Hello from Toronto! New manual driver.
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 6:16 pm
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!
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!