Finally, I bought a car (UPDATE: INTERNAL ENGINE DAMAGE)

  • Thread starter Thread starter sicbeing
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VIPERGTSR01
You shouldnt really need to downshift to first gear, in almost all situations 2nd gear should be fine except for taking off from the a stand still. After I downshift to second if I need to stop then I just coast then put it in first after Ive stopped. If its hard to put in first while moving then your just wearing your syncro's more.
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I agree. I would never downshift to first(though I've done it before :p). Like VIPER said, use the second gear, and use first only from a stop. :)
 
Thanks for the downshifting advice. This morning I was late to work because last night there was smoke coming from my motor where the oil is, so I thought there was a gasket blown or something, but I checked it this morning and there's still oil in it. Today I am asking my mechanic (I work at a collision center) to take a look at it to see what's going on, today is my last chance to cancel the contract if needed.


EDIT

Only real problem I have with riding the clutch is in first gear (from a stand still). Either I spin out or jerk the car forward with not enough RPMs. Sometimes I get it right but I don't quite let off the clutch soon enough. I hope I'll get it down soon.


I also went to my friends house to show him the car. He has much better cars than I do, and he took me for a ride for the first time in his 04 STi. After that I didn't even want to drive my eclipse, the STi was.... insane :nervous:
 
Something you might want to think about (some time in the future, not right now) is heel and toe downshifting. You might already know about it (or have seen it on TV/DVDs). If you haven't, the basics are fairly simple.

Normally when you're downshifting in a manual car (say from 4th to 3rd for argument's sake), you'd come off the accelerator (or on to the brake), put the clutch in, move the gearstick from 4th to 3rd then bring the clutch out gently.

However, when heel and toe'ing, you blip the throttle during the downchange.

Again, changing down from 4th to 3rd. Come off the throttle (or on to the brake), put the clutch in, move gearstick from 4th to 3rd and at the same time, blip the throttle (if you're not braking at the time you can just blip it with your right foot normally, if you're braking, slide your right foot so it half covers the brake and edge the accelerator with the right half of your right foot), then bring out the clutch gently.

Heel and toe'ing is employed in racing cars (where there's no syncromesh), but even in cars with synchromesh, heel and toe'ing does two things: smoothens downshifts and eases the strain on the synchromesh.

It might take a bit of time to learn, but it's rewarding when you do learn :)

Take a look at this clip (from the Radical Motorsports website) to see heel and toe'ing in effect (though it's a lot quicker than most non-racing drivers will be able to do)
 
Heel toe is abit advanced for someone who's just learning to drive there manual smoothly, most orindary manual drivers dont know or cant heel toe smoothly that takes quite abit more practice. Dont worry about even trying it now but maybe in the future as amp said.

sicbeing, sounds like an oil leak definatly get it checked and take appropriate action, as for what other people drive dont worry about it you have a nice car now and enjoy it :).
 
VIPERGTSR01
Heel toe is abit advanced for someone who's just learning to drive there manual smoothly, most orindary manual drivers dont know or cant heel toe smoothly that takes quite abit more practice. Dont worry about even trying it now but maybe in the future as amp said.
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Yep, that's why I said in the future, not right now. It's something to think about though.
 
I've been practicing heel & toe now, but before that, I just tried the simple rev match. Basically, it's an heel & toe without the brake/toe. I called it "poor man's heel & toe." :dopey: After I got used to that(it's realy easy), heel & toe became easier. Right now, I can heel toe around slow corners around 30mph, but I don't feel confident enough to go any faster than that.
 
Actually, I have heard of heel and toe from drift videos, but I never knew what it meant really, and now that I've been driving a stick shift I know exactly what it means. Looks like I'll have to re-adjust my seat in order to do some heel toe'ing, but for now I'll just put it in neutral when braking then put it back in gear when I'm ready to go again. (Neighboorhood driving and stop-and-go traffic isn't fun anymore lol)


EDIT


My buddy with the STi has done some autocross, and I know he's a really good driver (he has the equipment to learn more advanced stuff). He was telling me, and I've heard this from other friends, to build upmy car very slowly (none at first) to get the feel of the car, then put some stuff on it, starting off with the exhaust, headers, air duct / filters. Once I'm ready to put some better stuff on it, I might put a turbo kit on it, I'll do it the expensive way, and have them put another ECU chip on it and program it for me (speed/race shop). He told me that if I'm gonna go far with it to not half-ass it your I'll be sorry (blown engine).

