how bad is lugging an engine?
and how do you know when it lugs? is it when it just vibrates, or does it make any other symptoms?

i just learned how to drive manual and whenever sometimes i start from stop in 1st, i dont put enough gas so it vibrates.
is this lugging? how bad is this?


also, the other day i was going 10mph and i thought i was in 2nd, but was actually in 3rd, and i accelerated. it vibrated, but didnt make any sounds. im just worried that i harmed the engine.
was this bad lugging?

thanks!

It is bad but not bad enough to kill your car in few days. also, try not to skip gears!

It's difficult to "lug" the engine itself with the car in 1st gear, so when starting you were probably experiencing something like what I call "clutch shatter", where in the engine flywheel and clutch plate don't smoothly mate with each other as you launch.

The same thing happens to me if I lift the clutch too fast on a launch, or if let the RPM drop much below 1500 RPM during the launch. So, I've been trying to keep it between 1500 and 2000 RPM on starts.

1st gear is ok, because it is clutch chatter. But 10mph in 3rd is a no-no if it vibrates.

have i done alot of damage b/c of this?
i thought i was in 2nd, but i was in 3rd.
i accelerated lightly, and the car moved, but it vibrated... this is engine lugging correct?
how bad is this?

sorry for the double post, but i also wanted to ask, is 1.3k rpm in 2nd gear lugging as well? b/c it is going above 5mph. so sometimes when i go 10mph, i downshift to 2nd at 1.3k rpm. should i be downshifting to first?

It's probably just bad for the clutch.

A rule of thumb I used when teach my girlfriend stick: change gears about every 10mph, ie 6th gear at speeds above 60 and so forth. I try to keep my engine RPMs above 2k.

Yes, if it vibrates badly and it is not clutch chatter, it's lugging. All I can say is don't do it again. Lugging the engine can damage the piston skirts.

Is the engine vibrating badly when you drive in 2nd at 1300rpm?
You can get away with it by using very light throttle so the engine accelerates without lugging.

What not to do with a manual transmission car.

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/youngd...0/article.html

Not to sound to blunt or rude here but you should really find someone who really knows how to drive a manual equiped car and have them teach you how to drive. Please do not infere that I am saying that those who have posted before do not know how to drive. I'm only trying to stick up (no pun intended) for the poor car. When you do what you have described, what you're hearing is not clutch chatter, it's you car's cry for help.

Yes you are hurting your engine and tranny. To what extent only time will tell. It is obvious that you do not know how to drive a manual tranny and it is equally obvious that this site is populated by very polite people who don't what to hurt your feelings. We all have to learn something new sometime and it sounds that your time has come. Seek professional help before the TSX community has to conduct an intervention and save the life of your car.

Trust me here... when you do learn how to drive a manual, a whole new world of twisty roads will open up before you. Good luck.

what exactly is clutch chatter?

When you get a rocking motion when accelerating after releasing the clutch too quickly or not smoothly.

Great article!

when I was teaching my GF to drive my RSX-S, one thing I showed her was the stick naturally (on that car) falls between 3 and 4, and you have to exert force to move it to 1 & 2 or 5 & 6. So to make sure you get 1st and not 3rd, pull it towards you; there's no other gear to the left so you can pull it as hard as you want* When you shift from 2nd to 3rd, just push the stick forward without any lateral force; the springs help move it to 3rd. Hondas lock out the reverse gate if the car is moving, so sliding from 5 to 6 means you can push to right the whole way down, too.

Another problem with the RSXes was people were shifting from 6th to 3rd or 5th to 4th (not 6th) - and destroying their engines - because the gates are close to each other.
* one thing I didn't like about the BMW's was the reverse gate was where 1st could be - I prefer being able to grab 1st through brute stupidity.

^ This is corect. The shifter naturally goes into the next highest gear. Doing otherwise, you would have to exert force to put it into a gear not directly above or below it

it takes about 3-4 weeks of driving the car every day to get the knack of a MT, and another 4-6 months before you hit that point where you can just ignore it. trickiest part is getting it moving without stalling sitting at a light uphill with a large truck grill in your rear window.

ok so im sure this is a stupid question to most but ive heard yes and no, is it bad for the car to skip gears?

In my opinion there is really no need to and it's a bad habit to get into unless you are rather astute at engine braking. If done on the up shift you must be mindful of not (as this thread is talking about) "lugging" the engine/tranny. All these components are moving and/or turning at a certain rpm & load. If you want to get a long life out of these components, avoid shocking them or sudden changes in load swings. That's way it's important to understand your engine's torque curve. Upon down shifting, yes you could skip a gear when slowing down rather quickly normally having the clutch engaged and using the brake. The learning curve in this and engine braking could be rather loud as in you missing shifts or grinding gears.

Don't make it a habit of skipping gears. It accelerates synchro wear because of the bigger RPM difference between gears. For example, the bigger difference in the RPM of the input shaft and the gear for shifting from 1st to 3rd will wear your synchros much quicker than the smaller difference when going from 1st to 2nd.

I suggest you avoid engine braking/downshifting to slow down, esp. at a light, say, until you have more experience with rev matching and knowing about how fast the various parts are going at different speeds. It just takes time.

avoid downshifting to 1st except when you are essentially crawling, unless you are prepared to carry buckets for your passengers.

all this makes me wish i knew how to drive stick...but i don't, and i have an auto.

1300rpm at light throttle shouldn't be lugging. If you want to go heavy on the throttle you might want to down shift before you do.

Just to clarify, when you are traveling at 10mph are you downshifting from 3rd (at 1300rpm) to 2nd (and landing at some higher rpm)?

Also, can you really even lug the engine with "heavy" throttle with it being "drive-by-wire"? I'd think the air/fuel map in the ECU would have some RPM-related maximum that it would supply, so that even flooring it a low RPM wouldn't really matter all that much.

^^ makes sense to me.