seamg

I find dowshifting into second gear to be challenging. It can be tough to rev-match accurately....probably because of the gear ratio??? Anyone have any thoughts?

PoochaKannInc

I find this is the case with me also. I often find that I do not rev it enough to get it into 2nd smoothly.

But I look at it just as I look at the 1-2 upshift, it requires more concentration than the other gears. I can downshift smoothly (almost imperceptibly) from 4th to 3rd, or from 5th to 3rd, but downshifting to second can be hit or miss.

I guess I have no real advice in my post, except that I need more practice with it.

caball88

from what gear are you downshifting from? i go from 3-2 pretty smoothly, you get use to the car's rpm and mph when you drive it enough. i take a sneak peak and give the car a quick tap on the gas to a little past where it is suppose to be. i usually rev it a little higher than where it needs to be at but the time it takes for me to transition into the 2nd gear the rpms drop a little and its just about the right rpm give or take 100-200 rpms.

seamg

Yeah, I'm practicing too.

Vanwall

I'm getting my TL next week and I know I will have to practice my downshifting.

I have it down pat on my 5.0 Mustang. I can drop it in 1st and match rev's with no problem.

How was it getting used to the 6 speed gate?

SouthernBoy

Because the engine's so quiet, you loose a point of reference for your shift timing. I found I had to use my tach a lot (still do) in order to correctly rev-match my downshifts.

mancur

I've noticed the same thing downshifting into 2nd. Even when I thought I had the revs right, the car seemed to jump a bit.

Other than that...

Vanwall, the gate and the throws are a dream: makes the "short" throw Hurst shifter on a 6-spd Z28 feel like an 18-wheel diesel by comparison.

Stewie

I know what you're saying.
I've pretty much given up downshifting into second. I'll go down to third and from there I normally just use the brakes to bring the car to a halt.

PoochaKannInc

Exactly. I posted in another thread that I hit fuel cutoff twice in 1st a couple of days ago. I was waiting for a particular sound (of nearing redline), but I didn't hear it...next thing I know I'm in the red. Its definitely my own fault for not watching the tach, but it didnt make me feel any better about it.

Vanwall:
The shifter is very, very precise. There's not much of a learning curve, and it is very hard to misjudge what gear you are going to (its still possible...but hey anything is possible). With the reverse-lockout feature also, it should be fine. These comments are coming from a beginner, so take it as that.

SouthernBoy

I found the 6-speed to be a little problematic at first. There were a few times when I was upshifting to 6th and hit 4th by accident. Or downshiftng into 5th and suddenly realized I was in 3rd. Just a conditioning thing and I'm fine now.

Acura should have engineered in a low-pitched exhaust note, audible at all engine speeds as an aid to shifting and also to add to the sports flavor of the car. This would have been a big help.

lstepnio

The quiet engine on the TL throws me off comming from a STi with a full turboback exhaust. I keep having the most trouble getting going in 1st from a stand still as giving the car as much revs as is required while rolling off clutch doesn't seem natural to me. The clutch being light is taking some adjustment as well.

seamg

True. I find I shift based on feeling the engine and glancing at the tach rather than hearing.

Mister V

Downshifting may be fun, but it is not really good for the engine and gears.

Your engine and gear may last longer if you use brake to slow down your vehicle. The only 'good time' to downshifting is when you want an extra boost after a big curve that forced you to slow down... but in a straight line, downshifting sounds cool but it is less performant than using brake pedal.

Whatever, I must admit that the TL is not easy to shift in comparaison of my previous cars. But I getting better and better each day.

SitAndMeditate

I have to say the 6MT is shifting blisss.......droool...
It's smooth, the shifts click into place, the throw is nice and short.

I 'd agree that there's few places where it's purposeful to do a rev-matched downshift 3-2 especially one while decelerating. Use the brakes. Most of the time it's brake toward a red light, pop it in 2nd when it turns green gas and go. I only like to doing a 6-4 downshift when exiting the freeway onto one of those curly exit ramps. That way I don't lug the engine when I slow down.

Stewie

What the hell are you talking about?
Does the car know you're downshifting because you're goint to need a power boost and say to itself "oh, so *this* downshift is ok because we're going to take off really fast afterwards"?

screaming

Whenever I downshift I have a habit of consciously lifting up on the clutch veeerrrryyyy slowly, just in case I'm not in the right gear. In the once or twice I've missed it's saved my ass (and engine!).

I got into this habit from riding my motorcycle... You never know when your neutral light is going to be faulty or you're not *quite* in neutral all the way. A big VT1100 is not exactly easy to lift up off the ground!

