Alright thanks guys. One more question how would you go through the gears to 6 from 2. Would you start breaking then when the car hits about 50 clutch in put it 5 clutch out? so on and so forth? can someone explain this last bit of info. Thanks

 

bump

 

Yeah. Sixth, clutch in, fifth, clutch out; clutch in, fourth, clutch out; clutch in, third, clutch out; and so on. This is known as engine braking.

 

 

Being in neutral allows you to select the correct gear to shift into when you are ready to accelerate. Why would you want to be in 5th at say 15 mph?

As far as down shifting into each gear to decelerate, I'd rather just use the brakes which are a lot cheaper to replace than the clutch is.

 

Over 50 years of driving manual trannies, over 50 years of downshifting/engine braking. Never replaced a clutch.

Like I said above:

"Quit worrying about all of the minutae. You really aren't going to hurt the drive train on any well-built modern car. Just enjoy it and relax."

bill

 

I really dont understand how does coasting in neutral increase consumption? no force accelerating the car = no energy used.

 

Folks, people have been driving manual trannies for about a century now, it ain't rocket science. And everyone has a little different "technique", and generally speaking, they all work. And generally speaking, a manual tranny is very hard to break, and almost impossible to wear out.

And again, you won't learn to drive one from a message board (or a book). Just go out an drive it and quit worrying.

And I doubt that anyone ever wore out a clutch shifting gears (up or down) Clutches get destroyed from slipping them on start-up, slipping them while stopped at a light, or slipping them by trying to start on a gear other then first. If you avoid those bad habits, any clutch should last at least 100K.

bill

 

why would you be in 5th when aproaching a parking lot? Thats a highway speed.

 

Just depends, I think. The Publix grocery store by my house is off of a 4 lane, divided highway where the speed limit is 50mph, but most people drive at least 60mph. You turn right into the parking lot, and there's a deceleration lane for the turn but it's really short. I routinely enter that deceleration lane in 5th, brake hard, and drop directly into 2nd right before I release the brake and turn in.