Exiting/Driving in Underground Garage, and 1st Gear Question

[Devan]

Hello

I apologize if this has already been covered, but I was hoping for a fresh response.

I'm having quite a few problems understanding and getting the concept of learning to drive Standard, so hopefully I can clear up some issues now.

Car: Honda Civic SI-04

I park in an underground garage, with the exit being about a 100 feet from where I park. When I can finally get the car moving, I keep the car in first and head towards the exit, the speed is under or just around 20 KM/h and the Tach is showing around 2/3. I slide into Neutral, to brake and stop, and activate the garage door to open. I then go back into 1st gear, and up the exit/incline ramp, which is about 40 degrees on the incline and continue to go up, speed is well under 20, and the rev hitting 3 at the most.

Question is, am I doing this wrong? A friend with a few years experience (although mostly self-taught) tells me that I damaging my car when I do this, and I need to shift into 2nd pretty much right after, I shift into first. He states, that I should never keep the car in first gear for more then a few seconds, as that is just a gear to launch the car and nothing more. He also states that I'm putting a lot of strain on the car.

Going over the Auto manual it states, that I can keep the car in first gear as long as I'm under or around 22KM/h. Which sort of make sense to me, because the car is not sluggish or is lacking any power, either exiting or going up the incline of the ramp.

So do you guys see any problem(s) here? I know when I get better in shifting, I would have a problem going 1st->2nd in the garage, but as of now I feel more comfortable just sticking with 1st gear to get out of the garage.

[PureLife]

You're not damaging anything; it's perfectly fine to use 1st gear in the scenario you described. I would too more than likely.

3k rpm is 3k rpm; whether you're in 1st or 3rd, it doesn't matter ... in other words, its no worse to cruise through a parking garage in 1st at 3000rpm than it is to cruise down a road in 4th at 3000rpm.

btw, the owners manual gives you 22 km/h as a suggested shift speed; in other words, a mix between performance and economy pretty much; you can go as fast as you want as long as the car is below redline.

[hockeystyx16]

forget the manual, parking garages are a great place to wind it up into vtec, just make sure your windows are down

[jomotopia]

you're not hurting the car. 1st gear is fine, 2nd might be fine too as long as the engine doesn't struggle getting up the hill.

what your friend said about 1st being only for launching is not a hard and fast rule, but sort of a general thing. in general, you really usually don't need 1st for anything other than getting started. normal driving on the road, it is probably best and easiest to shift to 2nd pretty quickly and use it for most acceleration. part of this is b/c of the big gap between 1st and 2nd which means the higher you rev in 1st, the longer it takes the revs to fall to the right level for 2nd, and so the longer the break in acceleration, which could be annoying on the street when leaving from a light or something similar.

but you can use any gear you like as long as you don't go over redline and the engine doesn't bog and struggle. that's the beauty of a stick, the control that it puts into the hands of the driver. 2 people may drive the exact same car very differently.

[Bawked]

fvcking hate idiots that put 1st gear on a pedestal... it's just like any other gear but has a crap synchro and needs smooth input. I DC into first at like 30kph and hit tec in my mr2 I take my 1st gear to redline daily, most of the time sideways bouncing off the limiter and its fine so don't worry about 2-3000 rpm ffs its a car not a baby.

[Errto]

I'd been wondering something similar myself. I know (largely from this site) that it doesn't damage the car, but is it bad in some other way (fuel, noise etc)? Or at such a short distance, does it not really matter?

[jomotopia]

depending on your car you might set off someone's car alarm.

or scare people.

[MicroXcorp]

I am assuming that you suspect your friend didn't know what he was talking about. You are right. He's an idiot. You can run in first gear all day without damaging anything if the speed is around 3-5mph, crusing that is. Shifting to 2nd gear at those speeds would cause engine sluggish.

[Bawked]

my mum neva takes first gear over like 2k rpm it's just an idiot thing, and my mechanic friend used to be scared taking first up just cruising at <10mph in first isn't going to use tons of gas or anything... for economy shift around 2-3k rpm but don't go into second unless you need it.

[Ecmslee]

I can think of a reason to upshift if you consider engine warmup. You wouldn't redline the engine 30 seconds after you started the car; so I'd consider that one of the only exceptions to "running up your engine freely as long as it's under redline." I do think that in your situation what you're doing is fine though.

Oh, one more thing, a car with strong torque and a flat torque curve would allow you to shift sooner. In normal daily driving I hardly see 3k with our V6...

[Bawked]

^ well yea my 4 banger doesn't peak in torque till like 5k rpm, v6 or higher displacement cars and diesels you can shift earlier because they have more torque down low. Oh an yea running to redline on a cold engine is just asking to kill it.

[kamesama980]

your 04 hondas not gonna even bat an eyelash at 3k for 20 seconds much less 20 minutes. only thing is it's really inefficient since you're going so slow but who gives a crap, it's 20 seconds.

My 4 banger truck with small exhaust and crazy advanced ignition climbs parking ramps at 1000 rpm in any gear. I can also get to at least 3rd on flat ground without using the gas. great for in town driving.

[Devan]

thanks a lot!

Some greeat responses here, very informative. I'm reading the other threads here, and some great questions/answers.

[dan_p]

Hi,
Sorry to drop in on the discussion, but this matter is troubling me too for some time now.
I recently moved to a house on the outskirts of the city, and the road is not paved with tarmac, just some gravel, which is in pretty poor condition. It's also pretty long: about 2km. Beeing worried about the wear of the suspension of my car (citroen c3), i drive really slow - about 12-14 km/h (at that speed i feel comfortable, the rev counter shows about 1300-1500rpm in 1st gear), and thus am forced to use first gear, since i feel that the engine is underreved in second. Does it apply to my case as well, that the car will be fine even if i do daily trips like this?
Thanks

[kamesama980]

your car will be no worse off going fast enough to use second. you'll also use half as much gas doing so. if you're going a steady speed, not accelerating, 2nd should be just fine as long as it's above the warm idle speed.