cober319

So I feel stupid asking this. I've had my TSX for over a month and I still cannot figure out how to jump off the line with any type of speed or grace...I always end up bucking all over the place. Should I be trying to let off the clutch while pressing on the accelorator or should I already have good RPMs going before starting to let off the clutch? I would like to be able to shift like a champ but I'm just getting really frustrated. I appreciate any tips!!

DuckDodgers

Quick blip to 2000 rpm or so and a easy reduction of pressure on the clutch = smooth takeoff. Yes, you are "slipping" the clutch by not dumping it, but that's the best way.

moda_way

Assuming all is stock....

3500-4000 RPM and slide that clutch pedal in like you were holding a baby until it grabs and dump it. Once dumped, don't look back controlling wheel spin with the throttle (fk the VSA, turn it off).

As for shifting... practice my friend and there are ways to improve it. Comptech has a short shifter kit and get yourself a heavy shift knob. It will burn you in the summer and freeze you in the winter, but it will shift like no other.

FYI, do not attempt frequently if you intend to have a car after a few thousand miles. If you want to have fun, practice quick shifts on on-ramps. Save the quick take offs after you've mastered your gear changes.

I'm running a lightweight flywheel and 6 puck clutch. Hell on the left leg in day-to-day traffic, but a blast on on-ramps.

ThirdLane

Slip the clutch and once you feel the clutch grabbing, fully disengage and give gas

psteng19

Just rev to about 4k and dump the clutch. Once the tires hookup, you'll definitely jump off the line.
Oh, forgot to mention that's after the 2 second burnout you'll unintentionally perform while doing that.
And have some $ for new tires if you do this often.

cober319

Does "dumping the clutch" at like 4k strain the tranny at all? I would think that too many quick starts like that might F something up...

psteng19

Yes, don't do that too often.
It's only when you want the fastest possible launch.

If you just want to accelerate quickly and smoothly, the concept is to apply throttle at the same rate you let up the clutch. You don't have to rev it up any more than normal; it can be done from idle. You can... It'll be quicker at the cost of more wear on the clutch.

Personally, I don't rev up any at all. As I let out the clutch (engine at idle rpm), as soon as I feel engagement, I'll apply throttle and then let the clutch out quicker and apply more throttle at an equal rate.
It'll come with practice.

davidspalding

I wouldn't do "jack rabbit starts" frequently, unless you own your own gas station.

That said, I found in several sports cars that revving the engine a bit, then dropping the clutch as the RPMs decreased, then keeping steady, assertive acceleration through the low gear(s) was the way to get speed and maintain control. If things are chirping or buckling, you'll using too much of something. Just my .

rb1

Go learn the clutch engagement point.

In an empty parking lot, you should be able to get the car going in 1st gear without using any gas. Yes, you have to lift your foot slowly until you feel it start to "catch", and then very slowly until the car is rolling steadily.

Once you can do this smoothly -- I'd think you could get this in 4-5 tries at most -- you'll will have programmed into your brain exactly where the clutch engages -- this will make it easier for you to launch when really driving.

I typically launch at 1500 to 2000 RPM. In my last car, I launched at more like 1200 RPM, but somehow I wore some strange patterns in the clutch over years of doing this (resulting in very rough engagement), so I use a few more RPM now..

LukeaTron

^^^ You've probably glazed the flywheel up a bit from all the heat it makes slipping the clutch like that.

If you're going to go practice what rb1 suggests, let the clutch cool down for a few minutes between "runs".

Junkyard

Get stuck in some stop n' go traffic a few times and you will have plenty of time to find the clutch engagement point! It's a good way to learn, and have fun while there is nothing better to do (the AT drivers behind you might wish you kept up better with traffic though...)

I found myself in the same position with my new '08 6MT back in Oct 07. What I have learned is to rev to 2K RPM and smoothly let the clutch out. What I am still working on is the smooth application of power as the clutch is let out - that is the key to preventing "bucking" in 1st gear, and the key to fun acceleration in 2nd and 3rd.

DLTSX6MT

If you're having trouble now, just wait until you have to do this when stopped at a red light on a steep incline with a car behind you! Advice is to get proficient now, before that happens.

LukeaTron

Or come to Pittsburgh for a trial by fire. The hill right behind my house which is only wide enough for one car is a 21% grade. It feels like driving up a cliff. I frequently have to stop and wait for cars coming the other way.

nbtx

Don't sit at the light holding the car with the clutch and engine revs - clutches get toasted and replacement is pretty costly.

