Un-Kut

It seems there is a lot of resistance when you move the stick from left to right but easy snicks into the gear. I have never shifted fast in this car because i am still pretty amateur. anybody else almost have this problem while stretching the TSX's muscles?

Jason

No problem man, shift away.

Un-Kut

after what mph does the 1st gear lock out?

fdl

The only shift you might want to be a little careful with is 5-6. A lazy shift might put you into 4th, which isnt that big of a deal anyways.

fdl

The only gear that gets locked out is reverse.

Un-Kut

weird, once i was at a full stop and i couldn't go into 1st gear like it was locked out" AT A FULL STOP"? so i kept jiggling the stick around and it finally let me get into gear, anybody have that problem?

fdl

Ya. As your tranny gets worked in, going into 1st will become easier. But sometimes you will get a "teeth on teeth" situation. I posted about this a while ago.

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6818

Dan Martin

You might also want to change your grip on the knob when you are shifting between gears. This is going to be tough for me to explain in text so bare with me here...

Upshifting
1-2: Palm facing you, pull down and left
2-3: Palm facing passenger, push up and right
3-4: Pam facing the back of the car, pull straight back
4-5: Palm facing passenger, push up and right
5-6: Palm facing passenger, pull down and right

Downshifting
6-5: Palm facing passenger, push up and right
5-4: Palm facing passenger, pull down and left
4-3: Palm facing front of car, push straight forward
3-2: Palm facing you, pull down and left
2-1: Palm facing you, push up and left


If you make every shift like this, even in daily driving, it will become engrained into your muscle memory and you'll be able to shift with confidence under pressure.

The hand position will help "block out" the wrong gears so you don't accidentally pull a money shift!

xizor

Honda's are very very hard to shift into first when you're moving. happens in my accord, tsx and friend's prelude, but there's little if any reason to shift into first when moving anyways. i wouldn't worry about it being hard, its there to protect your gears.

fdl

I find that a straight down (palm facing back of car) 1-2 is smoothest.

chabanais

Not if you know how to drive a stick it ain't.

Dan Martin

The motion is mostly a straight pull back. The palm facing you and slight pressure to the left is to prevent an accidental 1-4 shift.

ianS

Not just Honda, most manual I have driven are like this.

fdl

Ya, i used to apply that slight pressure but I've found i get a much smooth shift if its just straight down with no left pressure. I've never misshifted into 4th.

fast1

Shifting is pretty easy, just build up time before you start shifting fast so you don't do a 4-3 on hard acceleration. Took some time for me to get the 5-6 down because I was gun-shy since I kept thinking 6th was reverse. No longer a problem though. Good thing about the notchy gearbox is that it provides a good feel and thunk when you are in a gear and if it doesn't feel right- for the love of humanity do not let the clutch out!

biker

With practice it will become second nature and you'll only have problems if you stray from a proven pattern.

majin ssj eric

I usually shift my Prelude with just my fingers. Snick, snick.

nader-tsx

Quick question guys, I've had my manual trans tsx for about 2 months now and I still have a bit of trouble with the initial take off after a stop. At first I would try to find the friction point, then give it some gas to take off. This resulted in numerous stalls the first couple weeks. Then I started giving it gas, then lifting off the clutch and sort of riding the clutch so to say. This is a little better I've found 'cause I don't stall, but it can be a shaky start and lots of rattle noise. I think the rattle occurs when I don't give it enough gas so its struggling to get started.

Just wondering what you guys do off the line to get the smoothest start.

Kighter

I've found with my TSX - only 7k miles thus far - that you just give it more throttle than you may be used to. The DBW seems to make a big difference compared to all the other manual trannies I've driven my whole life (I did have an automatic hand-me-down when I was in college - that was a sad couple years).

I learned on a '77 Fiat 124 Spyder and an '83 Jeep Renegade, both very different from each other. The Fiat was forgiving but the clutch pedal was really long. The box itself was, well, horrid. The Jeep had a normal pedal but wicked short engagement way up high, which made for some crazy starts with all the torque. The 4-on-the-floor was of course god-awful. Then I moved to my '91 Accord Coupe which was super easy. When I sold it to get my TSX it had 206k miles and the original clutch.

ClutchPerformer

You are correct. It's called "lugging" your engine. Just give it a decent amount of gas and let the clutch out smoothly and quickly. You have to find a balance b/c releasing the pedal too quickly will be jerky and your crappy Michelins will chirp. Not quickly enough and you'll be "riding the clutch" as you say. This is bad for your clutch in the long term. Being smooth and deliberate is the most important thing. It just takes some practice to find what feels right. It's a lot like learning how to ride a bike.

Dan Martin

Unfortunately, describing how to drive a manual car is kind of like telling someone how to ride a bike. It's very difficult to describe in words but it sounds like you're starting to get the hang of it. Don't worry about wearing out the clutch. If you worry, it will only make you drive worse.

It sounds like you just need to give it a little more gas when you're letting out the clutch. I usually rev to 1500 or 2000 rpm as I let the clutch out. Practice adding throttle at the friction point to smooth things out.

If you still don't have it figured out, I highly recommend taking a half day class at a driving school that specializes in teaching on manuals. There's a great school in the Toronto area called Shifters but there must be a similar school in your area.

