day . I packed my family of 3 bitchy kids and sometimes bitchy wife and drove off into friday downtown rushhour to learn. purposely , I learn well under pressure. that worked like a charm .

Brings back memories....

I learned to drive a stick in a cemetary of all places. Most of them have roads, turns and stop signs etc...just like on the street, but alot less traffic to deal with. What's best is that at the worst.. you'd hit a headstone or a tree.

If I can teach myself to manuever a twin engine 36' boat at low speeds (it's called having to learn how to use the engines -forward and reverse- in combination) than anyone can learn to drive a stick. Just takes patience and practice.

Any tips on reverse?

put it in reverse and go.... it's the same as going forward....

There's an echo off another thread in here isn't there ;)

When I bought my first car, I didn't know how to drive manual either. An 83 Prelude. Car looked in good shape to me, checked everything out then came back with my dad and had him testdrive it. He liked the feel so I went in and bargained the guy. Got it and learned how to drive it after. 2-3 days later it felt natural.

I miss that car sometimes, had fun!

Find a big vacant parking lot and just practice heaps. When my dad was teaching me to drive I'd spend an hour on sundays just going in circles around the lot.

It really is just a balancing act between the throttle and the clutch.
find somewhere quite and practice easing out the clutch slowly without touching the throttle until you hear the engine revs starting to drop. This is the "friction point" where the car will start to move if it has enough throttle.

once you have a feel for the friction point start gently applying the throttle as you reach the friction point and then keep easing out the clutch as the car starts to move.

If your starting on a hill then you are going to need more throttle to get you moving but with practice you'll be able to hold the car in one spot on a hill without touching the breaks. (this will wear the clutch over time)

reverse is pretty much the same technique, so just practice in first for a while so your not worrying about whats behind you.


for advanced driving try heading into a hard corner full tilt in third, instead of breaking slam it back into second and then breaking. This should cause the rear wheels to break traction and slide you around the corner. when the car is pointing in the direction you want to go apply some throttle and give the bird to the car that is abusing you for nearly wiping them out.


:1orglaugh

Umm yeah... it seems we can all count on Ted for the advanced How-To-Die quickly tips.:1orglaugh

Well you do need to practice that technique a bit, preferablely in someone elses car.

stop engine, put it to first gear and start engine without pressing clutch and pres gaz.. youll see car goes eaisly.. and use clucth to swap gears.. most of guys doesnt knows this tactic... enjoy it...

If you ever happen to be going over 100 racing on the freeway, do NOT try to downshift into fourth gear. :1orglaugh

I saw a guy do this (he was racing my friend), and sparks shot out his exhaust and he spun across three lanes and ate shit. Not sure if he died or what.

I still have an image of him slumped over his steering wheel as I passed by.

Good luck, have fun and drive safe.

:)

Make the habit early of double clutching, and revmatching all downshifts.



How this works:

Say you are going 60 miles per hours in 3rd gear.
look at the tachometer
remember what rpm you are at
clutch in
move from 3 - N
hold the shifter near 4 with a light pressure, wait for the shifter to get "sucked" into 4. This happens when the synchros are "ready" to engage, and the three moving parts (engine, tranny, and drivewheels are moving at the same speed)
clutch out
the shift should be smooth if you did it right
now, down shift...
clutch in
4-N
clutch out
rev the engine in neutral to slightly higher rpm than where you were in 3
clutch in
push to 3
clutch out
should be smooth
keep repeating the shift
try it with skipping gears 3-5, 3-6, and eventually when you get good, you should be able to do 3-2, and even 2-1 if you are really good... (you may not want to do 1st gear downshifts at any speed above 10mph, it's pretty easy to make a big mistake and damage the tranny)

make the habits of eggshell shifting on upshifts, and double clutching/revmatching on downshifts early, its a harder habit to learn once you've already started 'cheating'

Hmmm, driving stick isn't that hard man.

I had auto trannies in all of my cars actually... because all of them were bought for purposes other then performance (DAMNIT!)

However, I learned to drive stick in a jeep - man that was easy. It was great because it was a little loose and let me fuck up a bit without ruining anything too badly...

Now I just drove my friends acura (yah, laugh at the ricemobile :thumbsup ) the other day and I hadn't driven stick in over 3 years and had no problems. Even went downtown and all that. That short throw shifter he had in was nice too! (less chance to screw things up)

Just takes some getting used too - drive in thin shoes so you can feel the tranny grab man :glugglug

Not to be critical, but I'd say a short throw shifter makes the likelyhood of making mistakes same, to slightly higher, since you have to move less distance to make an error. It's possibly compensated by the slightly better construction of 'good' ssk's, but most SSK's are built to OEM standards, or worse.

I have a SSK in my car, and love it, but I think you should learn to drive stick without one first, if you have the choice (and learn on a $200 old Honda CRX instead of a new Ferrari).

Funny thread. Europeans have troubles when they try to drive a car without manual transmission. Damn hard to use one foot only.