Newbie guide for Manual Transmissions

[GreenHokie]

Just to make this even more newbie-ish (for people like me who just started learning )..This is gonna be really long, but it's stuff that would have helped to know before beginning (if, like me, you don't have the luxury of a knowledgeable standard shift driver to help you out)

Starting
The car must either be in neutral or the clutch depressed before starting the car. If the clutch is not depressed OR the car is not in neutral, the engine is directly connected to the wheels - and the starter motor will cause the car to lurch forward and promptly stall. Most modern cars require the clutch be depressed before starting (safety switch), regardless of whether or not the car is in neutral. So a typical start would be - shifter in 1st (or reverse, depending on what you need), clutch fully depressed, hand brake up, foot on brake. After starting you would release the hand brake, the foot brake, and launch.

Reverse
When backing up, I almost always do it without using the gas (unless there's an incline I have to work against), and never fully release the clutch (you'll go way too fast).

Parking
The clutch must be fully depressed before coming to a complete stop (as with all stops), but the car must be turned off before releasing the clutch (made this careless/stupid mistake once ). Parking would normally be - slow to a complete stop in 1st gear, depressing the clutch fully as rpms approach idle speed (but leaving shifter in 1st), apply hand brake, turn engine off, release foot brake, release clutch. Don't be too quick in releasing the clutch after removing the key, as there will still be some momentum and your car could lurch (this happened to me yesterday, quite a surprise). Always have the hand brake applied while parked, and always leave it in gear (first gear if facing uphill, reverse if facing downhill) - the engine acts as an additional braking force to prevent your car from rolling.

The no-gas starts are a great way to learn the friction point of the car, which is where the engine is just starting to transfer its rotation to the transmission (and consequently the wheels). The best place to practice this is an empty parking lot (catch-22, how can you get to a parking lot if you can't drive stick?), but at first I just did it driving around my block, stopping and starting, stopping and starting. People will look at you funny, but who cares! At a complete stop, clutch fully depressed, shifter in 1st, you take your foot off the brake, and slowly release the clutch. When the friction point is reached, the RPMs will drop significantly. Stop moving the clutch at this point - this is the friction point. The car will slowly (very slowly) pick up speed, at which point you can slowly (very slowly) release the clutch fully. If the engine starts to lug a lot (to be honest I don't know what lugging is, I assume it's this horrible "engine shudder" that happens when the rpms drop too low and it's about to stall), depress the clutch slightly (or fully) and start over.

I've noticed the engine will always shudder to an extent during no gas starts, but doesn't necessary stall if you release the clutch slowly enough. Is this bad for the engine? It doesn't stall, but it's definitely struggling.

Up-Hill Starts
Launching from an incline is my biggest problem at the moment. The method you'll want to learn is the hand-brake launch, which eliminates all possibilities of rolling backwards into the jerk who's right on your bumper. Clutch fully depressed, foot on the brake, hand brake up, you release the foot brake, then release the clutch to the friction point, while simultaneously applying gas and releasing the hand brake. Essentially, you want to reach the friction point right as you disengage the hand brake, so you start rolling forward immediately and not backwards. The problem is, if you're off, the engine will promptly stall as you've engaged it with a transmission that is held still by the hand brake. Then the jerk behind you will honk the horn and throw his hands into the air, making you even more nervous and unable to launch . So practice on a flat surface, then on hills, so you will be able to do it when/if necessary.

Lastly, don't bother worrying about the wear/damage you're causing. You'll make a few mistakes here and there (I know I have), but that's the way learning goes. I feel sorry for my brand new manual civic, but it'll make it through...I hope haha.

[Tastycakes]

Nice info, i threw it in the 1st post.

[deestylez]

Very nice write-up.

[JohnnyRules]

Say I am stopped on an upward incline. To aviod rolling back, I will have my foot on the brake and my other foot on the clutch while I am in 1st gear. I will slowly let out the clutch until it hits the grab point and let off the brake and give it gas. Is this an ok method?

[Tastycakes]

Yea, thats pretty much the fail safe way besides holding the e brake. That or just drop the clutch .

[thatsnotstock]

+1 to you tastycakes. I showed my friend this guide before teaching him how to drive my car and he didn't stall once.

[nandro]

i drive a fire truck with a sequential transmission with no syncros. lemme tell you, the civic is an EASY vehicle to learn how to drive. to touch on rev-matching... i think the author of the thread is talking about downshifting under lots of speed and power. i downshift from 5th to 3rd everyday on a particular tight turn going to work and i'm crusing at 30-35mph in 5th...press my brakes to slow down in the turn and throw it in 3rd with no rise or fall in revs. unless you want to stay under power i find using your brakes like any other vehicle on the road is sufficient.

the purpose of clutchless shifting is the save your clutch and to keep lots of power to the wheels with less hesitation when hauling heavy loads! Some vehicles are harder to do this than others. i've done it on my 07 Si and it's tough compared to other vehicles. It works best on diesel engines that has low rpm's and this is the easiest way to drive that fire truck i mentioned! lol.
I'd say clutchles shifting is not for the civic, especially and manual trans. newbie.

[Tastycakes]

If you skip 3+ gears you should always rev match IMO. I find myself going from 2nd to 6th i dont even know how many times a day.

To me saying you should rev match is like people saying you should go easy on your brakes so they last longer. You dont have to... And once you get used to it, it takes very little effort.

