Manual Transmission Technique (3-pedals)

[Danoff]

A lot of people, especially in the US, claim to know how to drive stick, and love their manual transmissions. So often when I ride with those same people I'm reminded that people who think they know how to drive a manual often don't really know. Yes, you can make the car go. But you're destroying your transmission.

I've personally purchased 3 manual transmission vehicles, 53k miles was the most any of them had on them. And all 3 had either destroyed clutches or were on their 2nd clutch. It has gotten to the point for me that I assume any used 3-pedal manual transmission vehicle that I'm purchasing is going to have a wiped out clutch.

Tell me about some of your favorite manual transmission techniques that you think your fellow GTP members might not know about or know how to execute well. I'll kick us off with one of my favorites.

In a manual, there is no need to downshift through all the gears when slowing down. I've seen a bunch of folks do this, downshifting through every gear when approaching a stopsign, almost always getting into first PRIOR to stopping. Drives me bananas. All you're doing is wearing out your clutch, synchros, and annoying your passengers with non-smooth driving. The correct way (and as soon as I say that, someone will tell me a MORE correct way) to approach a stopsign in a manual is to approach it with a protracted double-clutch maneuver. Put the car in neutral and let the clutch out. Use the brake at approach the stopsign, and then clutch-in, shift into first, and start off. By letting the clutch out in neutral you save your first gear synchros. The only time you need to downshift to slow down is if for some reason you're worried about frying your brakes or you think you might need to speed up again (such as in a slowing traffic situation).

 

[kikie]

One very important rule, always let go of the clutch before letting go of the brake. Why? Well, if someone mis-shift you could potentially block the driven wheels. FWD, not that much of a problem. FWD, could cause a dangerous situation.

Years ago, I have driven two big busses with a destroyed clutch. One day, I had to get a bus in first gear without the use of a clutch while standing still, which I did due to rev matching.

Also had the opportunity to drive a bus (Bova) from the sixties without synchros. It was very interesting to drive a bus the very old fashion way (rev matching and double clutching at the same time but I did).

 

[MatskiMonk]

The 53k thing is pretty alarming. Given how Americans often seem to regard driving manuals, I've always had it in mind that learning how to do it over there is not effectively compulsory? It's not in the UK, but if your license is only earned in an Automatic, then you are restricted only to driving autos. IIRC there's only about 2% of the car driving population that have this restriction, so nearly everyone does/can do it out of second nature. Even with second hand vehicles I've never had any issue up to about 180,000 miles. The only clutch that's ever worn out on me, was at 252,000 miles... I can only assume that wasn't on it's original clutch at the time.

When I passed my test, the advice was that block downshifts are the way to do (i.e. skipping gears), however you should never coast in neutral, and you should always be in a suitable gear to keep pace with traffic....

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

One thing that I don't think that is widely known (except in communities where it is a pronounced problem) is that you should avoid holding the clutch in while stopped. Holding the clutch pedal in (that is, clutch disengaged) actually puts a thrust-load right into the crankshaft/thust bearing of the engine. Some cars (such as DSMs with 4G63 engines and 2JZ Supras, IIRC) are susceptible to this load and can develop crank walk or thrust bearing/throw-out bearing failure. It's usually not a big deal on cars with factory-spec clutches, but once you start putting in heavier-duty clutches, the loads go up quite a bit.

Another thing to avoid (and I avoid it like the PLAGUE in my 986 for reasons) is lugging. If you are in too high of a gear for your given speed/load (the engine will let you know) then you are hurting your engine. Just think about the worst-case scenario for lugging: Wide-open throttle and no crankshaft rotation. Obviously that's impossible (the engine would stall), but lugging an engine goes in this direction. With some percentage of the combustion work unable to turn the crankshaft, you are putting a lot of load on the pistons, piston rings, connecting rods, and ultimately big non-axial loads on the crankshaft. When you put a non-axial load on the crankshaft (as in, the load is going not into turning the crank, but forcing it down into the crank journals) you can displace the oil in the main bearings and can have metal-on-metal contact. In the case of my 986, this theoretically will place non-axial loads on items connected to the crankshaft, including the very-fragile ball-type IMS bearing.

