Struggling to drive a stick transmission. Help

[phobos512]

Originally Posted by fang_gt86

Like what Tcoat said..

Anyway, up-hill start is the most challenging part of driving manual.

Here's how I do it:

1. Put in neutral
2. Step on brake with left foot and release E-brake
3. Rev or give it some gas while holding on brake and in neutral
4. QUICKLY clutch-in, engage 1st gear and gas-up before the car start rolling backward! The steeper the slope the faster you need to be. Only way to be better at it is lots of practice. Find an open parking lot with a ramp or slope and do it over and over..

Erm...There's absolutely no reason to use the brake pedal when you're doing a hill start using the e-brake. Clutch in, first gear/second gear (depending on conditions), rev up, release e-brake as you clutch out. Then, drive as normal. Done.

Your way you have to pedal dance between brake and clutch...This way, you don't. Left hand on the wheel, right hand on the e-brake, left foot on the clutch, right foot on the accelerator. No quickly jumping between controls. (Obviously if you're in an RHD it'd be left hand e-brake, right hand steering wheel, but OP is in NY so...)

[teamturbo]

Learning to drive somewhere like NY must be difficult with the hills. Makes it 5x harder than learning somewhere flat like Kansas. That said, the only thing that can help you is practice. Find an empty car lot. Do stop and starts for 1 hr.

[s2d4]

Meh, just balance it on the engagement point, ain't that hard.

[continuecrushing]

4 hours? What did this "instructor" have you doing?

Not that after 4 hours you should be an expert, but you should be able to have the basics down.

Hills will take longer, however.

If you KNOW you want a manual car, just buy it. You'll figure it out with time and practice.

[phobos512]

Originally Posted by Shutter

If you KNOW you want a manual car, just buy it. You'll figure it out with time and practice.

Precisely what I did. Drove around my neighborhood a few days while taking my motorcycle or girlfriend's car to work, and once I was comfortable it was out on the road for real.

[stugray]

I have never used the ebrake on a hill start.
Maybe if I drove a stick in SF (actually drove my supra in sf briefly)
And for street driving never use the left foot for anything except the clutch.

[swpbrz]

Uphill brake start is probably the hardest move so I wouldn't be too bummed.


Handbrake and relax. You ok. Now shift into firsts and hold clutch. Relax its cool... then put your right foot on the gas just a bit maybe 2 to 2.5 k rpms. But don't worry about being exact your just giving it the gas it needs to start ahead of time. now slowly let off the clutch and as you feel the engine catch you lower the Handbrake. these steps can overlap a little, but with practice you'll get so good its second nature.


I feel sorry for anyone learning stick in san Francisco

[paulca]

Handbrake. Auto's have e-brakes. The hand brake is a brake used by, well, your hand. This is for when you feet are busy.

A hill start requires brakes (to secure the car), clutch and throttle. You either have to have three feet, do some fancy heel toe or do the pedal dance which is easy to screw up and not very easy to learn when learning clutch control. Or... use the hand brake. It's what it's for.

Clutch wear asides, practice, practice, practice with the clutch bite. Slow maneuvering, hill starts etc. The driving along part is easy (er).

[strat61caster]

At 30k miles with my Scion and I'm only now at the point where I'd say I'm >95% confident with my MT abilities and even then I still make mistakes and I stalled about a week or two ago.

A couple hours to learn and a lifetime to master, seat time. Also handbrake hill starts should be all you need, still takes practice it isn't easy mode to be smooth and controlled but it helps and you can always yank the handle in a panic to stop the car.

[paulca]

By the way, I have sympathy here. The first few vehicles I owned were auto motorbikes. Driven on a learner plate. When it came time to do my test however there was no point doing an auto-only test and be limited to autos on my license. So I took manual bike lessons. Was horrible only getting an hour at cost with an instructor to get practice. Eventually I traded my own bike in for a manual and drove and drove and drove, then went back for lessons.

The OP might consider buying a second hand clapped out old beater manual for a few hundred dollars and thrash the clutch in it.

[paulca]

Sorry for tripple posting, but it is much easier to learn hill starts in a FWD car. When you get the clutch right on the bite the back of the car will sit down as the front tries to pull the car and the handbrake resists. In a RWD you don't get this feedback.

[J_kennington]

Originally Posted by paulca

Handbrake. Auto's have e-brakes. The hand brake is a brake used by, well, your hand. This is for when you feet are busy.

A hill start requires brakes (to secure the car), clutch and throttle. You either have to have three feet, do some fancy heel toe or do the pedal dance which is easy to screw up and not very easy to learn when learning clutch control. Or... use the hand brake. It's what it's for.

Clutch wear asides, practice, practice, practice with the clutch bite. Slow maneuvering, hill starts etc. The driving along part is easy (er).

If you want to get technical....neither transmission has an e-brake. The true name is a parking brake.

OP, if your just learning. Get out in a big open parking lot. And just actuate the clutch over and over. Once you learn the point where the revs drop and car starts to move (engagement point). It will be easier. After that, find a long sloping hill, aka not a 90° hill, with no traffic on it. And practice until you can't anymore.

The biggest thing is once you get onto open roads, don't get nervous and don't freak out if you DO stall. Stay calm and remember what you learned. After awhile, you won't even realize that your doing it, it becomes second nature

[Cope52]

Originally Posted by Shutter

If you KNOW you want a manual car, just buy it. You'll figure it out with time and practice.

This. Just do it. I put in in neutral on hills and hold the brake. If you know how to finesse everything, you can get 150,000 miles or more out of a clutch. If you get 60k out of one, you don't know what you're doing. And redlining gears does not wear a clutch. I got 200k out of a 5G Prelude clutch caning it all day every day.

[paulca]

Number of miles on a clutch is miss-leading. If you drive on the freeway from CA to NY and back constantly you could get a LOT of miles on a clutch. Spend your time driving around San Fran in rush hour everyday doing hill starts and 60K is probably good!

Recently heard an indirect quote that Subaru say 70K for an Impreza clutch is a normal life expectancy.