Just got my first BRZ and first manual car!

[extrashaky]

DO NOT watch that subaruwrxfan video linked above. That guy has some serious bad habits that you do not want to pick up because they will take tens of thousands of miles off the life of your clutch.

Most people can learn the basics in an afternoon. It takes a few weeks to get comfortable, and you still may have bad starts or shifts occasionally for a few months. Don't get discouraged if you get in the car a month from now and seem to have suddenly forgotten how to drive it. The key is to just keep driving the car.

Being in NOVA, you have hills and heavy traffic. Once you get comfortable with the basics, you will want to find yourself a place to practice hill starts without rolling backwards. Hill starts become much more difficult when you have heavy traffic behind you waiting for you to go, especially when that one stupid fuck gets impatient and creeps right up on your bumper to make it even harder.

[spicyricecake]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

DO NOT watch that subaruwrxfan video linked above. That guy has some serious bad habits that you do not want to pick up because they will take tens of thousands of miles off the life of your clutch.

what habits are you referring to?

Originally Posted by extrashaky;

Being in NOVA, you have hills and heavy traffic. Once you get comfortable with the basics, you will want to find yourself a place to practice hill starts without rolling backwards. Hill starts become much more difficult when you have heavy traffic behind you waiting for you to go, especially when that one stupid fuck gets impatient and creeps right up on your bumper to make it even harder.

don't be ashamed to pull the e-brake if the person gets too close. I still do it. I'd rather be safe than pay $1000 deductible for a minor bump in traffic

[Synkronicity]

Update:

Drove on my BRZ around a close proximity of my home, did it decently, hills are another story. I still roll back and the E-brake method is too...cubersome plus I suck at shifting gears too lol.

Tips on when to shift a gear? I usually do it when the engine goes to a higher pitch.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by spicyricecake

what habits are you referring to?

Primarily riding the clutch between shifts. Riding along with your foot on the clutch pedal shortens the life of the throwout bearing, even if you don't think you're putting any pressure on it. The left foot should go to the dead pedal between shifts.

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

Tips on when to shift a gear? I usually do it when the engine goes to a higher pitch.

It depends on how easy or hard you're driving. You generally want to shift at a point that the RPM in the next gear will be high enough that the engine has enough torque to pull. In easy driving, that might be anywhere from 2500 to 4000 RPM. In hard driving, you would of course want to keep your RPM up above the torque curve.

The only tip I have is to keep driving and learn by doing. If you shift too soon and bog down the engine, then you know to shift later next time. Over time you'll learn where the car likes to be shifted.

[Tart]

I was in a similar position as you just over a month ago. I only drove stick once before I bought this car and practiced for about an hour in an empty lot near the dealership before I had to drive 20 miles back home alone lol. Stalled A LOT the first two days. It took me about a week before I was confident enough to drive to work in traffic.

My biggest tip for you is to practice starting from a stop without looking at the tach and try to get an intuitive feel for how much to push the gas and release the clutch. I noticed that I would focus too much attention on the RPM and gas pedal and forget to let the clutch out smoothly if I stared at the tach the whole time.

Another tip is to not worry too much about how long it takes to start off when other cars are around. Better to be a little slower to start than to stall and have to start all over again and possibly get beeped at, which will make it more nerve racking and stressful.

And the handbrake is your best friend for hill starts!

Just stick with it! It's super fun once you stop stalling constantly haha.

[Error]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Primarily riding the clutch between shifts. Riding along with your foot on the clutch pedal shortens the life of the throwout bearing, even if you don't think you're putting any pressure on it. The left foot should go to the dead pedal between shifts.



It depends on how easy or hard you're driving. You generally want to shift at a point that the RPM in the next gear will be high enough that the engine has enough torque to pull. In easy driving, that might be anywhere from 2500 to 4000 RPM. In hard driving, you would of course want to keep your RPM up above the torque curve.

The only tip I have is to keep driving and learn by doing. If you shift too soon and bog down the engine, then you know to shift later next time. Over time you'll learn where the car likes to be shifted.

Wait, are you referring to him keeping his foot on/hovering over the clutch pedal in the first half of the video? Or are you referring to his transition/speed in which he goes from gear to gear? Are you saying he's doing it too slow? Sorry, just a little confused.

[Synkronicity]

So took the BRZ out for another spin, I noticed some noises with the engine

First, when I'm driving (happens when I'm driving slow), it sounds like an engine rattle and then goes away as I pick up speed/rpm. I assume that's normal, brother confirmed but I wanna hear from BRZ owners.