Here's where you set the parking brake. When the light turns green bring the revs up slightly, begin engaging the clutch, and when the pull from the engine equals the pull from the parking brake, start releasing the parking brake and continue engaging the clutch while bringing engine revs up. This takes practice and you'll hit doofus status once in a while when you stall the engine. So learn a quick recovery method.

You can't do this with a standard shift vehicle with a foot parking brake because you don't have enough feet (yet). So foot parking brake cars do not make the cut for me - I just sneer at the salesman and walk away.

For us old-timers; remember the hill-holder in 3-spd Studebakers that did all this automatically? The tranny had an anti-rollback feature so all you had to do was make a normal forward start with a little more gas feed.

davidspalding

Gas, clutch, parking brake. Learning to drive in San Francisco put a few gray hairs on my head prematurely.

Newplay1

One smooth motion, and let the cluth out and give a little gas at the sametime slide shifter into 1st gear..

Just go to big empty parking lot and practice from dead stop to crawling 1st gear.

DLTSX6MT

If you can either move your right foot lightning fast from brake to gas, or better yet learn to heel-toe, you can do away with that parking brake nonsense without rolling back so much as a two or three inches, even on the steepest of starts.

LukeaTron

Word. These are the situations where I really wish the TSX came with an LSD. Stupid open differential.

DuckDodgers

That's the stupidist suggestion yet. The parking brake is made for these situations...trying to finesse the clutch and throttle in these circumstances is asking for trouble. Yes, it can be done...yes, you can easily screw the pooch and roll back into someone...yes, it's rougher on the clutch springs and mechanism.

To suggest that to a guy worried about basic clutch work is dumb.

wackura

Dumping the clutch at 4000 RPMs seems like it would violently jerk you forward and be all around uncomfortable. It also seems like the sudden load would stress the car parts more than you'd ever want to, even on a special occasion. Am I mistaken?

LukeaTron

One of two things will happen. One tire will spin like crazy or the car will lurch and bounce like an unbroken horse. Feathering the clutch is a different story but just dumping it from 4k isn't going to result in anything useful or even pleasant for that matter. And yes, it will beat the piss out of your car.

DLTSX6MT

OK, I'd agree it's too early for the OP to worry about finessing the clutch and (foot)brake and throttle (not that he's the only person reading this thread), but is it really that much worse than finessing the clutch and (hand)brake and throttle?

Plus, (IMHO) wouldn't using the pedals to make a car go and stop be the "proper" way to drive a car? If that's what the parking brake "was made for" why is a handbrake ever found on AT cars, even those that don't have MT available? Why not use the parking brake to slow the car to a stop - it can work for that, too.

And it certainly isn't dumber than teaching someone to rev the engine up to 4k and sloooowwwwly letting out the clutch until the car is fully in gear, even 1500 to 2000 rpm like many here suggest is completely unnecessary.

cober319

Well its nice to know I'm not the only one who has had the same problem. hahaha. Starting off smooth in 1st is getting easier: getting started in first with any kind of giddyup is still puzzling me. I experiment now and again but I still haven't found the magic touch

LukeaTron

You just need to practice. There's no way to get around it. Your brain will eventually rewire itself to where your conscious mind isn't involved beyond that part where you say "ok legs, shift gears now". You won't have to think about what you're doing with your feet at all, it just happens.

It might take doing it 10,000 times before you get there, but you will.

davidspalding

Well, I was referring to steep hills (with a MT) in which the friction point of the clutch is insufficient to hold the car. "Lightning fast" footwork, even heel-toe (which I do practice) isn't enough on some of the rocky perches on Nob Hill and Russian Hill in San Francisco.

But those are the only places where I'd use the parking brake to hold position before getting traction. Yes, even with the 1982 Accord LX that I drove back then. I've even driven ATs on those hills that didn't hold without a little extra holding.

litesout

Hey! My first car was an 82 Accord LX 5 speed! I had the tiny little hatchback, the front seats touched the back seats if you slid them all the way back. It was great! It was my cousin's. She bought it new and sold it to me when I turned 16. Know how I learned how to drive a stick? I asked my Mom to drive me into town (we lived about 20 minutes from the edge of town, closest gas station, grocery store, etc.) Her response was, you've got a car, and you've got a license, drive yourself. I told her that I didn't know how to drive the stick shift. She said I'd better learn, otherwise I'd be spending my summer at the house. So, I stalled a few times, I bucked a lot, I even ground it a few times. But after a while I got the hang of it. And you will too.