The way i see it as i tell everyone that says you dont need to revmatch. I like to have fun in my Civic. The 2nd and 3rd gears get beat on the most cause they're the most used. Any less wear i can put on them when i'm not having fun in a bonus.

[drnknbndr]

When on an incline, I never used the hand-brake solution.


When learning stick, in my baby Jenny (06 Civic LX), my dad took me to a fairly long hill with a 20 degree incline.
My dad would make me hold down clutch, pop into first, release brake and clutch right after, while pressing on the gas after releasing brake.

Screw the hand-brake!

[MarchMadnessisMe]

well my Si is going to be my first manual n while i knew a lot of this some of this is gonna help a lot thanx man +1 for you!

[NRM]

Rev matching is fun. It adds yet another mechanical feel to driving stick. The ability to downshift quickly and smoothly. I have two turns every night that I take on the way home that allows heel-toe double-clutch rev-matching. At first the idea was intimidating, but at this point now, it feels great to be able to do that quickly and smoothly. In such synchronization that the person sitting right next to you doesn't even notice anything happening.

The way I see it, you can either let the clutch out real slow when downshifting, or you can rev-match, practically drop the clutch, and have an ultra smooth gear transition.

Even if driving is meant to be fun and you feel that bashing on your clutch and tranny are the way to go, this is yet another fun part of driving stick.

[Tastycakes]

^^^^^^^^
See that guy knows what its all about

[dotkristian]

I wish someone would post a video on how to engine brake and rev match... really would help me out more than just words.

[isleepinadrawer]

i dont really understand how someone has time to rev match? i mean if they did rev match wouldnt they just have to slam on the brakes even harder after wards?

[Tastycakes]

^^^^ It 2nd nature once you get it down. I do it now w/o even thinking about it. And this is not about engine braking to a stop, thats just pointless to keep downshifting.

The point of this is how to properly downshift.

YouTube - advanced techniques (remake)
Skip to about 4:00


YouTube - slow motion double and single clutch and heel and toe


YouTube - Double Clutch Downshifts

[rotor_powerd]

Originally Posted by isleepinadrawer

i dont really understand how someone has time to rev match? i mean if they did rev match wouldnt they just have to slam on the brakes even harder after wards?

Just stab the gas while you're going from say 5th to 4th. You'll find out exactly how much gas to give it to get it perfect after a while. What you don't want to do is go from 5th to 4th, and use the clutch to bring the revs of the engine back up. That will put some pretty harsh wear and tear on your clutch disc.

I went in to test drive a new Si last weekend, and after driving my 87 turbo RX7 and 83 GTi for the last year, getting in the Si with the hydraulic clutch and snick-snick shifter was amazing. Everyting was so smooth and with no slop. Definitely far from what I was used to.

[SilentBob420BMFJ]

Originally Posted by Omes

Yep, double-clutching is only necessary for reducing wear and tear on your synchros or, in dog box transmissions, necessary in order to get the car into gear (since it completely lacks synchros)

Rev-matching while your foot is on the pedal is ok as long as you aren't dropping down too many gears and forcing the synchros to work overtime (2000RPM -> 6000RPM or something like that). It does save wear and tear on the clutch and your engine if you rev-match correctly though. You'll also be a smoother driver without having to ride the clutch a bit on downshifts.

i plan on going from 2-6 and 6-2 a lot, should i not get into that habit? i would also plan on doing it without double clutching, and perhaps even without single clutching rev matching until i learn how to drive stick effortlessly.. because im thinking, going from 2-6 would be quite common, as from a stoplight you will floor it, shift to 2nd, then once your doing 50mph you realize its time to start cruising so you just go from 2 to 6, right? im guessing before letting off the clutch in 6th, that i should wait for the rpms to drop to like 3000?

Originally Posted by E. Honda

06civic:

The short version's like this...

1. Clutch peddle in.

2. Rev to the speed that the lower gear will have to be at to maintain the same speed as you are traveling (rev-matching.)

3. Physically down shift.

4. Let out the clutch peddle.

5. Engine brake or accelerate

So long as you rev-match to the right RPM as you let out the clutch peddle, the shift should be smooth.

are you sure step 3 isnt "mentally down shift"?

[jokka]

rev match downshift.


clutch in

simultaneously blip the throttle while lowering the gear

release clutch

enjoy the ever increasing engine sound as you go into lower gears

[vr4gasmtt]

ok this doesnt make sense, so from what I'm reading you guys are saying that to rev match the clutch isnt supposed to be depressed?

for example, downshift from 4-2nd when you blip the throttle the clutch is going to be depressed so why is it that you guys posted that the clutch isnt suppsoed ot be depressed and it has to be in neutral?

[Tastycakes]

Originally Posted by vr4gasmtt

ok this doesnt make sense, so from what I'm reading you guys are saying that to rev match the clutch isnt supposed to be depressed?

for example, downshift from 4-2nd when you blip the throttle the clutch is going to be depressed so why is it that you guys posted that the clutch isnt suppsoed ot be depressed and it has to be in neutral?

Proper "Double Clutch" Down shifting:

Go from 4th to neutral
Take you foot off the clutch
Blip the gas (push the gas pedal to the floor and back very fast)
Hit the clutch and go to 2nd





The hardest part is guessing how high to rev the engine but it's not hard once you do it after a while.

For the above just use simple math. If your going 45 MPH in 4th and you know 2nd redlines at 55 MPH its pretty safe to say you should be in the 6-6500 RPM range so just rev it up to 6200ish and go to 2nd. You dont have to be exact, just within a couple hundred rpms.

Hope that helps.