For both of the above, I'm in neutral at low speed pretty frequently.

 

[daan]

The correct way (and as soon as I say that, someone will tell me a MORE correct way) to approach a stopsign in a manual is to approach it with a protracted double-clutch maneuver. Put the car in neutral and let the clutch out. Use the brake at approach the stopsign, and then clutch-in, shift into first, and start off.

Wouldn't do that. If I'm coming up to a stop, I coast and brake, in gear, until nearly stopped, and only pop the clutch in just before stopping.

The other thing I'd mention is to never use 1st unless you've actually stopped. If you're still rolling, even if ever so slightly, use 2nd.

 

[Danoff]

The 53k thing is pretty alarming. Given how Americans often seem to regard driving manuals, I've always had it in mind that learning how to do it over there is not effectively compulsory? It's not in the UK, but if your license is only earned in an Automatic, then you are restricted only to driving autos. IIRC there's only about 2% of the car driving population that have this restriction, so nearly everyone does/can do it out of second nature. Even with second hand vehicles I've never had any issue up to about 180,000 miles. The only clutch that's ever worn out on me, was at 252,000 miles... I can only assume that wasn't on it's original clutch at the time.

I've known quite a few folks that drive manuals, and almost none of them have known what rev matching is. A downshift is just put clutch in, shift, let clutch out. Sometimes it's put-clutch-in, shift, slip clutch on the way out. Regardless it's always a big RPM difference at engagement. Imagine that being done in every gear on the way down every time you slow down and you'll quickly see how a manual gets ruined by poor habits. Also, 1st gear clutch slippage is often quite generous.

I'll add another story of poor manual driving.

I remember riding along with a buddy of mine who was stopped at a light on a hill. For some reason he thought it would be fun to bounce his car with the throttle at the light. So he'd let off the gas and the car would start to roll backward, and he'd blip the throttle just enough to get it to roll forward slightly, then he'd let it roll back and blip the throttle again. When I explained to him that this was hard on his transmission he was honestly surprised.

Wouldn't do that. If I'm coming up to a stop, I coast and brake, in gear, until nearly stopped, and only pop the clutch in just before stopping.

Ok, but you end up running at a very low RPM by doing that (especially if you were in a high gear to start with). You may end up nearly stalling the vehicle and are probably spending a fair amount of time in a gear that you can't really use to accelerate (toward the stop sign for some reason). The double-clutch is also very helpful for your first gear synchros. You should let the clutch out at stop in neutral before going into first. You can feel the difference in most cars at the first gear shift.

 

[homeforsummer]

The only real piece of advice I could suggest is to operate everything smoothly, just as you would any other control in a car. You're moving around mechanical components and many of them are spinning and interacting with other spinning components. Moving the shifter faster or with more force than necessary, treating the clutch like an on-off switch etc puts more stress through the drivetrain and makes your passengers secretly hate you because the car is permanently jerking around.

One thing I'd be interested to know, perhaps from someone who works on cars, is how much truth there is to "don't rest your hand on the shifter".

In some cars I can see what the problem might be with this - you risk moving the selector forks and that in turn means introducing rotating components to each other for longer than is necessary, causing wear. However, does this even apply to vehicles using cables to shift the forks, rather than rods? I expect it very much doesn't apply to automatics, and certainly modern ones with no physical connection between the shifter and gearbox.

I'm not in the habit of resting my hand on the shifter in a car (keep your damn hands on the wheel people) but every time a website does one of those stories, I'm thinking "hang on a minute...".

 

[Dennisch]

Ok, but you end up running at a very low RPM

You go down in gears as you slow down, using the engine as a brake. The wear on the clutch is neglectable. That is how you learn to drive here. And clutches here usually last a good 250k kilometer with normal driving.

double-clutch

Synchros are the solution against double clutching. So, it's rather pointless to do so when you have those brass toothies.

One thing I'd be interested to know, perhaps from someone who works on cars, is how much truth there is to "don't rest your hand on the shifter".