Know how I taught my sister to drive a stick? I took her around the lake in my parent's Isuzu Trooper 5 speed. I made sure to take her around in such a way that we'd come up the hill at the one end of it. It's about a 25 degree slope for about 100 yards. One of the tallest hills I've ever seen in Florida. The trooper has that stupid pull and turn hand brake, so it's useless for hills. She was afriad of rolling back at the stop sign, so I just told her to give it more gas than she would from a flat stop. I think we still rolled back a good 15 feet through the tire smoke before they gripped and we started moving forward. It was a very positive learning experience after all the screaming and hitting stopped.

The moral of the stories is that you'll eventually figure out what works best for you. The handbrake trick worked well for me, but it's not for everybody. Learning to finesse the clutch without using the gas works for some, but not all. Just try to have fun with it, and don't get too frustrated. It'll come with time. I wish you luck, and I gotta say, I'm a bit jealous. I really wanted a 6MT, but I couldn't pass up the deal I got on the 5AT. There's always my next car.....

davidspalding

That's exactly what I had. The '82 Accord LX 5-speed. With the "moquette" velvet upholstery. Push-button a/c on the fan knob. Digital clock. And those silly colored plastic "maintenance minders" that you reset with the ignition key. Not a bad transmission (the clutch on the 1981 Civic wagon was near impossible to get the hang of after an MGB's snick-snick tranny). I went looking for pics recently out of nostalgia now that I'm driving a "Honda" again. 24 years later, the "Accord" is still a fine little car.

That hatchback with the 5 speed, and the same engine from the Prelude IIRC (which in the lighter Prelude made it scoot faaaast!), was quite a nice ride. I loved the roomy driving compartment. I would've bought the RSX if it'd had the same comfort level.

Yes, cars with under-dash parking (hand) brakes are pretty useless for steep hills. I learned to do the heel-toe + hand brake thing first from watching my Dad strain forward to reach the Datsun 510 station wagon's release.

litesout

That's awesome! I had the chocolate brown exterior, with the tan interior. The buttons on the clock eventually stopped working, but it took a herculean effort to get that little plastic door open anyway, so it didn't matter. It eventually fell back into the dash when I was trying to get the little door open to reset the time. Found an analog clock out of an older one in a junkyard that fit right in. Same plug and everything! I had a magnetic mount CB antenna mounted to the hatch right next to the rear wiper. It made it look like a little toy RC car! I gotta find some pictures of it when I get home. The paint was shot, I had 2 accidents in it, but it was still my favorite car ever! Half of the exhaust was made of JB Weld patches (my cousin lived in the suburbs of Baltimore, so I guess the salt got it.) Absolutely no body rust, though. I gave it to my Dad when his car died and he and Mom were going through a particularly nasty divorce. It had 176,000 miles on it, and still ran like a dream. I though I had upgraded to a 1 year old Dodge Neon. Biggest automotive mistake of my life.

And yes, it did have the same motor as the Prelude. My aunt had one, an 82 as well. It had some serious get up and go, especially for an 85 bhp motor. But it weighted absolutely nothing. Downright scary on the highway, the slightest gust of wind and you were in the next lane.

My good buddy had an 81 Civic CVCC with the 1.5 and 5 speed. The clutch was totally different from my Accord. Night and day. The Accord was leaps and bounds ahead. And while I could break triple digits in the Accord, the Civic strained to make 65 with the A/C on. And the passenger compartment was, well, Spartan would be putting it nicely. But, we wound up taking it more times than not because it was a 4 door, and his parents gave him gas money. I was on my own, and with gas approaching a dollar a gallon, I had to make every gallon count

Ahhh, those were the good old days. It feels good to be in an "Accord" again. I can feel the spirit of "The Roach" (that's what we called my car. The lack of clear coat on the hood and roof with the chocolate brown paint made it look like a cockroach in color) in my TSX. If it treats me half as well as the Accord did, I'll be happy.

Edit: I have to agree with you about the RSX interior. It's much more Civic than Accord. And not even new Civic, more like 90's Civic.

DuckDodgers

Best reference to Honda's upholstery decisions was on a recent Odyssey board posting. Everyone likes to mention their EX-L (as in Leather), so he mentioned his EX-M (as in Mouse fur). You gotta love the image...