Until you get used to it, it is very easy to hit 2nd comming out of 3rd when your aiming for 4th.

I did it two or three times when I first bought the Z. No damage though.

 

How can you all suck that badly at driving? Go buy a neon or something that should be trashed.

 

I'm surprised anyone is hitting 2nd instead of 4th, since it's a straight back motion.

I think the only shift I've ever missed with this gearbox is 2->5, but fortunately that was an upshift..and it's not going to damage a thing by skipping 3rd/4th.

Are you guys used to driving cars with more of an angled gearbox than the Z/G has?

 

I have to admit, I did the exact same thing (3rd->2nd instead of 3rd->4th), only not as bad. I shot into about the 6000 rpm range. Now I'm used to the shifter and it won't happen again. The problem is if your arm isn't aligned with the car, what feels like "straight back" might actually be an angle, and it's not all that hard to put it in 2nd instead of 4th.

The worst part is, you normally let the clutch out fast when going 3rd-4th, so you get a really fuct jolt when making this mistake. I was on a canyon road and nearly lost control, VDC helped me out though.

 

I did it once. The wheels barked and I immediately pushed in the clutch. 15k miles later, no noticable damage.

I don't understand why you pushed the brake...

 

Rev limiter does not stop a mis-shift. Only stops you for accelerating over redline. The engine and downshift is forcing the engine to rev way over the redline and no limiter will stop that.

You are very lucky you didn't warp your heads or bend a rod. I would run a blackstone lab test on your oil on this next oil change just to be sure nothing is wrong.

 

You are wrong. The gearing still forces the engine to overrev, and causes the valves to float. NO ECU rev limiter will prevent the engine from over-reving with a mis-shift. Trust me I have done it.

 

You didn't read my post closely enough. I said that the Rev limiter will still function to cut fuel (effectively eliminating combustion) during the over-rev that is driven by the transmission pushing the engine. While the engine may still suffer damage from being over-reved, the fact that no combustion is taking place while over the line is a helping factor.

I've mis-shifted as well, so I know exactly what it feels like. One thing I did that seems to have helped (aside from just getting used to the tranny) was getting a nismo shift-****. The shorter shifter just seems to make the shifting pattern more clear for me. Not sure why.

 

I only mis-shifted 2 cars in my life, one survived, the other one was fixed under warranty.

My 99 TransAm 6mt didn't make it. Bent rods, and floated valves....doing 90 and hitting 2nd gear wasn't fun.

My 98 Maxima saw 9k of rpms quickly, but I let out the clutch and saw the rpms drop and prayed. It was fine after that and ran a long life.

Since then I learned when shifting into 4th and a high rate of rpms, I learned to curve my hand over the left side of the shifter and pull back. That seems to keep me from pulling it towards me.

 

Expect your engine to blow up soon.

 

I also dont see how you can do this on a the 350z because it is just strait back , if you dont give any left/right motion at all and just pull back i dont see how you can get to second, that being said I have miss-shifted 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th on my 280Z however i realized imidiately and pushed in the clutch, and RPM's only got up to about 7100. Another note i seriously can't believe someone would not know what to do, I have never asked someone what to do if i miss-shifted but I would think it is common sense to push down the clutch imiidately and then shift into the correct gear, oh well.

 

I mis-shifted downward from 5th to 2nd instead of 4th in the CS, but it was on the way to pick up Lola, my UY 35th, and I won't be making that mistake with her. I can tell you I have never heard such a noise and hope the poor person that buys the CS dosen't have to deal with any problems related to the incident. It was the only time I have ever in my life done such a thing and have no idea what possessed me to make such an error. I've been driving MT's for 21 years. It was a high pitched grinding whine that really hurt my ears. I hate to hear metal crunching and grinding whines from a vehicle.

 

That's why I usually don't buy used.....

 

First thing I would look at is the valves. Ouch! What a nasty misshift

 

It was, I feel sorry for whoever buys that thing. It should have been totaled last year. $22K in repairs and 5 months in shop. It needed to go back but I just was over it. I'm pleased with the replacement.

 

which doesn't do a damn thing on a down shift