-Steve

JetJock

I've also found this 6mt pretty difficult to shift smoothly especially the 1-2 shift. It's my 5th car with a manual transmission so I've had plenty of cars to practice with, but I still find this one tough. It doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the car, it just makes me have to work harder. I have a Honda DelSol 5mt, and I can shift that car in my sleep, so I guess it's the torque of our engine, combined with the hydraulic clutch...something is working here to make us work at shifting smoothly, but eventually I'll learn.

cvajs

try swapping out the tranny oil for something like Valvoline or Mobile1 synthetic.

one4thegipper

No problems downshifting into 2nd here. This car is the smoothest shifting manual (up & down) that I've ever driven. Love it!

pettydw

Heal and toe to match revs and it normally falls right into lower gear. The peddles are a bit far apart (probably due to "unintended acceleration" lawsuits), but it can be done. Double clutching can make it happen even faster, assuming your feet are up to it. I recommend watching a Skip Barber Racing School or similar video for clues how to heal & toe and to double clutch. I rev match all the time on motorcycle downshifts while braking (otherwise the rear wheel slides), but I in a car only for fun, fast corner exits.

SouthernBoy

To Mister V et al;

The key to downshifting is the concept of "rev matching". I have posted some of my former writings on this very topic, so if you search my postings, you'll easily find them.

If you learn how to properly downshift, there is virtually NO wear on the clutch assembly, release bearing, transmission, and synchronizers. It is a seemless transition from one gear to another and when done properly, a passenger in your car would not even be aware you downshifted.

One other thing. A clutch should last the usable lifetime of the engine.. certainly at least 200,000 miles. Barring racing or towing or some similar activity, if you can't get this kind of life from a clutch, you are doing something wrong and may want to revisit your techniques.

Mister V

No... when you downshift.. it bring up the revolution of your motor and you have more power to accelerate after turning the corner. Just try it, it is fun.

Mister V

Yes, you are dawm right... If someone is capable to downshift WITHOUT ANY JERK...
Yes, they should be no wear...

But the reality.. it most of the drivers don't match the engine revolution with the vehicle speed and they wear their engine clutch when they downshift. A lot of driver don't know about the <Heel and Toe Downshift> technic and so on so on.

So there are my basic rules:

- engins are made to accelerate and brakes are made to slow down your car
- each time I miss my downshift and my car jerks... I wear my clutch
- a clutch is more expensive than a brake pad
- I bought this car to have fun so sometime it is really good to forget the 3 first rules, cause downshifting is fun and cool!

Stewie

Duh.

But a downshift is a downshift. The car doesn't know or care what you do afterward.
Just match the revs.

SouthernBoy

To Mister V;

I agree that most of the time one can get by fine with using the brakes instead of downshifting.. and I also do just that. And you're also right that most people don't know the proper technique simply because it's never been taught to them and/or they don't fully understand how the clutch assembly operates.

Proper downshifting will have considerably less wear affects on your clutch components than normal upshifting. And it is not heel and toe shifting though you can do that if you wish. Here's a collage of stuff I wrote on another website. A lot of it is redundant so I hope you enjoy and learn something from it.


================================================== =



Note: As it says, this is a collage of various postings I have made over the past one and a half years on the altimas.net website. So you are likely to see redundancy as well as a few other items of disarray. But enjoy and I hope you learn something.




PROPER MANUAL TRANSMISSION DRIVING TECHNIQUES

What follows is a collection of writings which I have posted at various times on this website in an effort to help answer some questions regarding the proper manner in which a manual transmission should be operated. While there are certainly many ways to drive a car with a manual transmission, there is really only one correct way. I was most fortunate to have learned these techniques while I was still in my teenage years. In so doing, I was able to avoid developing entrenched habits before they became really bad habits and difficult to correct. It is my hope that this helps you learn what I have learned and perfected over the years. If you do, you will reap the rewards, both financial and in the knowledge that you have mastered a technique that few do in their lifetimes. Have fun!

Under normal driving situations (not racing), when you start out from a standing start, you do so with the lowest possible RPMs, get the clutch out to full engagement as soon as you can while adding throttle. If you do this correctly, the transition will be smooth and seamless, and the wear on your clutch disk, pressure plate, release bearing, and flywheel will be minimized.

If properly designed (sufficient size and clamping pressure, etc.), and properly installed with no defects (correct torque, non-faulty equipment, alignment, etc.), then the next, and most important, factor to the life of the clutch assembly is the operator.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHY A CLUTCH CANNOT LAST THE LIFE OF THE ENGINE UNDER NORMAL DRIVING CONDITIONS.

When I speak of engine life here, I am referring to life before a serious teardown or part replacement such as a timing chain (200,000+ miles) or headwork. If you cannot get at least 100,000 miles out of a clutch, you are doing something terribly wrong. Obviously, racing and other extreme conditions such as towing constitute a whole different approach and, as such, do not come under this.


Don'ts:

Do not use any more engine speed (RPMs) than absolutely necessary to get the car rolling in first gear.