For now, I just plan on paying 2x-3x the car payment per month to get it paid off as quickly as possible.
 
Why not just pay off the car and save for a deposit for a evo it will be cheaper in the long run if you want any serious power.

How much do evos cost in the USA? In the UK we can get a evo 8 fq330 for 15 grand thats about 2 years old.
 
I've never even seen a used Evo for sale in the states, but they start out arond 28-30 thousand dollars new. I'd also rather not save for an evo, if I wanted to do that I wouldn't have bought an Eclipse. I bought it so I didn't have to pay a ton of money per month with huge insurance payments with horrible gas mileage. I wanted a cheaper car that runs good and does what I need and be able to twink around with it when I wanted to.
 
personally, i think heel toe is really easy. you should not have to downshift into 1st, I on the other hand with my awful 4 speed (really tall gearing) have to if im moving basically from 0-15mph or i almost bog out in 2nd.
i thought rev-matching was shifting without the clutch as in 1) for example your in 3rd and you want to downshift 2) get off the throttle completely 3) pull it out of gear (its really not hard at all) 4) blip the throttle to where the rpms will be in 2nd 5) with barely any pressure push it into 2nd at X rpms and keep going.

heel toe is a really good habit to learn, i do it all the time because my rear passenger wheel cylinder failed 40 miles away from my home so my brakes were functioning at like 10% lol
 
Wow blarg lol, sucks. My boss told me about clutchless shifting, seemed like it'd have some real getting used-to.
 
blargonator
i thought rev-matching was shifting without the clutch as in 1) for example your in 3rd and you want to downshift 2) get off the throttle completely 3) pull it out of gear (its really not hard at all) 4) blip the throttle to where the rpms will be in 2nd 5) with barely any pressure push it into 2nd at X rpms and keep going.
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If that's what rev matching is, that's not what I meant. :nervous:
 
its not even worth doing <8- P honestly unless you really know what rpm you should be at. haha i could care less about my civic's tranny and motor (motor on its last legs) because i have a spare but i still don't do it much. a clutch is much cheaper to replace than another transmission. im not going to lie, i have been off by not too many rpms and it kind of went in gear but it grinded......but i waited until it wanted to <X- 0 so....to summarize, don't do it, it might be a pretty smooth shift, but its not worth it.
 
Its called limited slip. technically both rear wheels are capable of receiving power but most of the time only one receives power. the only time the other wheel recieves power is when the primary wheel loses traction. When both wheels receive 100% power this is called a posi track. This is usually on older cars and race cars. Im not sure how it works on front wheel drive though, im not too familiar with how a front end on a FWD works.

EDIT - actually this has already been explained, im sorry, i didnt realize this was a 3 page thread.
 
sicbeing
Wow blarg lol, sucks. My boss told me about clutchless shifting, seemed like it'd have some real getting used-to.
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Clutchless shifting is something that has gotten me out of a few jams before, my old Holden Commodore had a habit of snapping clutch cables, but I doubt very many people would benifit from learning it.

You rev match in both heel toe and clutchless shifting.
 
SS69
Its called limited slip. technically both rear wheels are capable of receiving power but most of the time only one receives power. the only time the other wheel recieves power is when the primary wheel loses traction. When both wheels receive 100% power this is called a posi track. This is usually on older cars and race cars. Im not sure how it works on front wheel drive though, im not too familiar with how a front end on a FWD works.

EDIT - actually this has already been explained, im sorry, i didnt realize this was a 3 page thread.
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Not only that, you're totally wrong.

With a Limited Slip, there is never a time in which only one wheel recieves power. It's always balanced to some degree. A Posi Track is just an older domestic term for an LSD. What he's talking about is an Open Differential, in which both wheels are balanced, until one starts to lose traction, in which case it recieves all the power.

As for shifting... It's not a synchro issue. The transmission's designed not to allow you to downshift to 1st when moving at more than a few MPH. If you absolutely need to downshift, don't force it, you should be able to feel when it'll go in as you're decellerating.

One final note. As much as I hate to say it, the Eclipse will never be a viable performance platform. I'd keep it, stay at the normal payment and daily drive it for a couple years, and buy a side project car to build.
 
First of all, differentials directly transfer torque, not power (although they are related).