Edit: Clutch beat me to the "riding a bike" annalogy.

nader-tsx

Thanks for all the info guys. Yeah I think I was just not giving it enough gas (I tried to keep the tach at around 1000 rpm when letting the clutch go) I noticed it was smoother using more gas, but was afraid it was bad for the clutch. But seems like you need to give it around 2k rpm off the start so I'll jus keep that in mind.

wingwing

altho i am also a newbie and have purchased the car (my first car with MT btw) for less than 2 months, from what i learned and experienced the past weeks of driving a manual, here is my opinion:

i think it's not a "need". when in traffic, i want to start slow... so as i slowly let the clutch out, i keep it at around only 750rpm, and feels no jerky and it was smooth. therefore i believe there is no requirement that you have to give it 2000 always. if you give 2000, you can let go of the clutch faster (smoothly of course), but for 750 like i did, you have to let go of it slower (in order to not stall and smooth). so IMO, you let your clutch too fast, that's why when you give too few gas, it will jerk.

my personal belief in this whole thing during my experience: more gas you give, faster you can let go of your clutch .. less gas, slower motion of clutch releasing... this is for acheiving the smoothness i desire...

please correct me if i am wrong as i would obviously want to learn the right way for the long-term benefits for my car and my future driving experience..

Dan Martin

Sounds like you've got it figured out wingwing. You're right, it's not always 2000 rpm and it definitely depends on how fast you release the clutch. While I was picking up lunch today I paid attention to how I get rolling. I'm only on the clutch for a second or so and it's always a constant motion of releasing the clutch and adding throttle. The clutch pedal is never stopped in one place.

For normal city driving I rarely go over 1500rpm for the launch but if I'm going up hill i might take it to 2000.

nguyenzpry

I know this is not good thing to say but i might give some info to yall. When i first bought the car....hahaha i was racing with an accord going around 80...couldnt see if it was v6 or not. I was at 6th gear and trying to shift down to 4th and got caught in 2th gear and as soon as i let go of the clutch for a quick half sec. god dang...i thought that was it...my brand new TSX but nothing appeared to be wrong. I gotta give it to ACURA...they make their car strong. I know this is dumb that i didnt learn my lesson but i did it again 6th to 2nd for the second time . Still, driving like a champ...nothing wrong with the tranny. That was months ago haha..i dont do it anymore though.

fdl

Did you see how high your rpms went?

Dan Martin

6th to 2nd???

I can understand 5th to second but why were you trying to skip 5th?

wingwing

6th to 4th
i do that all the time on cornerings...

rb1

Just back hand it, then you can't miss. (This is the same technique used in a 5 speed for a 5-4 downshift -- you shift with the palm of your hand facing away from you so that you can put some rightward pressure on the shifter to prevent a misshift into 2nd. A 5 speed has no 6th obviously, so it drops safely right into 4th).

Downshifts into 4th strike me as most likely one's to miss in the TSX. If I was doing this blind in a 6-speed I think I would just briefly release the shifter after pulling it out of 5th or 5th so that it automatically centers between the 3rd gear and 4th gear gates and then pull straight down.

Dan Martin

Do yourself a favor and go to 5th before 4th.

wingwing

Is there another reason other than the possibility of misshifting to 2nd?

i found it very efficient by reducing the step of shifting to the 5th...

Dan Martin

The only time I can ever see a reason to skip 5th is if you were cruising in 6th but suddenly you needed to accelerate in a hurry.

For cornering you want to do all the braking and downshifting before you enter the corner so that you can maximize lateral grip. If you were coming up to a corner in 6th you would brake and downshift down to 5th then to 4th as the revs allow. That way you can hold a constant throttle position through the corner (neither accelerating or braking) and be in the right gear at the apex of the corner for accelerating out of it.

nguyenzpry

I was trying to go to 4th not 2nd ....but you know i was trying to shift quick and didnt pay attention..got caught in 2nd at 80mph the RPM went all the way past the red section past the 9x.

sauceman

Wow, that's some tough shit. Glad your engine's still ok though.

Proo

You can probably calculate it based on any 2 other reference points you know of, since it should be linear... I only know it's about 1500rpm at 20km/h.. I know it's almost 7000 at 90km/h but it's pretty hard to tell by then cuz I never really stay there very long.

loxllxol

Is this bad for your tranny or somethin?

When I'm crusing in 6th on city streets, then come up to a corner, a few yards before the corner, I engine brake in 4th (let car slow down as I setp on the brake), then get into third as I accelerate away from the corner.

If I try to shift into 5th the RPM's will be so low that shifting into that gear before 4th would not do any good.

sauceman

It's just that you're a lot more at risk of missifting it in second, while if you go 6-5-4, it will go in 4th naturally.

nguyenzpry

I do that all the times...but i cornered with 2nd...3rd is too weak. I find the safest way to go to 4th from 6th is to throw it in neutral and without using force pull it back.

nguyenzpry

hahaha i said the same shit...

ClutchPerformer

If you want to shift from 6th to 4th, you don't need to pull the lever to the left. Just push it up into the neutral zone then pull it straight down. Let the centering mechanism do the work for you otherwise you'll force yourself to make an error.