Unless your arm and hand are heavy enough to actually push the shifter out of place, it's a myth, they just want you to keep both hands on the wheel.

 

[Danoff]

You go down in gears as you slow down, using the engine as a brake. The wear on the clutch is neglectable. That is how you learn to drive here. And clutches here usually last a good 250k kilometer with normal driving.

Going down through the gears comes from a time when brakes were not good and prone to failure. Brake pads are far cheaper than engines, clutches, and synchros, and are very effective. The only time for engine braking is when you're actually worried about overheating your brakes (such going down a steep mountain decline for a long period).

Synchros are the solution against double clutching. So, it's rather pointless to do so when you have those brass toothies.

You've never had a worn-out synchro? It's pretty irritating when it happens. In my experience, first gear synchros get hammered hard (unnecessarily).

 

[SlipZtrEm]

The only real piece of advice I could suggest is to operate everything smoothly, just as you would any other control in a car. You're moving around mechanical components and many of them are spinning and interacting with other spinning components. Moving the shifter faster or with more force than necessary, treating the clutch like an on-off switch etc puts more stress through the drivetrain and makes your passengers secretly hate you because the car is permanently jerking around.

One thing I'd be interested to know, perhaps from someone who works on cars, is how much truth there is to "don't rest your hand on the shifter".

In some cars I can see what the problem might be with this - you risk moving the selector forks and that in turn means introducing rotating components to each other for longer than is necessary, causing wear. However, does this even apply to vehicles using cables to shift the forks, rather than rods? I expect it very much doesn't apply to automatics, and certainly modern ones with no physical connection between the shifter and gearbox.

I'm not in the habit of resting my hand on the shifter in a car (keep your damn hands on the wheel people) but every time a website does one of those stories, I'm thinking "hang on a minute...".

I was chatting with a Porsche mechanic recently and apparently this was very much the case, but only in a very specific application. Porsche's Sportomatic is one such situation, as a weird sort of proto-semi-automatic gearbox. I think of it as essentially moving the clutch from the floor to the shifter itself, and requiring very little effort to engage it. He told me even resting your hand on the lever was enough to active the micro-switch.

 

[Dennisch]

Going down through the gears comes from a time when brakes were not good and prone to failure. Brake pads are far cheaper than engines, clutches, and synchros, and are very effective. The only time for engine braking is when you're actually worried about overheating your brakes (such going down a steep mountain decline for a long period).

You combine the 2, minimising the wear on both. Breaking on pads alone will never get you your license here. And we have no hills.

You've never had a worn-out synchro? It's pretty irritating when it happens. In my experience, first gear synchros get hammered hard (unnecessarily).

Everybody and their granny gets spoonfed with manual driving here. Worn out synchros are found on car with 500k kilometers, badly designed gearboxes and the whore car of the town that gets to be the first car of 5 youngsters.

My Golf MK2 had 345k on the clock, almost 200k were mine, on the first clutch, and wasn't showing signs of gearbox failure. The only cars I can remember for having failing synchros are the late 90's and early 00's VW diesel gearboxes, but those were poorly designed.

 

[homeforsummer]

I was chatting with a Porsche mechanic recently and apparently this was very much the case, but only in a very specific application. Porsche's Sportomatic is one such situation, as a weird sort of proto-semi-automatic gearbox. I think of it as essentially moving the clutch from the floor to the shifter itself, and requiring very little effort to engage it. He told me even resting your hand on the lever was enough to active the micro-switch.

Yeah, I know a few of those semi-manuals had a feature like that - one of the first I think was introduced by VW with the Beetle in the 1960s, where the clutch would disengage as soon as there was any pressure on the lever whatsoever.

@Danoff @Dennisch I imagine the biggest wear on synchros, if it occurs much these days, is from the aforementioned rushing of shifts. Synchros are getting pretty good now but they still need at least some time to work. The shifting-into-first thing is interesting, because I'd say most stuff up until maybe the mid 'aughts would object to being shifted into first while a car was still rolling. I'd certainly never try it in my Mazda or Peugeot. But I'd say most modern manuals will allow it with little more effort than they would any other gear (though disengaging drive completely before shifting into first is smoother still).

