Lets learn to drive manual! Save my clutch Season 1

[sato]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

Oh okay a buddy of mine with a sti was telling me I need to be careful and not burn the clutch and shit but yeah appreciate the feedback
And I'm at like 100 miles
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My current car has 173k miles and still on the original clutch (no transmission component repairs whatsoever either) and it is my first manual daily ride... Oh, and plenty of traffic miles logged in...

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[lxs]

*bookmarked* for when I do trade my car in for stick... haha.............

[kuhlka]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

Lol damn I'm relearning how to drive a stick pretty much because I'm struggling on first gear. I let off the clutch until i feel it "catching" and then i give it some gas and it goes sometimes its jumpy and all but basically I'm trying to learn how to do first gear a lot faster and quicker, because on a hill start I don't wanna roll back into someone I notice I tend to panic when the car starts to roll back and i kinda give it a little too much gas and i end up launching the car lol I know i'll probably get it down in a couple more days but damn lol its nerve racking on a hill and in stop and go traffic sometimes

Hill starts are a pain when you're starting out. Steep hill starts are still hell for me at times. Like another guy said, parking brake until the car is held stationary, then ease onto the gas and smoothly release the brake.

Best way to practice 1st gear starts is in an empty parking lot. The trick is getting your seat and pedal adjusted to a comfortable position so you're not straight-legging or awkwardly kicking. I go between keeping my heel on the floor and using just my ankle and using my knee down. Others use their whole leg.

Just push in the clutch, get the RPMs to 1000 and slowly release the clutch until you can feel it start to grab. The engagement point is very shallow on most cars, so if you're trying to be smooth for passengers you'll need to slowly go through that zone or be easy on the gas. Practice that until you get that engagement point down. After that, you should be able to click through the gears quickly by just bumping just beyond that point.

Once you're comfortable with that, you COULD get into clutchless upshifts, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you're really smooth on the gas and driving very casually. You basically let off the throttle and bump into neutral, then click into the higher gear at the right RPM. They're generally 500-1000 rpm apart. I'm planning to do a YouTube tutorial in my STI to show people how I do it.

[Alltezza]

I notice how a lot of people say slowly let off the clutch at 1000 rpm and once you feel it start to catch

How do most of you guys do it so fast then. Because I'm always told "slowly"

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[AznKirby]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

I notice how a lot of people say slowly let off the clutch at 1000 rpm and once you feel it start to catch

How do most of you guys do it so fast then. Because I'm always told "slowly"

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It's muscle memory, mostly.
I think we say "slowly" because at first if you go too quickly, you'll miss the engagement point

[t.chk]

Hmm, is it bad to start at 1500? the flywheel on this car is so light that I almost stall engaging the clutch any lower...or do I just suck at starting out after 9 months of driving?

[_______]

Originally Posted by t.chk

Hmm, is it bad to start at 1500? the flywheel on this car is so light that I almost stall engaging the clutch any lower...or do I just suck at starting out after 9 months of driving?

1,000-1,500 is perfect its about where I take off, I don't really have a set rpm as others have said I base it more off sound and feel.

[t.chk]

Originally Posted by _______

1,000-1,500 is perfect its about where I take off, I don't really have a set rpm as others have said I base it more off sound and feel.

Ahh alright, I get paranoid about the clutch. First manual car and I hate the idea of replacing it. Especially I dont plan on ever selling the car unless till electric cars get cheaper and more performance.

[chas3wba0]

Originally Posted by t.chk

Ahh alright, I get paranoid about the clutch. First manual car and I hate the idea of replacing it. Especially I dont plan on ever selling the car unless till electric cars get cheaper and more performance.

Slipping the clutch during takeoff is expected, I think the thing that really burns the clutch is "riding" it during higher speeds and RPMs

That's what I tell myself anyway, this is my first MT as well

[_______]

Originally Posted by t.chk

Ahh alright, I get paranoid about the clutch. First manual car and I hate the idea of replacing it. Especially I dont plan on ever selling the car unless till electric cars get cheaper and more performance.

Yes agreed with the post above riding the clutch causes premature wear not the takeoffs. Make sure to not use your clutch to hold a car on a hill as well. Thats another bad habit that causes wear better to use the ebrake. Other than that you should be fine. Im not the best manual driver but the original clutch in my old RSX lasted 110,000 miles.

