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Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:16 pm
by EPTree
Hey all, I've been driving automatic for about 3 years and finally bought myself a 2002 Honda Civic SIR hatchback about a month and a half ago. I love it and right now I've had 1400kms of seat time driving stickshift. I'm comfortable with stickshift just enough to the point that I can drive anywhere now, but I still have a lot to learn. Got a couple questions that I want to ask you experts:

First issue I'm having is getting going. I almost always have to rev to 1500RPMs or so before I take off. I can take off at idle (around 900RPM) when Im by myself in a parking lot or quiet residential street, but I guess I'm just afraid of stalling it in traffic that I have to rev it up a bit before taking off. Will this hurt my clutch real bad in the long run?

Second issue that I'm having is I'm taking too long to shift from 1st to 2nd. The first couple weeks I was super jerky when doing the 1st --> 2nd shift. I've ironed it out a little bit now by releasing the clutch a little slower and adding a little bit more gas, but now I seem to be leaning towards slipping the clutch when shifting, which I know is bad. I can do it smoothly if I go real slow but by then traffic behind me is right on my butt. Shifting from 2nd --> 3rd is sort of okay, I can get it right about 70% of the time but occasionally I will still have a slight jerk when changing gears. 3rd --> 4th and 4th --> 5th I don't really have any trouble with.

Third issue is downshifting. Say I'm approaching an intersection that's green and I have to turn right, I will downshift from 5th --> 4th --> 3rd by revmatching - or at least attempting to. There's always a slight jerk whenever I downshift. And the major issue is I cannot downshift into 2nd because it's always real jerky and because I can't heel and toe yet. So basically if I take my foot off the brake pedal to blip the throttle when downshifting from 3rd --> 2nd, it results in me going into the turn way too fast, so right now all I'm doing is 5th --> 4th --> 3rd and then putting it in neutral in the turn and then putting it in 2nd coming out of it. That way I can brake like a normal driver without going into the turn real hot. Not the proper way to drive I understand but I'm working on it.

I'm glad I found this forum and I hope I can use the tips and tricks here to make myself a better manual driver!

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 7:50 pm
by theholycow
1. It's fine, your clutch will survive and you will improve.

2. Try shifting at a little higher or much lower RPM. Also, can you describe the jerk? Does it send your head towards the windshield or towards the back seat?

3. Don't worry about heel-toe. Don't sequentially downshift either, unless you're going to ride each gear down to idle. Otherwise ride your current gear down to idle, put it in neutral, and then before you will accelerate but after you finished braking, shift. Or, go for a BIG downshift and a lot of "vroom" before the turn (I'm not a fan of this tactic unless the intention is to accelerate hard during the turn).

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 12:18 am
by potownrob
Turrunno, eh?? Bienvenu alors!! :)

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:12 am
by AHTOXA
theholycow wrote:1. It's fine, your clutch will survive and you will improve.

2. Try shifting at a little higher or much lower RPM. Also, can you describe the jerk? Does it send your head towards the windshield or towards the back seat?

3. Don't worry about heel-toe. Don't sequentially downshift either, unless you're going to ride each gear down to idle. Otherwise ride your current gear down to idle, put it in neutral, and then before you will accelerate but after you finished braking, shift. Or, go for a BIG downshift and a lot of "vroom" before the turn (I'm not a fan of this tactic unless the intention is to accelerate hard during the turn).

Yeap.

1. Depending on gearing and torque, with some cars it is impractical to launch at idle. Example: my Sonic. In this 1.4T engine, the turbine starts to provide torque at 1250 RPMs or so. Below that at idle, it's an absolute dog. Bogs heavily. Because of that, I only launch at idle if I'm no-gas launching in heavy traffic. If I want to actually get out of my own way, I launch around 1200-1300.

What I'm saying is, don't worry about launching at 1500. With experience, you might be able to get it down lower, but if your car doesn't have bottom end torque (it is a Honda after all), then continuing to launch at 1500 is perfectly fine.

2. The 1-2 shift is a jerk for all new drivers. With time, you will fine the right balance between clutch and throttle. The key to a smooth shift is the balance between those two (the gas and clutch) during the shift.

3. Yeah, I agree with cow there.

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:37 am
by Squint
potownrob wrote:Turrunno, eh?? Bienvenu alors!! :)
I think we need to work on your geography, rob... :lol: :lol:

OP, welcome to the forum! Cow and AHTOXA pretty much answered your questions so I won't bother restating what they said. Feel free to ask if you have any more.

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:22 pm
by EPTree
Good to know launching at 1500 wont' do much damage! As for the shifting jerk, most of the time it jerks me towards the steering wheel, which I know is probably because I'm not giving it enough gas/too slow when shifting causing the RPMs to drop too much. And vice versa when it pulls me back into the seat it's cause I'm slipping the clutch by giving it too much gas/not releasing it quick enough. Still trying to iron it out but I feel bad because everytime I shift I feel like I'm killing my tranny and my clutch.

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 5:12 pm
by monkeyhunk
What everyone else has said plus I'll add taking those turns at intersections parking lots etc my usual mo is to slow down to what I need staying in the higher gear. It takes a lot slower speed than you'd think to stall in higher gears you just have no chance in hell of getting decent acceleration if you slow down to say 40km/h in fifth gear. Anyway what I do when I take a turn like that is stay in my gear till I slow down as much as I need to for the turn then do one shift 6>4 or 3 or 2. More time in that driver's seat will give you the feel of what gear you can get away with at what speed what your engine speed needs to be etc.

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:56 pm
by tankinbeans
Welcome to the boards.

Signed, The Second SS Traitor

Re: Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:11 am
by potownrob
tankinbeans wrote:Welcome to the boards.

Signed, The Second SS Traitor
:lol: :lol: :lol: