Whiny noise in 1st gear

[dlux200sx]

Whenever I am coasting with my clutched pressed and my shifter in first (such as when I'm slowing down to a stoplight), I hear a whining noise coming from either the engine or tranny, I can't really tell. The whine is higher pitched the faster I go, and fades away when I'm fully stopped. Is this a normal sound?

[webby]

Sounds like like your car is winding down to a stop. If you have your clutch pressed in though - your rpms should drop immediatly so your rpms shouldn't be up. I'd advise against just keeping your clutch pressed in while coasting to a stop. You only need to depress your clutch from like 10mph or less down.

[dlux200sx]

This is my first manual tranny car, so I don't know if I'm developing the right best driving habits. I always put the shifter into first gear like 2 or 3 seconds before a complete stop. Otherwise I am coasting in neutral, but my clutch is still pressed. Is it better habit to let go of the clutch in neutral, and only press it again when I move to first? That's double clutching right? Also, is the winding noise normal?

[webby]

yes- clutch in, put it in neutral, clutch out - coast in neutral is fine without clutch - brake to a stop if you want. You can sit stopped without the clutch in till the light changes or whatever. Light turns green - clutch in - 1st gear, release clutch with gas -start going.

winding - is going to be normal. I'm guessing you are just hearing the engine whine.

[SevenCyrus]

its normal, same thing in my 7thgen, when i pull into my driveway i shift to 1st and theres a whinning noise as well. When i first drove my 1st 5speed i thought it was cops or somthing, lol.

[r3dlin3]

Yeeesh! Be nice to the first gear!

[ScorchedHands]

FYI, that is not double clutching.

Double clutching is a techinque used when racing in order to not lose speed while shifting. I'll repost and explain it a little later.

[twistedframe]

good info, also if you just sit with the clutch depressed all the time you are going to wear out your throwout bearing very quickly.

[webby]

double clutching

Double-clutching is a gear shifting procedure to save wear and tear on your gearbox, and on your clutch, at the expense of a little extra work for your left leg.

Let's say you're accelerating in second gear. When you're ready to shift into third, you decide not to use the standard approach, which is just to tromp on the clutch, take your foot off the gas, shove the shift lever into third, and let the clutch back out. Instead, you opt to double-clutch properly:

First, you take your foot off the gas and kick in the clutch. You shift into neutral, AND let the clutch out. You wait perhaps 0.3 to 1.0 seconds for the engine to slow down from its high revs, depending on how fast you were revving when you started to shift and how much inertia the engine has to slow down. THEN you kick in the clutch and shift into third, and let the clutch out quickly, feeding the gas appropriately. If you have judged it right, when you let the clutch out, there isn't any JERK. And when you shove the lever into third, the gears and engine are at a synchronized speed, so there's minimum wear on the synchronizers, which are the tiny clutches that bring the clutch plate and the gears into smooth synchrony. There's also usually less wear on the clutch plates.

What's the big deal? The main point is that when you try to shift into third gear, the engine has slowed itself and the clutch plate

A modern synchromesh gearbox accomplishes this synchronization automatically.

[enter801]

It's much better to not keep the clutch depressed when you don't have to. What you're doing is what is commonly referred to as "riding the clutch." Do liek webby said, just use your brakes to slow you down. You can use the engine to slow you down once in a while, I do sometimes with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears, never first though. Slowing with the engine isn't necessarily bad, holding the clutch in all the time is. It wears down the clutch much quicker than it would normally. So keep it out as often as possible and your clutch will last longer.

Originally Posted by webby

yes- clutch in, put it in neutral, clutch out - coast in neutral is fine without clutch - brake to a stop if you want. You can sit stopped without the clutch in till the light changes or whatever. Light turns green - clutch in - 1st gear, release clutch with gas -start going.

winding - is going to be normal. I'm guessing you are just hearing the engine whine.

[ScorchedHands]

holding the clutch all the way in should be fine also. what wears a clutch is the plates rubbing, this only happens when you are engaging and disengaging the clutch. holding the clutch in does however wear on the diaphram-like spring in your clutch. I have had this go bad on my before, the result of which is the clutch will not disengage.

the thing to remember is, the clutch is made to wear out. the only thing you can do is treat it as gently as you can, to get the max number of miles out of it. but don't be afraid of it. clutches are cheap, relatively.

[twistedframe]

right holding it in won;t wear the clutch but it will wear out the throwout bearing and when you have to take the trans apart to replace the throwout bearing you might as well replace the clutch.

[kurdtkobain87]

bump for more opinions. i noticed im having this exact same thing and its only when im in first gear. it doesnt happen in any other gears.

[sonitex]

Here is my procedure with my Si. Getting on the off ramp of highway from 75 mph, I down shift to 5th, let the engine slow the car down a bit, then about 50, DS to 4th, 35 DS to 3rd, leave in 3rd until coming to stop light then clutch in, neutral and brake to stop. Foot on the brake, clutch out, when I think the lite is about to turn green, I clutch in and shift to 1st ready to take off. I accelerate as much as posible with the fastest clutch release as possible without jerking or chirping and shift to 2nd at about 25, and use low end torque to shoot for 45, and then shift to 3rd to pass or get up to speed, and even going to VTEC (6k rpm). Shifting to 4th and push a little harder past 70 to 75, then shift to 5th to settle the car for smoother ride, then shift to 6th and cruise control for the long haul at about 78 mph. The point of releasing the clutch as fast as possible, and accelerating appropriately, is to minimize a long dragging engagement of the clutch plates. This IMO minimizes clutch wear.