 

[Dennisch]

I imagine the biggest wear on synchros, if it occurs much these days, is from the aforementioned rushing of shifts. Synchros are getting pretty good now but they still need at least some time to work.

Absolutely, that's why I mentioned normal driving etc. Being the hoonigan will surely* ruin the insides of your vehicle a lot faster.

The shifting-into-first thing is interesting, because I'd say most stuff up until maybe the mid 'aughts would object to being shifted into first while a car was still rolling. I'd certainly never try it in my Mazda or Peugeot. B

That is something that puts the most strain on your drivetrain, apart from doing it in reverse.

 

[Greycap]

I imagine the biggest wear on synchros, if it occurs much these days, is from the aforementioned rushing of shifts. Synchros are getting pretty good now but they still need at least some time to work.

Pretty much the situation with my Volvo equipped with the M90 transmission found in the last years of RWD models. Although officially a Volvo product, in reality it's a big fat (nearly 50 kg dry) Getrag creation and the 3rd gear synchro is notoriously underpowered for its job trying to slow down the rotating masses. It just doesn't tolerate brute force - it can be shifted quickly but the timing has to be spot on. Having said that, I can shift from 2nd to 3rd in less than half a second from depressing the clutch to having power on again so what people are actually doing to get crunching sounds out of it, I really don't know.

 

[Tornado]

I'm glad I have a humongous truck transmission bolted to an engine that pulls just off idle in 6th so I don't have to worry about shifting. This all sounds too hard.

 

[Danoff]

You combine the 2, minimising the wear on both. Breaking on pads alone will never get you your license here. And we have no hills.



Everybody and their granny gets spoonfed with manual driving here. Worn out synchros are found on car with 500k kilometers, badly designed gearboxes and the whore car of the town that gets to be the first car of 5 youngsters.

My Golf MK2 had 345k on the clock, almost 200k were mine, on the first clutch, and wasn't showing signs of gearbox failure. The only cars I can remember for having failing synchros are the late 90's and early 00's VW diesel gearboxes, but those were poorly designed.

Yeah, I know a few of those semi-manuals had a feature like that - one of the first I think was introduced by VW with the Beetle in the 1960s, where the clutch would disengage as soon as there was any pressure on the lever whatsoever.

@Danoff @Dennisch I imagine the biggest wear on synchros, if it occurs much these days, is from the aforementioned rushing of shifts. Synchros are getting pretty good now but they still need at least some time to work. The shifting-into-first thing is interesting, because I'd say most stuff up until maybe the mid 'aughts would object to being shifted into first while a car was still rolling. I'd certainly never try it in my Mazda or Peugeot. But I'd say most modern manuals will allow it with little more effort than they would any other gear (though disengaging drive completely before shifting into first is smoother still).

Too much speed or force is something I was going to mention as well. For myself I would say that I still need to work on engaging the clutch a little slower under heel-toe. I have recently recognized a tendency of mine to rush that release.

If you shift into every gear on the way down every time, you're not going to wear on your first gear synchros very much. You'll have slowed your transmission enough by grabbing each gear to prevent the first gear synchro from having to do very much. This is also true of @daan's technique of keeping in gear until the moment before a complete stop. One way to put a lot of wear on the first gear synchro is to do what I have seen quite a lot.

Cruising toward a stop sign at 50 mph in 4th.
Clutch in, brake on, shift to neutral
Come to a stop with the clutch still in, push into first gear.

Now you're asking the first gear synchro to do a lot of work. The transmission having been disconnected from the wheels and engine at 50mph is still spinning fast (someone tell me the name of the actual shaft) when you jam it into first. Catching every gear on the way down alleviates this problem, but you substitute clutch wear, synchro wear at each gear, and actuation wear associated with catching each one.

It actually occurs to me that another way to avoid this would be to leave the car in 4th (let's say) with the clutch in before the engine rpms get below say 1000 as you approach the stop. That should, if I'm keeping my manual transmission internals in my head correctly, force the transmission rotation to a stop when the wheels have stopped. Then at the stop sign you can (clutch still in) shift from 4th to 1st and be on your way. In theory, that should be even less wear than double-clutching. I'm gonna need confirmation on this by someone who knows better than me.

