Originally posted by halfracedrift
But.. Here's my question:
How do you drive a manual without stalling, and what ARE the reasons for stalling?
An engine will stall when it is unable to run fast enough. Because intermittent forces (the explosions in the cylinders) are asked to produce consistent output (the rotation of the crankshaft), there is a minimum engine speed at which the smooth motion can be sustained. This is usually somewhere in the region of 300rpm for a normal four cylinder car, but you will find the engine very jerky at this speed, and so the idle speed is usually set around the 750rpm mark.
An engine can develop a given amount of torque based on the output of the exploding fuel/air mixture. Power = torque x engine speed, and therefore an engine produces more power at greater revs. If the load on the engine is less than the amount of power the engine is producing, the engine speed will rise, and vice versa.
So, an engine will stall when you come off the clutch too quickly (increasing the load) or don't have enough power (through your accelerator position). It's a balance.
In stop-start traffic, you should find the throttle and clutch balance that allows you to move the car without the engine speed changing at all, and without your passengers noticing. This is often easier in second gear, where the relationship between clutch position and forward motion is slightly blurred.
Originally posted by FuryX21
Question: What is the best way to slow the car in preparation for a stop or curve? Thus far, I've been shifting the car into neutral and just riding the clutch (especially going down hills). Is this okay? I'm not harming the car or clutch am I?
A lot of it is personal taste. However, if I'm slowing in a big hurry from high speed to low speed (say from 80mph for a 15mph turn), I'll brake, wait for the engine speed to get down to about 2,000 rpm, then downshift into 3rd, retaining brake pressure, and feeding the clutch out slowly. This provides some engine braking. Advanced drivers (I haven't mastered this yet) can use their heel, or the right side of their right foot, to rock the throttle, matching engine speed for the new gear. Then, at about 2,000rpm again, I'll drop the clutch, leaving it in 3rd, until I come to the point that I need to accelerate again. Then, I'll hook second, and roll off the brakes, dial in a couple of thousand rpm on the throttle (remember, we need 15mph), and feed the clutch out gently.
When the clutch is depressed, there is a mechanism that keeps the plates apart. If the speed differential between the two plates is too high, this causes undue stress on the mechanism, advancing clutch wear. My wife is one for braking and downshifting, but she brakes way too early, and is thus sitting in first gear, with her foot on the clutch some 300m before she needs power again. I finally managed to get her to hear the whining in the transmission that this caused, and she's stopped it now.
If you're not interested in going down through the gears as you decelerate (and frankly, in good weather conditions, there's little in the way of evidence to suggest that it's required), you're best off putting the car in neutral and coming off the clutch, just braking to your exit speed. In poor weather, you will need to be extremely sensitive to what the front wheels are doing if you do this, because you won't have any engine inertia helping to keep the front wheels unlocked. Obviously this is not an issue for ABS-equipped cars.
You should never, ever, engage neutral in an automatic while the car is travelling at more than 10mph. This is to do with the oil transfer around the gearbox.
. i cant wait to go out again.
