silverstoned

Oh man...I feel like crying ...I just took my brand new 350Z out this morning and I must have stalled like 4-5 times. Im not the best manual driver but my friend taught me in his 2003 Sentra and I didnt stall once on his car. My stalls werent the grinding type though, just the silent engine-turning-off type. Man, is this reallly really really bad for my clutch or am I just worrying too much and can the 350z take a little beating? Im really feeling shitty as hell as this is personally my first manual car and I feel like im abusing it,especially cause its such a nice car. Please someone give me some reaassurance!

Aaaaahhh!!!! Me after stalling ---->

Zmoney

Congrats on the car.

Dont worry so much you will get used to the clutch. The Z can handle a beating and stalling isnt that bad (its bad when you start to smell it burning). Practice letting the clutch out with no throttle and feel for when the clutch gives. Usually the car will engage when you let the clutch out slowy w/o giving it gas. This will give you an idea of when you should start giving it some gas.

Good luck.........nothing like the smell of a burnt clutch

bshockley

Ok, I am a manual newbie as well so take this with a grain of salt.

I was told to give it more gas than I think necessary when first starting out. Then ease the clutch out. This helps prevent a stall and seems to work ok, if not give a slight burn out if you give it a heck of alot of gas. Then I was told as I got more used to driving manual on a specific car I'd figure out just the right combination of gas clutch.

Someone correct me if this is wrong (cause I'd like to know myself is that was a good suggestion).

Zmoney

Everyone learns differently so play around with it. My suggestion was ment more for practice in a parking lot to just get a feel of when the clutch engages. I do this in traffic a lot, just ease the clutch out with no gas and the car moves w/o stalling. You have to let the clutch out real slow when doing this though.

Your method makes sense too. Best thing to do is just play around with it until you are comfortable.

Zmoney

Here is a pretty good read.

NOTE: The paragraph "Get Moving"

http://www.standardshift.com/faq.html

silverstoned

yea, my friend suggested that i rev the car to about 1500 to 2000 rpm and then slowly release the clutch. For some reason it takes forever for me to hit the friction point/catching point and i always release too early. If i rev higher, will I reach the friction point faster? Anyways Im taking it out again today and hopefully my stalls will be minimal. That website was very imformative and helpful, thanks.

dr_gallup

Definately go to an empty parking lot where you can practice without having to worry about trafic. A little throttle & RPM will help get things moving without stalling but you may also get going quicker and faster than you want. On level ground it does not take a lot of throttle to get moving.

The engagement point should not be affected by RPM. What you want to do is learn where the engagement point starts and get there quickly and then just ease out the clutch and squeeze lightly on the throttle at the same time. Practice will make perfect but you should get most of the way there pretty quickly.

349.99Z

I was in your exact same shoes a few months ago. I had "learned" and practiced on a variety of my friends' cars and stalled once in the dozen or so times I drove those manuals.

Then I got the Z, and I was stalling like crazy!

But - it does get better. The clutch on my Z, when it was brand new, was EXTREMELY hard (for a newbie like me) to work. You may notice that about halfway through the travel, it kicks up at you "harder." This was causing my stalls. Once I got used to that "kick," my stalling went away. Also, I'm pretty sure the clutch loosened up a lot after 200-300 miles. I still occasionally have some unpretty starts, but at least I don't stall anymore!

Keep at it, and don't rush it!

alphared

Yeah, rev it to about 1500 and let the clutch bout half way up. That should be the catch point (but experiment without rev to find the exact spot, might be different) When the clutch is released the RPM will drop, but if you rev it up to 1500 before it should drop down to like 1000 or 800ish. The add more gas and go. Just takes practices, when you can do it without thinking about it you can start peeling out

ps. thats Tila Nguyen as your avatar right?

silverstoned

hehe yea.

s9am_me

iTrader: (1)

same position as you when i got my car. This is my first MT car. Practiced on my friend's old civic before and the release point was really high. When i got the Z.. kept stalling cuz the release point was so much lower. Anyways, just keep practicing.. you'll get it. Its all in the FEEL.. hehe.. I personally practiced early morning or late nights so there's not much cars on the road.

D'oh

I had been driving manual cars and trucks for 12 years when I got my Z, and I still stalled it quite often.

When new, my clutch engaged after only about 1/2" of travel off the floor. The clutch on my old truck had 65K miles and engaged near the end of its travel.

Also, the throttle on the Z was not as sensitive as my truck, so I needed to use the gas more.

It just took a while for me to get used to the differences.

Now I have almost 19K miles on the Z, and the clutch is much smoother.

You'll get used to it; it just takes some practice.

-D'oh!

Shortbus

I would actually bump my car every time i shifted into any gear. (the car would nodge back a bit), When i finally realized that the Z's clutch engages MUCH lower than other MT cars (about 1/2 " from floor), my shifts gots a LOT smoother... If now i could only keep remembering the Z's clutch engages that low....


Christian -

yobri

iTrader: (2)

That is weird that you guys have the sweet spot so low on your clutches... mine is rather high, at least three inches (if not four) from the floor... why such the discrepancy, Nissan...?

neur0sis

iTrader: (3)

there has been a thread about it in this forum ... no one seems to have an answer.

I actually brought my Z to the dealer, and asked them about it... they said they adjusted it a LITTLE bit (said it was slightly past "center") ... but I still think it engages way too high.

I'd like to be able to adjust it, and make it closer to the floor...