There are four kind of differentials kinds of differentals that come to mind:
Open: This type offers almost no resistance to delivering different torque amounts to the opposite wheels. When load is placed on, say, the left wheel, all of the torque is delivered to the right wheel--causing undesirable spin. All LSDs get around this by forcing some of the torque to be delivered to the other wheel. This is expressed as a ratio, such as 4:1, which means that for every 4 ft-lbs of torque going to one wheel, 1 ft-lb will be delivered to the other wheel.

Clutch LSD: This uses a pair of clutches and spring on the bevel gears at the inboard side of the driveshaft to tie them together. The stiffness of the spring determines the torque bias ratio. Some "active" differentails use a modified version of this system where the clutch pressure is controlled by a fluid pressure which can be dynamically changed.

Helical/Torsen LSD: This type of differental uses helicals gears. When torque is applied to one wheel, the sideways forces on the gears causes torque to also delivered to the other wheel. The pitch of the helix determines the ratio.

Locking Diff: Not so clear on this one. Some can be manually locked, others automatically lock. When locked, the axles are solidly tied together (ratio is 1:1), and when unlocked, it's effectively an open diff. Usually used for drag cars, but some AWD systems have a locking diff in the middle.

(Just cause it's good to know :))

EDIT: I was not clear, a locking diff is not a LSD. It's just a locking diff. And a Positraction is a type of locking diff.
 
You forgot Viscous LSD, has plates/fins in a sealed housing filled with oil, when one wheel speeds up or gets more torque the plates the axel is connected to in the LSD housing speeds with it and drags along the other plates that the other axel is connected to. (bit of a rough explaination, Im sure google will have a better one)

Works like a automatic trans torque converter.
 
Don't forget about the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds LSD.

Sorry, just wanted to chime in. :sly:


Why wouldn't the Eclipse be a viable performance option? I wouldn't mind working on it to make it a bit better. I know that there are other options, and probably better ones, but I like the eclipse. I may or may not buy a better faster car after this one is paid off, but for now it isn't bad for something to work with.
 
I know I'm in no position to give you advice, but I can't resist.

A simple tire and suspension package would be 100% benefitial if you want to have some fun, however once you top 200 horsepower on this car, I'm not sure about this, but I SUPPOSE you will get more understeer than you want, because to be frank, the chassis on the Eclipse is not the best out there.
 
Well, first thoughts I had were simple HP-helpers like getting the hot air out and the cold air in, along with suspension parts for handling (Like maybe lower it about an inch). I wasn't thinking too hard about tires yet, haven't really noticed loads of understeer. I was going to inch slowly upwards as I do more things to it, wasn't sure about getting it over 200-250 yet. I wouldn't want it getting over 300 though, that's more than enough for me.

As for now I don't want to push this car at all because of my one or two oil leaks, but that's being taken care of tomorrow at the dealership.

For now I'm still figuring out when to shift when just cruising through traffic, it seems that if I shift into 3rd too slow (around 30-35mph) I get resistance, but anything after that it's smooth.
 
Bump for the update. It's at the bottom of the first post.
 
Ouch, thats harsh. But if they are putting in a 5k engine for free, I say go for it 👍

About the shifting into first. Alot of the time downshifting in to first is not neccecary. Stopping in second is more common. Alot of cars will have trouble going into first unless you are moving very slowly.
 
Thanks. I also had a problem with shifting period, it felt like the transmission was "crunchy" when I shifted into anything. But now it seems like if I give it some RPMs before even letting go of the clutch while putting it into the next gear, it helps with the "crunchY" resistance feeling.
 
Not a bad deal. Go for it!
 
My thoughts:

Buy another car from Carmax if they offer you a dollar-for-dollar trade choice. I don't know a ton about engine swaps, but my gut feeling would be that there possible many other problems with this car. Perhaps it was in an accident. Or perhaps a kid trashed the hell out of the car before you got it.

My experience with Mitsubishis isn't exactly good; the long-term quality just is not on par with other Japanese manufacturers like Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, or Mazda.

That's a fairly reputable offer from what's ostensibly a used-car dealer. Or just take the money and run.

As for downshifting into 1st: I avoid doing it unless you've got to stop RIGHT NOW when you're going below 20mph. And when the road isn't slick.
 
The main gripe about the engine swap is that it'll drop the value of my car. So I'll be paying for something I don't have, unless I can get them to refinance it and charge me less (doubtfull)
 
10,998 list, and about 12 after tax and tag, plus i put 1000 down.
 
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