Do not hold the car on a hill with the clutch.

Do not wait for a traffic light to turn green with the transmission in gear and the clutch depressed.

Do not rest your foot on the clutch while driving.


Do not ride the clutch in any gear (obviously you will to a small degree in first to start off).

Do not down shift by just removing your foot from the gas, moving the shifter into a lower gear, then releasing the clutch slowly.


Do's

Start off smoothly and with low engine speed, and shift in such a manner that if you had a passenger on board, they would not even notice the shifts.

Hold the car on hills with the brakes.. that's what brakes are for. NEVER hold a car on a hill with the clutch. The amount of heat generated by doing this is incredible.

While waiting for a light to change or while sitting in heavy traffic, put the transmission in neutral and get your foot completely off of the clutch petal. Leaving it in gear for extended periods heats up and shortens the life of the release bearing. The normal condition of a clutch is fully engaged so it stands to reason that's where it should be most of the time.

Resting your foot on the clutch petal while driving engages the release bearing.. see above.

Avoid riding the clutch as much as is humanly possible. You will extend its life significantly.

If you do not know how to properly downshift, DON’T. Use the brakes (should do this anyway), and avoid downshifting any more than necessary. Improper downshifting is analogous to riding the clutch because that is what you are actually doing. Learn how to properly downshift first and save yourself the frustration of premature clutch failure.

Clutches are wear items, heavily affected by heat caused by friction. In a front wheel drive car, they are costly to replace, so unless you like shelling out a lot of money periodically for the replacement of these components, learn the correct way. Learn it until it becomes second nature like breathing.



I spent some time teaching a lady with whom I worked 10 years ago these techniques when she purchased a new '92 Honda Accord LX. When I last spoke with her, she had well over 140,000 miles on the original clutch with no signs of slippage. So I'm not jerking anyone's chain here. Learn to operate a manual transmission correctly and you will reap the rewards by saving a lot of money. Plus you will be one of the few who know how to do this right.

I don't mean to set myself up here as some kind of guru because I am not. But I have been driving vehicles with manual transmissions for over 40 years. I have spent the time to perfect the process into an art form because when done correctly, that’s what it is. When I sold my '88 Mustang LX 302CID, it was 6 years old and had 77,000 miles on it. When the buyer drove it, he asked me when I replaced the clutch because to him, it felt very positive. I told him that I had never replaced it and that it was the original unit. I added that it wouldn't make any sense to replace a clutch after only 77,000 miles since that is not very much wear. He had a little bit of a hard time believing this, but he did buy the car. Three months later, he called me up to let me know how much he liked the car and to tell me had had not wrapped it around a tree. He again asked about the clutch and I again told him that it was the original clutch.

I used to own a 1966 Chevelle SS396/360HP. I was the original owner of the car. For a period of about 2 years, I was street racing the car frequently on the weekends. At 83,000 miles when I sold it, it would still break traction in all four gears and the clutch had no slippage. It was tight and strong. Now granted, American cars have traditionally had stronger clutches than Japanese cars. This is changing because the Japanese are putting larger and stronger (torque) engines in their cars.



Downshifting

Ah yes, downshifting. If I had to name just one facet of manual transmission errors-of-operation, this would probably be it.

To understand how to operate a manual transmission, you have to know how the clutch assembly and transmission work, and I am going to take the assumption that most do on this forum. I will only clarify synchronizers. They serve to match the speed of the gears in the transmission as the shifter is moved to a given gear. Now for downshifting.

Let's say you are in fourth gear and you are approaching a stop sign, so you decide to downshift from fourth gear into third. What most people do is just remove their foot from the throttle, depress the clutch while moving the shifter from fourth to third, then start releasing the clutch slowly until they achieve full engagement. If you do this, what you are actually doing is riding the clutch in third gear. After all, the engine has returned to idle (or close to it), you get into third, then just ease the clutch out which pulls the engine from idle up to the RPM's at which it will operate at whatever speed you are traveling in third gear. Here is the correct way to do this in steps that I will break down in a moment.

Raise your foot off of the throttle.

Depress the clutch.

Start the shifter up into third.

As you pass through the neutral gate, let the clutch out a bit (doesn't have to be all the way) while at the same time blipping the throttle to increase engine speed BEYOND that which it will operate in the chosen lower gear.

Depress the clutch again.

Engage the chosen lower gear.

Let the clutch out while adding throttle.

As the engine RPM's decrease they will be met by the engaging clutch and opening throttle.

This should be a simple, smooth, fluid motion and you will know you've done it right if there is no jerking as the clutch comes out in the last step. Now for some details.

