StandardShift.com

Hi everyone, new member here but looong time reader
I consider myself an experienced manual driver but i have a question regarding jerkiness.
Yesterday i took my friends car to my trusted mechanic to get the oil changed, he took the car for a test drive shifting near redline and practically dumping the clutch and found out the transmission mount was broken.*Now i don't know how can someone diagnose a broken mount like that ?*
Anyway, he said the part failed due to "harsh shifting/jerking the car around while shifting" and it makes sense, my friend is learning to drive a manual on that car (though i have no idea how bad of a driver he is, never got the chance to be a passenger on his car)
Now this got me thinking and i started to worry about breaking stuff on my car too. I am experienced but : during the driving process there are jerks here and there (even on automatics). Going from throttle to no throttle, small ones sometimes during shifting and sooo on. I believe there isn't 100% smoothness and unperceptible shifts everytime.
I even found out some of you here actually like shift shock and choose to drive like that.
So what's the matter with it. Are you all stressing out your drivetrain components and causing parts to fail prematurely due to fatigue on purpose?

All parts have a life expectancy. Things break. Thats why I have a job.

With a broken mount, you can see the shift lever move around exaggeratedly (at least in some vehicles). Even if you can't, you can feel a clunk at a specific moment.

Mounts are made of rubber. They exist in harsh conditions. They deteriorate and break regardless of abuse. That said, being ultra-gentle will allow you to wait for it to deteriorate a little more before it breaks vs. being rough.

I'm the guy who spouts off about enjoying some kick that reminds me that I'm not driving a boring ol' automatic. Of course, everything in moderation; I hope I don't come across as recommending anything too extreme. I'm comparing (as I said) to an automatic. Learning to drive stick is a lot rougher, with all the constant bucking and bouncing around that oscillates and continues uncontrolled, than a single controlled shock during a shift.

Those habits have not broken anything, with the possible exception of contributing to my backyard-engineered hackmobile's various failures that were assured to happen regardless of driving due to my iffy engineering, sloppy workmanship, and ghetto budget. I've always blamed those things primarily and purposeful abuse (beyond what I describe above, because I knew the stuff would fail either way) secondarily.

theholycow wrote:With a broken mount, you can see the shift lever move around exaggeratedly (at least in some vehicles). Even if you can't, you can feel a clunk at a specific moment.

Mounts are made of rubber. They exist in harsh conditions. They deteriorate and break regardless of abuse. That said, being ultra-gentle will allow you to wait for it to deteriorate a little more before it breaks vs. being rough.

I'm the guy who spouts off about enjoying some kick that reminds me that I'm not driving a boring ol' automatic. Of course, everything in moderation; I hope I don't come across as recommending anything too extreme. I'm comparing (as I said) to an automatic. Learning to drive stick is a lot rougher, with all the constant bucking and bouncing around that oscillates and continues uncontrolled, than a single controlled shock during a shift.

Those habits have not broken anything, with the possible exception of contributing to my backyard-engineered hackmobile's various failures that were assured to happen regardless of driving due to my iffy engineering, sloppy workmanship, and ghetto budget. I've always blamed those things primarily and purposeful abuse (beyond what I describe above, because I knew the stuff would fail either way) secondarily.

I get it It is a question of degree, there are violent oscillations like downshifting into 2nd while at 40km/h and treating the clutch like an on/off switch and than there are small oscillations when switching from acceleration to engine braking and things like that

salimpon wrote:I get it It is a question of degree, there are violent oscillations like downshifting into 2nd while at 40km/h and treating the clutch like an on/off switch and than there are small oscillations when switching from acceleration to engine braking and things like that

Well, you have to be careful about how you descibe it. Downshifting to 2nd at 40km/h doesn't sound like an extreme move, and treating the clutch like an on/off switch at the precise exact moments actually lessens stress. And it's also not an oscillation, it's a single event; violent oscillations in this case would be the "bucking bronco" effect that, if left to continue for any length of time, can be pretty stressful to your drivetrain.