New to driving a stick

[Alleya]

It's all practice. Good advice in this thread. My dad drives race cars and he was the one that taught me to drive (I learned on a mustang Bullet with a race clutch, too, talk about diving in head first) and gave me most of the advice in this thread. But when it came down to it, I just had to do some driving to get the hang of it. It was probably 2 months before I consistently shifted totally smooth. The thing that helped me the most was shifting slow and actively focusing on making it a fluid transition.

What car you learn it on can make a difference too. If you're driving some old piece of crap that has its shifter stuck into a bowl of pudding for a transmission, it will be harder. The biggest advantage to learning on the mustang was knowing exactly where the shifter was going due to the way it would pop in/out/around.

[Quixotic]

Protip for beginners:
To overcome going uphill from a dead stop while on an incline, pull up the e-brake then you don't have to fear about rolling backwards. After you give it enough gas that you feel the car lurch forward a bit, you can release the e-brake and get going. After a while you won't need to do this anymore once you get use to the car, unless some jackass has hugged your rear bumper on some steep incline.

The only difficult thing about stickshift is getting past first gear.

Edit: Driving stick has become second nature (and preferred for me over automatic, even in horrible Seattle traffic and roads), but I somehow manage to kill my car like once or twice a year randomly. It usually gives me a little chuckle.

[Siniroth]

Pretty much what everyone else said.

If you need to start driving soon and don't have time to get the hang of it, rev car before releasing clutch, just don't release too fast or you'll start lurching

[Denchi]

Shit that really pissed me off was when people had custom shifters on VW's or short shifters on Corvettes (That obviously didn't work well) and they left it up to us to figure out. Reverse is different in a lot of different cars. VW's you have to push down, some Volvo's there's a lever you pull up, Corvettes can be really sticky and not wanna go into reverse (Especially with short shifters), some cars it was just like another gear, others you had to push further than you think you could, and then there were Aston Martins and Ferrari's who think making things confusing is way cooler.

Note to you guys, if you've done stupid shit to your car, let your valet know, how the f are we supposed to know your 3rd gear doesn't work? Or you have a cool fucking button you hit to start the car. Fuckers.

[Cesaria]

The way I was taught to do it (in the UK manual cars are the norm and automatics are pretty rare so most people learn in a manual) is to leave the handbrake on, put a tiny bit of gas pedal down and raise the clutch until you start to feel the engine bite, then pull away gently from there with the key bit being lifting the clutch slowly. Sounds strange to me people struggling to get used to it - but I guess that's with driving for so long that it becomes instinctive - hell if my mother managed to get the hang of it anyone can because she really is a god-awful driver.

Different cars have different bite points for the clutch and you get used to it (mine is with the pedal really low down for some strange reason). Someone said how to do a hill start - just make sure you've got the clutch where the engine is starting to bite before you lift the handbrake and lift the clutch slowly or you do the comedy classic learner driver kangarooing down the road and stalling thing. Still takes me a few ropey gear changes to readjust to driving a different car but it's easy once you get the practice in on it.

Oh and I always love trying to find reverse in new cars - whether it's pushing the gear knob down, or lifting it up, or pulling it towards you - they never bloody tell you and you end up driving around carparks for ages trying to find a space you don't need to reverse out of until you figure it out.

[Denchi]

My Roommate just got back from a 2 week trip in England (UK? I dunno, the big Island, whatever the hell you call the whole thing) and he said driving there is terrifying. The roads are tiny and everyone is going 60+ MPH on roads that would be 30MPH in the US. Also if you're going 59 in a 60 zone, you're gonna get passed by everyone which is even scarier.

The way he explained it, it was hard to think there aren't a ton more accidents over there.

[Turambar]

Proper technique to using a manual transmission:

Push clutch in

Rev to 3000

Drop clutch



Like someone else said, practice just getting the car rolling without using the gas, so you can find where the clutch starts to catch. For actual driving you'll want to give it a little gas as you let the pedal out past this point.

The above section was a joke, but it's actually fairly accurate if you're trying to start uphill. Set the e-brake and rev the engine up, then let the clutch out to the catch point and release the brake. It takes a bit of practice, but you'll pick it up pretty quick.

[BIGSTIC]

Prctice, Practice, Practice. There really isnt much else to say.

First stick i Drove was when i was 14(yeah in SD you can get your licenses at 14). Course it wasnt a car. Try learning on a 18 speed cabover with under/overdrive which you had to granny shift to syncro the clutches. And to top it off had 40k lb of corn in the trailer. Lets just say it aint nothing like your Honda.

And ALWAYS look at the gear patterns before you drive a new one. Jummped in a friend 99 Ford Powerstroke when it was brand new. Threw it in first gear(i thought) and eneded up slamming into the front of my blazer cause where i ASSUMED first was, was acctually Reverse. So yeah ALways look and that little diagram on the shifter first.

