Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultramaroon
Would you skip gears on a driving test in the UK?  |
Block shifting is perfectly acceptable on the way down the gears. Not on the way up, but those are for environmental / fuel saving guidelines rather than mechanical sympathy.
I think the most important thing about manual transmission is "Mechanical Sympathy". "Listen" to the gear box, "feel" the gear box. Don't slam, force, jam or otherwise hurt the gear box. Use the syncros gently, when it's ready it will pop into gear easily, almost pull the gear stick out of your hand into gear.
If you do that and are patient the thing will last forever.
My last GT86 got to 30k before I sold it, it never had an issue with the gear box. I frequently did 1st to 4th, 2nd to 6th, 3rd to 6th. I almost invariably do 6th to 3rd when stopping on a carriageway at lights. 6th is just too high to stop in and you can get into 3rd at pretty much any legal speed.
My car before that was a Renault Clio @ 12 years old with 90k on the clock (2nd clutch though @65k as I abused it), no gear box issues. Before that a 16 yo Clio with 80k on the clock, no gearbox issues.