Car noob questions
 

Hello all. I've recently picked up my BRZ with a manual gearbox, and it's my first manual ever. After driving it for almost a week and half, I have a few questions regarding the things I'm concerned about.

1. I stall my car more often than I'd like to admit the first couple days. How much damage does stalling does to the engine?

2. The car has about 600 miles no the ODO now, but it still smells like something is burnt after I drive it. Is this normal?

3. This ties back to Q2. When I first started. During up shift, I depress accelerator, press clutch all the way in, engage in next gear, then depress the clutch. And that produces a jolt in car's movement, also a somewhat grinding sound. Then I started to press down on accelerator as I depress the clutch. But sometime I let the rev go too high (4000 ish) and then slowly engage the clutch. If done smoothly, the car will keep going smoothly, otherwise it'll dash forward a bit. And again, produce a ear grinding noise.

4. During traffic, I sometime misjudge the speed and gear ratio, the engine ended going +-1000 RPM and gives off a diesel engine sounding noise. Will this damage the engine?

5. I took the car up to 6000 RPM range today after been driving under 4000 RPM for about half an hour because I was a bit stressed from the exams and want to vent off some pressure. Will this damage my engine since I'm still in break-in period?

6. What suggestions would you give me to improve my driving skills and what things I should be warned about not to do?

Thanks for reading this, any input would be greatly appreciated.

I'm honestly not trying to sound like a jerk here; I'm just giving you a straight answer. I think you honestly need to park your car until you can get an experienced driver who knows how to drive a manual transmission vehicle to ride with you and critique your driving and sort things out.

The burning smell you are getting could simply be manufacturing sealants and stuff burning off, but based on what you've written above, it could just as likely be your clutch burning up due to how you are driving it.

Do yourself and your $30,000 investment a favor and set up a "training session" with someone before you completely tear the clutch apart.

You're not sounding like a jerk, makes sense to do as you suggested. However I don't know anyone who's experienced at driving manual, best they can do is get the car going. I'll ask around the FT86 community see if anyone is around me to help.

I was not too far from your area until 8 months ago, or I'd offer, lol.

Yeah, that would be lovely. :w00t:

[QUOTE=Aenv;2052239]

1. I stall my car more often than I'd like to admit the first couple days. How much damage does stalling does to the engine?

--no damage at low speeds/low engine speeds.

2. The car has about 600 miles no the ODO now, but it still smells like -something is burnt after I drive it. Is this normal?

--probably the clutch. only slip it in 1st gear, otherwise it should be on/off in all other gears. my car had weird smells for about 800 miles.

3. This ties back to Q2. When I first started. During up shift, I depress accelerator, press clutch all the way in, engage in next gear, then depress the clutch. And that produces a jolt in car's movement, also a somewhat grinding sound. Then I started to press down on accelerator as I depress the clutch. But sometime I let the rev go too high (4000 ish) and then slowly engage the clutch. If done smoothly, the car will keep going smoothly, otherwise it'll dash forward a bit. And again, produce a ear grinding noise.

--not sure about grinding sound. don't need to do it slowly unless in 1st gear slipping it from a stand still. if you look at the rpm you can tell if you rev'd too slow(shifted to slow, and rpm bounces up) or reved too high (too much gas before letting go of clutch and rpm bounces down)

4. During traffic, I sometime misjudge the speed and gear ratio, the engine ended going +-1000 RPM and gives off a diesel engine sounding noise. Will this damage the engine?

--diesel sound is usually at low rpms, you are shifting too early or pressing gas too much, if you want to go faster, shift at higher rpm. if you are driving slow, use partial throttle and diesel sound is not as loud or barely there. its also called bogging.

5. I took the car up to 6000 RPM range today after been driving under 4000 RPM for about half an hour because I was a bit stressed from the exams and want to vent off some pressure. Will this damage my engine since I'm still in break-in period?

nope no damage. subaru says stay under 4k unless emergency. I would say letting off some steam is an emergency. Be safe and drive with care.

6. What suggestions would you give me to improve my driving skills and what things I should be warned about not to do?

--ask someone to go drive with you and/or have them drive. 1 hour of practice/training/observation will help much.

0-10mph 1st gear
11-20 2nd gear
21-30 3rd gear
31-40 4th gear
41-50 5th gear
51-60+ 6th gear.
that is for shifting up and driving regular/slow speeds and shifting around 2222-2500rpm for gas savings.

[QUOTE=swarb;2052302]

Thank you, very detailed answer. Will be on the lookout for someone experienced to drive with.

Keep in mind you can also get an instructor at a driving school to give you a lesson if you're willing to pay for it.

Heh, not to sound like a jerk either, but literally every one of your questions has been answered countless times in countless variations on this forum--not to mention throughout the whole internet.

Do a Google and you'll have hours of reading material and youtube vids to sift through... the answers you get on here are no more credible than others that you find on the internet...

Not much, really - it's not good for the engine, but unless it's a particularly violent stall you aren't doing much damage.

Yes and no - some parts will have coatings and normal wear as they start breaking in that can emit an odor, but it should not be excessively pungent. Typically if you drive the car hard you can get an odor of clutch and brakes.

A grinding sound is never good. As a new manual driver, I would recommend only using throttle and clutch together when you're starting from a stop. If you're already moving, there's really no need to apply throttle until the clutch is fully disengaged. Remember, the clutch isn't an on/off switch, it needs to be depressed slowly during normal driving and especially as you're learning.

Yes - that's called lugging the engine. If you find yourself lugging the engine by accident, shift into a lower gear. Do not apply lots of throttle when the engine is lugging. During break-in especially, you should try to lug the engine as little as possible.

Not likely :).

Practice! Just go out into an empty parking lot and practice stopping/starting and shifting through the gears. Find a friend/co-worker/parent who can help you.

Was also going to suggest you post in the Raleigh meet-up thread but you already did that, if none of those guys can help you and you find yourself in Greensboro, I'd be glad to try and impart a little wisdom if I'm around :).

I highly suggest not learning manual on a new car... I don't know why ppl these days get brand new cars that they don't know how to drive... Why didn't you just get a beater to learn on if you didn't know how to drive manual?

If you can afford the car, you can afford getting some proper instruction as to how to drive it. Either find someone as others have suggested, or just hire a driving instructor.

Ask 100 ppl, and you'll get slightly different answers to "how to drive a manual" car all the time. Also, variances in gearbox construction and driving style will also alter how you shift/drive a manual car.

Should of just bought an automatic.

just find a safe place to practice and get an experience driver to teach you to drive properly. although stall and burn clutching is not good, but this is how you learn. learning means not making same mistake of course.

practice makes perfect