Props to anyone who actually read all of that and understood it and didn't give up on my rambling.

 

[homeforsummer]

Nope, that all made sense.

What I can't understand is why all modern manual cars don't have the feature that would alleviate many of these problems: auto rev-matching. The Hyundai I've been driving for the last seven months had it and it just makes such a difference to normal everyday driving, particularly in cars which perhaps don't have the best pedal spacement (spacement? What the hell is that word? I meant spacing/placement...) or brake pedal feel for proper rev-matching or heel and toe.

But so few manufacturers do it. Porsche does, MINI does, Nissan kicked the whole thing off I think with the 370Z, and my Hyundai had it, but nothing else springs to mind, and even the manufacturers I've just mentioned don't offer it universally. But it'd be useful in everything, and now that everything has electronically-actuated throttles it must be just a few extra lines of software to implement.

 

[Dennisch]

As long as you don't use your 1st gear to slow the car down, you're in good shape. Slow down rowing down in the gears, until second gear, and just before you under rev the engine, something you feel and learn pretty quick, you press the clutch and bring the car to a full stop. And then you go to first. Don't worry about any extra wear, it really isn't there with modern materials.

 

[Rage Racer]

Engine braking (slowing down on a gear) may wear the transmission quicker, but it can be useful sometimes. For example, when driving on a slippery surface. Like ice.

 

[Danoff]

Do you guys heel-toe on the street?

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Do you guys heel-toe on the street?

Yes. For fun mostly.

However, driving in San Francisco I find it almost necessary. The stop signs along Divisadero are brutal unless you can master the heel-toe hill-hold technique. Of course, I often see people turning their clutch into plasma holding their car on a hill without the brake. Danoff, have you been buying your manual cars from sellers in San Francisco?

 

[Danoff]

Yes. For fun mostly.

However, driving in San Francisco I find it almost necessary. The stop signs along Divisadero are brutal unless you can master the heel-toe hill-hold technique. Of course, I often see people turning their clutch into plasma holding their car on a hill without the brake. Danoff, have you been buying your manual cars from sellers in San Francisco?

I suspect that's true.

For hill starts you can just use the e-brake. I also do heel-toe on the street, mostly to practice but also because I hate using up clutch material. This is why I dislike manuals overall, too much obsession (on my part) with worn components, and too much money spent repairing other peoples' bad techniques.

Edit:

As an aside, my first car was a manual beetle, and it required heel-toe on the street in order to keep from stalling. I didn't know what I was doing had a name, just knew I'd have to roll-start it in an intersection if I didn't keep some gas on during the turn.

 

[homeforsummer]

Do you guys heel-toe on the street?

Yep. Learned to rev-match probably three or four years after first learning to drive, but didn't learn to heel-toe until maybe five years ago. It's taken me longer still to get the hang of doing it in newer cars with generally over-servoed brake pedals that don't act as a stable fulcrum for tweaking the throttle pedal. Some cars are still pretty terrible for that, others have poor spacing and others still ruin things by finishing the pedals in something a bit too smooth and shiny for your foot not to slip slightly and risk falling off the brake.

But I do it where I can. Important in performance driving, and useful in general for mechanical sympathy.

And yeah, e-brake for hill starts. Do you guys in the US even get taught that? It's such a basic part of learning to drive over here, but I see it mentioned quite a bit on GTP almost like it's witchcraft.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

(someone tell me the name of the actual shaft)

The layshaft, I believe. And yeah, what you said makes perfect sense. In fact, coasting with the clutch in is generally not advisable from what I've heard since it puts excess wear on the throw-out bearing, so your technique is definitely preferable.

Myself, I do tend to heel-toe on the street with regularity, though it depends on the pedal placement of the cars I'm in. My Fiesta is pretty good for it but the Yaris was much less so. I've found that some cars are also not very good for heel-toeing until you're braking quite hard which negates its usefulness as a driving technique in ordinary driving.