Second, Whenever I was in third and then I approached a stop sign to stop, I hear two tapping sounds, it sounds like a hammer hitting something in the distance, like tack tack.

[Eski]

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

So took the BRZ out for another spin, I noticed some noises with the engine

First, when I'm driving (happens when I'm driving slow), it sounds like an engine rattle and then goes away as I pick up speed/rpm. I assume that's normal, brother confirmed but I wanna hear from BRZ owners.

Second, Whenever I was in third and then I approached a stop sign to stop, I hear two tapping sounds, it sounds like a hammer hitting something in the distance, like tack tack.

Manual trans will have more "odd" noises to the beginners ear than an auto trans will, so unelss it's a very obvious and loud noise, you should be fine.

Approaching a stop in 3rd gear is kind of a high gear and you will more than likely be down-bogging your engine, which is not good. Try downshifting into second while slowing to a stop and press the clutch in all the way and coast into the stop from 15 and below.

As every one has stated over and over, driving the car more and more will give you the feel for your own car, your own trans and how your own feet respond to your brain while attempting the magical pedal dance that is driving a stick shift car. Watching videos on how a manual trans works is the best way to learn because it sort of gives you a mental image of whats going on while you shift into each gear giving you a better idea of whats going on. Just keep practicing and don't get discouraged!

[chaoskaze]

Just remember clutch is not a on/off botton. it's more progressive.

[Agent 86]

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

Good evening guys! I just got my first Manual car and it's a BRZ series.blue, I got it used at 2400 miles for 26.7k for just the car (had to pay some dealer fees but leaving that out). But! I do have a couple of questions!

I'm currently learning how to drive stick with my brother, he drives a porche so he doesn't want me learning in there, I get extremely scared driving in my car because I dont want to jack up anything so I traded my sister for her Honda Fit for the weekend so I can learn. Questions would be:

• Is it bad to continuously stall the car?
• Any tips to learning stick/manual?
• How long did it take for you to learn stick?
• Did I get a good price on my car?
• My dealer didnt drill holes in the front of the car for the license plate, should I get the towing plate thing for it or just get it drilled in? I have OCD and the off center look looks weird (i kinda answered my own question)

Thank you for your time! I hope I can learn a lot more from this forum.

Congratulations!!! I'm sure you're on cloud 9 right now. The BRZ is a great car IMO. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

I can't add anything to what has already been said about leaning to drive manual except to say practice, practice, practice. I agree with other comments suggesting that you learn and understand what's actually happening and try to minimize picking up bad habits.

Enjoy!

[x1UP]

I learned to drive manual on this car. It took me a good week to get everything down pat and actually drive without having to worry.

My tips is to just practice with the clutch and adding in gas and so on and so forth. Do the basics of clutch in/out and shifting feel.

Go for it!

[spicyricecake]

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

So took the BRZ out for another spin, I noticed some noises with the engine

First, when I'm driving (happens when I'm driving slow), it sounds like an engine rattle and then goes away as I pick up speed/rpm. I assume that's normal, brother confirmed but I wanna hear from BRZ owners.

from what I understand, that's just the engine bogging cause the rpms are too low.

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

Second, Whenever I was in third and then I approached a stop sign to stop, I hear two tapping sounds, it sounds like a hammer hitting something in the distance, like tack tack.

this is the Direct Injection noise from what I've read here on the forums.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by Synkronicity

So took the BRZ out for another spin, I noticed some noises with the engine

First, when I'm driving (happens when I'm driving slow), it sounds like an engine rattle and then goes away as I pick up speed/rpm. I assume that's normal, brother confirmed but I wanna hear from BRZ owners.

Second, Whenever I was in third and then I approached a stop sign to stop, I hear two tapping sounds, it sounds like a hammer hitting something in the distance, like tack tack.

That noise is normal. The engine will do that if you load it too much below 1500rpm. Try to avoid doing that.

Firstly never let the revs drop below 1000rpm. It's okay to go below 1500rpm while in gear if you're coming to a stop, but you don't want to try and accelerate with the revs below that. There's no power down there. When you start from a stand still you need to feather the throttle until you get above 4-5mph, by then you'll be above 1500rpm in first gear.

I think that noise comes from the camshaft when it's not getting enough oil. The oil pressure drops when the revs drop too low.

[Synkronicity]

Oh man am I greatful that this forum is around, you guys have given me so much advice and I'm now able to comfortably drive my car on the highway and some local roads! I stalled once yesterday, on a hill because I started to lose my cool.

I have some anxiety issues when it comes to me not having control over situations so when I hear crazy noises in a new car, I freak out a little LOL.

Again thanks for all the replies, I'm LOVING my BRZ