Hey all,

I've read around that it's a bad idea to skip gears when you shift. A while ago I've seen a thread here linking to s2000 forum with a guy shifting from 4th to 6th and after some time some gear (5th?) was worn out because he shifted. I really forgot what the reason was, but have read here that skipping gears (when upshifting) is bad. But what about downshifting from 6th (going 45mph) to 3rd to use engine breaking to slow yourself down? Does that wear out synchros?
Also, when downshifting, are *all* the synchros spinning for every gear? I ask this because how does the computer know what gear I'll select? From 6th I may downshift into 4th or 3rd..its all so sudden and quick.

Just wondering about this. What're everyone elses thoughts?

 

Check out howstuffworks.com and look under manual transmission. It will explain to you what a synchro is.

Check out wikipedia.com and look under manual transmission techniques. It will help explain how to shift gears correctly.

Your owners manual will also have some important information.

 

*NOTE* I do not drive a Z (yet...),

But based on my experience of driving stick shift cars for the past 10 years, I seriously doubt skipping gears is bad, and I've never had any problems with it. Infact, if i remember correctly, the current GTO has a gas saver option that basically locks a few gears essentially making the driver skip gears when they are driving in town...

The only times I've had problems with messing up synchros is when I would try to bang through the gears really fast... I had a honda prelude that I raced a lot and eventually I would grind 3rd everytime cause the synchros were so bad.

 

From a mechanical point of view, i dont see it as a problem, and as a matter of fact, i can imagine its just as bad as shifting from 5-6 as it is as shifting from 4-6, (if its 'bad' in the first place)

 

And yes, the GTO does this stock, manual one atleast, going from 1st to 4th, depending on ur driving habit.

 

i have to agree, I have been driving standard Z's for some 15 years and I have never heard of an issue if/when skipping gears, Honda may have it, but Nissan does not....I worked on Toyota's for 15 years and the last thing from hurting transmission gears was skipping them, believe me....

when you engage the clutch the synchro is spinning allowing you to select any forward gear you want......

 

i thougth the synchro starts to spin when you hit the gate. You can make 2 synchros spin at a time if your fast enough

 

I do it all the time, b/c of the linearity of the powerband of the Z, it makes it very easy to do it. The Z is a very very streetable vehicle in this respect.

 

ever tried downshifting from 6 to 1??? i wonder what's gonna happen

 

I don't think it'll allow you to get into 1 from 6 unless you revmatch; you can't revmatch 1st if you're doing 30+MPH, so if you tried to force it into 1st it would grind. I'm not sure what grinds exactly though.

As for skipping gears on upshift, I started to do it, then read it was bad, so i stopped.

 

Your owners manual very clearly states to upshift sequentially. It's not like some american cars that were specifically designed to skip gears to force you to save gas. The engineers did that so their cars aren't classified as gas guzzlers.

With the way the Z is geared and designed, there is no reason to skip gears on upshifts unless you run up to a certain speed and then want to chill in a high gear.

I'm not saying you can't do it or it will harm anything. But for the most part it's bad technique and plain pointless to drive like that, so why do it? No offense to anyone, but you will only see an amateur skipping around the gearbox constantly.

 

ive also owned a prelude before my z and my experience with the lude is that the tranmission in those things just sucks all together. if u look at consumer report all the marks for the prelude are good until u get to the tranny. its the black dot. moral of the story. prelude trannys just suck. skipping gears shouldnt be a problem in a z.

 

theres a lockout nowadays on modern cars preventing from downshifting to first if your speed is too high. if you want to try it, its super hard to put the car in first when your above 20-25mph. if it were possible, the rpms would raise too high and possibly blow the motor.

 

You are mistaken. 1st gear is good to 35mph(not that you would ever downshift to it going that fast).... 25mph in first would NOT blow your engine. The reason it's hard to get into gear while rolling is because you aren't revmatching before selecting the gear. There is no "lockout" mechanism, other than a driver who doesn't know how to operate his transmission... I guess that could qualify as a lockout mechanism.

 

man, you sure like insinuating that people do not know how to drive thier cars....

 

Just shift into whatever gear you feel is appropriate for your speed and purpose, matching engine revs. Sometimes this will result in an upshift to a 2000 rpm engagement, sometimes a downshift with to a 5000 rpm engagement (getting ready to pass on the freeway). You just need to know your car well enough to know what gear you want to be in for a given speed for a given situation. If you rev match there should be _no_ whine when you let out the clutch and you should go into gear without hardly even using the mechanical synchro. No computers involved in here. You need to be ready to _immediately_ put the clutch back in if you miss shift and hear a severe winding up of the engine as you let out the clutch. This is the type of learned behaviour that protects you from blowing your engine.

 

Shift from first to third gear...sixth to fouth...fouth to sixth...whatever. No big deal.

 

Where are all those gurus who argue skipping gears is bad, due to syncros not being ready or something? lol

 

exactly

 

+1