[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by Feathergun

Hey everyone, I have a few questions for some seasoned MT professionals with specific regard to the 2016 Scion FR-S.

Preface: In February 2015, I purchased a used 2013 Scion FR-S 10 Series with 30k Miles on it, it was an automatic transmission and not exactly what I set out to get. I travel a lot for work in sales and it is important that I make it to my appointments, my other vehicle 99' Ford Explorer Sport was having issues at the time so I just went for it. Two months ago I decided I wanted to drive a Manual Transmission vehicle, and I love my FR-S so I found a great deal to trade in for a new 2016 Scion Fr-S MT. This was with about 1.5 hours of practice driving stick in my LIFE before driving it off the lot. So needless to say it was a little rocky but really not too bad. I studied driving manual transmission pretty heavy for a long time before making the final decision.

I've got 800 Miles on the car now and I've been driving it for about 3 weeks. I just have a few questions regarding Manual Driving and some things I've ran into while driving around town that I want to make sure I'm doing correctly.

1.) I read about synchronizers that help align the speed of the engine and the clutch disk, does the Scion FR-S have such a thing? I've noticed that not Rev matching downshifts are rough, and I've noticed that letting the clutch out slower while downshifting helps smooth it out (although i presume this is just the clutch wearing against the pressure plate and thus translating to increased wear on clutch. Neither me or anyone I know really has ever owned a manual transmission vehicle so I've not had anyone to ask these questions to.

2.) Are manual cars such as this that require clutch to be depress before starting able to have some sort of remote start apparatus?

3.) Parking lots. I have a store near my house I visit frequently with nasty short but tall speed bumps I have to break hard enough to almost stall out, so I typically have to depress clutch, break until momentum carries me over, then get back in motion again, how would someone more seasoned handle this scenario and in what gear?

4.) I notice clunking sounds when shifting after being in neutral before coming to a complete stop, is that bad? Like when you're breaking coming up to a line of cars and taffic starts moving, you've already downshifted through second gear and have gone into nuetral to finish coming to a stop, now you get back in gear so you shift into second and clunk, car doesn't make the same sound while stationary.

5.) When you have to stop quickly, like traffic going down 2 lane road with no center lane suddenly stops to turn left and as you approach they finally turn and traffic takes off again, take the car out of gear into neutral and then guess at which gear to go back into when you can proceed? or do you downshift through the gears as your speed drops while depressing clutch the entire time?

6.) Starting to move: I go into first gear and find smoothest shifts to be near 4k RPM or slightly lower into second. Then keep on the gas in second and then usually in 3rd for like 5 seconds and then shift into 6th. I know people skip gears all the time but is there anything bad about going from 3rd to 6th as long as my timing on RPM drop is accurate?

7.) Gear shifting, does it get smoother as the shifting mechanism breaks in over time? 3rd seems to be getting easier to move the shifter knob into but its still rough going into 5th and 6th, talking specifically about the clunkyness of the shifting apparatus.

8.) Slow driving in general, I've heard some people say if they are moving at all they shift into second,when i'm in a small parking lot and approaching stop sign I usually just ride it out in 1st and then coast, but if you have to drive super slow I've noticed 1st gear starts to almost try to engine break and go at the same time, what am I supposed to do?


I think thats it for now, thank you in advance for your insight guys.

This part stumped me. Are you saying an AT can't get you to work on time?

The rest, just get a feel for it.