EDIT: when you get good at shifting you will wish all cars were manual. Plus if you have big feet( I wear size 15) you can have one foot on the clutch and the other on the break and the gas at the same time. Makes for some fun burnouts, kinda like power breaking an automatic.

[Lordwafik]

Stop making stupid uninformed comments about women driving. Our insurance rates aren't lower because we're cute.

They're lower because you can't have car accidents in the kitchen.

[Infiltrator]

I'm new to driving a stick shift and I still haven't gotten the hang of it. I know I'm supposed to take it slow on letting out the clutch but every once in a while I pop it and kill the car. I'm brand new to this and my first drive in it was today with my dad who is trying to teach me. Is there any tips/places I can read up that provides good information?

You're doing good, I'm guessing you have the basics down and you can get out of first gear. I don't think there is really anything that can help you other then to keep driving it. Your lack of precise clutch control is due to your lack of brain-muscle memory which is why sometimes you release the clutch too fast and stall. Just keep driving and eventually the clutch engagement point will become 2nd nature to you from repetition.

Sometimes it helps to have a bit of mechanical knowledge of what is going on, so I'll give you what I can. I'm an ASE certified auto tech, so I'm not bullshitting you. When you press the clutch you are separating two pieces of friction material: the clutch plate, which is made of the same material as brake pads, and the pressure plate, which is metal like a brake rotor. These two components connect the drive force from the crank shaft in the motor to the input shaft in the transmission. When you release the clutch, these two components come back together and press against each other until the friction overcomes the slippage and they begin rotating at the same RPM. If you rev high and release the clutch too slowly you increase the amount of slippage between the clutch plate and the pressure plate and you get that nice burnt clutch smell. If you release too fast, the inertia the motor has to overcome to set the vehicle in motion is too much and the motor gets pulled down or killed. It will take lots of practice until you find the balance in that particular car, so just keep at it. What you are looking for is a smooth transition from stopped to forward motion without burning the clutch or making the motor shake from being lugged down. Once you get the hang of that car's clutch, it is much easier to jump into a different stick shift and pick it up. Good luck!

You forgot the flywheel. 8)

[Chicomagiko]

Stop making stupid uninformed comments about women driving. Our insurance rates aren't lower because we're cute.

They're lower because you can't have car accidents in the kitchen.

/thread

[untouchable]

lmaooo


tagging this thread since im also a beginner at this

[wyrmtung]

she being Brand

-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(having

thoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.

K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her

up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried and

again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my

lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinity

avenue i touched the accelerator and give

her the juice,good

(it

was the first ride and believe i we was
happy to see how nice she acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens i slammed on

the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
brakes Bothatonce and

brought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.

stand-
;Still)

[Awoir]

Right foot on gas to about 5500-6000 RPMs.
Left foot holding clutch to the floor, right slide and jam the brake pedal.
???
Profit.

[In Flames]

Stop making stupid uninformed comments about women driving. Our insurance rates aren't lower because we're cute.

They're lower because you can't have car accidents in the kitchen.

Well played sir.

[Turambar]

I read somewhere that women have more accidents on average, but they're generally minor damage, whereas men are more likely to total the car.

[aurik]

Damn straight I'm gonna total the car, I'm no wuss driver!


When I bought my (first and) current car, I didn't know how to drive stick. And there wasn't anyone around to show me. So what I did was drive it around at 11pm through a neighborhood for about 15 min each night for a week. That way I didn't get flustered / embarrassed / hit when I stalled it out. Probably for the first 2-3 month after that I still rode the clutch pretty bad, wasn't for a long time that manual was second-nature.

I still occasionally stall it when I'm not paying attention, especially on slight inclines.

[Cletis]

when ever i go into a new car to find the earlier mentioned 'catching spot' i will put right on brake. left on clutch.. and slowly let off clutch to listen (or watch if you lucky enough to have a tac) for the engine to drop in rpm. its never failed for me and only takes about 2min to get used to any new car .



also i felt most comfy with my abilities about 2 weeks after trying.

[Xiona]

find a hill, practice not using the brake but sitting in one spot by using a little clutch and little gas. the amount of clutch you let out should be a direct proportion of gas to give. you basically want to keep the tach from dropping to low or high thats all really.

start out by watching the tach then after a while youll know your rpm from sound. also practice being engaged in second gear while taking turns. at first when i did this i always wanted to stay in neutral but thats terrible. 2nd usually is slow enough to easily take a turn while being a good gear to accelerate halfway into the turn.

[Melchiah]

You forgot the flywheel. 8)

The Flywheel has nothing to do with the clutch mechanisms. Ever. The purpose of a flywheel is to store kinetic energy from crankshaft rotation. The inertia of the flywheel resists the negative rotational force of the compression inside the cylinders when you lift your foot off the accelerator. It also serves as a rotational dampener. The pressure plate is bolted to the flywheel; they are fixed and there is no lateral movement between the two along the drive line.