[dbrandt01]

Sometimes I think this forum does more harm than good in some aspects like break in and clutch. I mean this is my first manual. I'm sure I burned the clutch a bit learning, but it's not the end of the world. I've stalled many many times in my first 2 weeks of learning. Most people were understanding though with it in traffic. Hills, I still suck at.

I agree with what Aznkirby said though, muscle memory. Now I can get started at like 700 rpms before just by quickly releasing the clutch to wear it engages without even thinking about it.

[Ec1990]

Originally Posted by AznKirby

It's muscle memory, mostly.
I think we say "slowly" because at first if you go too quickly, you'll miss the engagement point

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

But agreed with the posts in here, you're not going to break you clutch by stalling it. Slipping the clutch is almost guaranteed anytime you drive, it's doing it excessively or at high RPM's for prolonged times that wears the teeth out.

[BRZpower]

Originally Posted by Jyn

Don't feel bad. I've stalled on a hill in traffic and caused the Tundra behind me to miss the light. He deserved it for consistently riding up on me despite me giving the little "roll back warning"

lol. roll back warning. i do that 2 but sometimes they just dont get it. im thinking of getting a scrolling text led bar for the back window and program in "hey you in the Tundra, yea you. back off my bumper bro. yea... hop off" or something like that. but they probably wont read it. so i was thinking of putting a 5 3/4 headlight in the rear bumper so i can high beam them. just a quick "back off" flick of the light. but thats more for when someone high beams me. im getting sick of the "highbeamers" if you wanna call them that. and for now i have no defense to them. but i ordered a headlight housing and 5 3/4 bulb to put right below the 3rd brake light. should be sweet since people love to high beam me in this car. i get idiots almost everyday blasting me with the highbeam for stupid reasons. i pulled up to some lady at the light once and asked her why are you high beaming me? she told me because i have a loud exhaust and it scared her. wtf? half of the people have no idea what high beams are and they drive with them on all day/night. anyway, im done with my story. yea ppl suck they be rollin up on ya bumper and highbeamin like CraZy

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

I notice how a lot of people say slowly let off the clutch at 1000 rpm and once you feel it start to catch

How do most of you guys do it so fast then. Because I'm always told "slowly"

People will tell you to do it slowly when you're first learning. As you get more of a feel for the contact point of the clutch disc against the flywheel, you will do it faster. But if you try to do it quickly when you're just starting out, you will dump the clutch and either bark the tires or stall the car (usually the latter).

Do it slowly at first and speed it up as you develop a feel for the car.

Originally Posted by chas3wba0

Slipping the clutch during takeoff is expected, I think the thing that really burns the clutch is "riding" it during higher speeds and RPMs

You are correct that some clutch slip is necessary during takeoff. The disc has to slide against the flywheel to smoothly transfer power to the transmission shaft. It is made to wear over time and be replaced, just like brake pads.

When people talk about "riding the clutch," they may be talking about one of two different bad habits:

1. Sometimes they're talking about excessive clutch slip, meaning that you keep the clutch at the engagement point more than necessary. Some people are reluctant to release the clutch when taking off and leave it halfway engaged while revving the engine, trying to use clutch slip and high revs to smooth out their starts. Doing this repeatedly will wear the clutch disc prematurely. (Using your car to hold you on an incline is a form of riding the clutch in this sense.)

2. Sometimes they're talking about riding along with your foot resting on the clutch pedal in between shifts. One of the "instructional" videos in the very first post shows someone doing that. Resting your foot on the clutch when it doesn't need to be there can wear the throwout bearing prematurely.

You have to remember that between your foot and the flywheel is a hydraulic system and a levered yoke, which transforms a relatively small amount of force from your leg muscles into a larger amount of force against the springs in the clutch pressure plate. Most of the time people who ride the clutch between shifts think they are not putting enough pressure on the pedal to cause a problem, but it's easy to underestimate the leverage the weight of your foot has in this system.

This is why I continue to adamantly oppose clutching with your heel on the floor, because people who do that tend to also rest the ball of the foot on the pedal between shifts. It's not something that kills your clutch in 10K miles, but bad habits can easily make the difference between a 60K mile clutch and a 200K mile clutch.

If you want to drive that way, go right ahead. Just plan for the eventual replacement, and don't be upset later when other people's clutches are far outlasting yours.