@homeforsummer Worse than not getting taught it, in the US you're taught that it's wrong. My younger brother recently took his driving test in Pennsylvania on our manual Honda Fit, and when he executed a hill start with the handbrake the tester told him that he shouldn't use the handbrake for hill starts. It particularly surprised me since Pittsburgh is one of the hilliest cities in the world and there are quite a few streets where the pavement is actually made up of steps since it's too steep to walk up effectively. I honestly don't think I could easily and safely do a hill start without the handbrake in a lot of the places I routinely drive.

 

[Danoff]

And yeah, e-brake for hill starts. Do you guys in the US even get taught that? It's such a basic part of learning to drive over here, but I see it mentioned quite a bit on GTP almost like it's witchcraft.

I have no idea. There was a manual that we could learn on back when I was 15 years old taking driver's ed, but at that time I was so desperate for a driver's license and to learn how to drive that I wouldn't do anything to make it more complex or make it less likely that I would pass. So nobody ever taught me how to drive stick. Closest person to teaching me would be my dad, and he still doesn't know what rev matching is (despite having driven a lot of manuals himself).

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I can do the handbrake technique...sort of, but I feel the heel-toe technique is a little easier/more intuitive for me. For clarification: I was never taught the hand brake technique. Due to the....unique...approach to general lawcraft in Texas, I managed to get a license without ever proving to anyone I could even drive, yeah, no behind the wheel test at all. I sure as hell passed that written test though!

An enormous amount of the US population lives in pretty flat areas (like the entire state of Illinois, Florida and most of the populated areas of Texas & Michigan, totaling nearly 70 million people combined, I'd estimate about half the country lives in the flatlands, call it 150 million), not to mention the propensity of Americans to get automatic (apparently, only 3% of new car sales are manual) cars means that manual hill starts are almost not a thing here. So based on my extremely unscientific speculation, I'd say that maybe 1 out of 100 Americans is ever driving a manual on a hill.

 

[titleguy1]

This thread is pretty interesting, especially for me as a beginner's manual driver. I'd really love to hear some tips since I'm still learning how to at least be affluent with the sport! When I'm on hills I haven't really tried the handbrake trick, but I tend to just try to have the clutch out and gas in motion a bit quicker with more focus on the gas. Is this a poor technique or is there anything else I could be doing?

 

[Joey D]

And yeah, e-brake for hill starts. Do you guys in the US even get taught that?

Nope. Although really the only way to learn a manual in the US is to know someone with one and who's OK with you beating up their clutch. I learned in my buddy's Ford Ranger and the e-brake in that was a foot pedal that you had to manually release, so you probably couldn't use it for hill starts anyways.

When I'd drive the Neon racecar around, I'd just bring up the revs at a light and catch it before it rolled backward. The e-brake on it was trash though from doing slides on the Rally X course though.

 

[kikie]

I haven't watched any of these youtube clips.









This is a summary of his clips

 

[homeforsummer]

I'd forgotten about the automatic majority thing. I may be mistaken, but in the UK the idea is if you do a hill start on your test (not just in a parking manoeuvre, but if you're on a hill in traffic or whatever) and you roll back at all then depending on the circumstances you can fail your test. The idea being that rolling back potentially means hitting a pedestrian crossing behind the car, or rolling into another car etc. It's up to the examiner's discretion though.

I can understand the technique being slightly less valuable even in manuals in the land of larger engines and sturdier clutches (and foot-operated parking brakes, which are a horrible idea), as you've potentially got enough torque to hold the car slightly more on the clutch as you're jumping from pedal to pedal (or I guess using a version of heel-toe), but I'd still say it's a valuable skill and probably helps reduce wear and tear.

For @titleguy1 there's certainly no great trick to it. If you're already pulling away on a hill then you're already probably using the right amount of gas for the extra gradient, so you don't need to think about your right foot at all. Meanwhile think of the operation of the e-brake and your left foot as one fluid movement, proportionally releasing the e-brake at the same time as proportionally feeding in the clutch - so pulling away is perfectly timed with the e-brake no longer holding you on the hill. You won't roll back a single inch and it avoids having to do the pedal dance as you don't need the normal brake pedal at all.