As you move into the neutral gate with your foot off of the throttle, the engine RPM's will be returning to idle. This is the point at which you want to blip the throttle a bit while at the same time engaging the clutch some. You want to get the engine turning faster than it will when you are in the lower gear you have chosen. The reason is that you want to spin the gears up to a speed that equals that at which they will be operating when you finally release the clutch in your downshift. If you do this right, there is no clutch slippage because the engine and the gears in the transmission will be spinning at the same or nearly the same RPM's. No slippage means you will get into gear with full engagement of the clutch sooner and with virtually no wear. To best understand this, you really need to know how a clutch assembly and transmission work together to deliver power from the engine to the drive wheels.

This takes a lot of practice, but if you get it down, you will be heads and shoulders above just about anyone else who drives a car with a manual transmission. You will begin to notice the mistakes other are making when they drive. Learn from their mistakes and it will both save you money and make you a far better driver.

So it's in with the clutch, start the shifter into the chosen lower gear, while passing through the neutral gate, blip the throttle and at the same time engage the clutch a bit to spin up the gears, then back in with the clutch as you get into the chosen gear, then finally release the clutch in one smooth operation.

Here's another little tip. Say you are waiting at a light for the green and your transmission is in neutral like it should be with your foot completely off of the clutch petal. When the light turns green, instead of just depressing the clutch and pushing the shifter up into first, pull the shifter partially into a higher gear first, such as second or third. The gears in those selections are not spinning as fast as the gears in first. By starting the shifter into a higher gear before you go to into first gear, you will cause less wear on the synchronizers and they will last far longer because they do not have to stop gears which are spinning at a higher speed. For cars which do not have synchronized reverse, definitely do this and you will not experience the grinding affect when shifting into reverse.

Say you are driving normally, shifting up through the gears to the one in which you wish to be for cruising. As you disengage the clutch and move the shifter to the next higher gear, you might notice a slight resistance just before you finish the shift. What you feel is the synchronizer for that gear forcing the drive gear(s) from the input shaft and the gears selected to "mesh". That is to say, their speeds are forced to equalize so that as they engage, there is no grinding and no damage to the gear teeth. That said, we can move to double clutching.

Double clutching was a technique that came about when earlier manual transmissions did not have synchronizers. If you did not double clutch, you would experience some serious gear grinding when shifting.

If you did not have synchronizers in your transmission, you would have had two choices when shifting gears: (1) put up with some really serious grinding and damage/breakage to gear teeth, or (2) manually match the speed of the gears in each selected shift so that you would eliminate the problems just mentioned in #1.

Suppose you are traveling in second gear, the engine is turning at 2500 RPM, and you are getting ready to shift to third. At the road speed you are going, let's say that once in third, your engine would be turning at 1800 RPM. When you remove your foot from the gas, the engine is going to loose RPMs quickly and by the time you get into third, the engine might only be turning 1200 RPM. Without synchronizers, you would need to raise the engine back up to 1800 RPM in order for the gears to mesh. By blipping the throttle and at the same time letting the clutch out some when you are passing through the neutral gate, you will both increase engine RPM and increase gear speed. As the engine RPMs fall back off, they will reach a point at which you will be able to complete the shift.

Since for years, manual transmissions have been fully synchronized, there is no need whatsoever to double clutch when upshifting and I definitely recommend against this practice.

Now downshifting is much like this, only in reverse. In other words, you are going from a higher gear to a lower gear so if your engine was turning at 2500 RPM and you wanted to shift to second, You would want to blip the throttle enough to raise engine speed to perhaps around 3200 - 3500 RPM.

When you are upshifting, the RPMs fall off and most people find it pretty easy to adjust to this and to add throttle at the right time so that when the clutch comes back out, they have the proper RPM's for the gear selection/road speed.

However, most people downshift by (1) removing their foot from the throttle, (2) moving the shifter into the next lower (or chosen) gear, then (3) slowly releasing the clutch while adding little or no throttle. This is NOT the proper manner in which to downshift. What you are doing in effect, is riding the clutch in reverse. In other words, you probably wouldn't dare attempt to start your car off in third gear because you would have to add a lot of throttle and really slip the clutch to get the car moving. When you downshift like the example I just gave, you are doing something similar to starting off in a higher gear, though it does take more energy to get a car moving from a dead start. Now if you double clutch during the downshift, you are spinning up the gears and the transition to the next gear will be quite smooth.


Junkyard asked a question about the concept of “passing through the neutral gate”. You don’t stop or stay in neutral. You are just passing through, so to speak. In your second question, you said I had mentioned to put the car in neutral when downshifting. Not exactly. Try this with the engine off.

Put the car in fourth. Depress the clutch and shift to third and let the clutch out. Now do the same thing, only this time as you pass through the neutral gate, let the clutch out some or a good deal and blip the throttle, then clutch back in, get into third, clutch comes out for the final time. That is the movement you want.

Incidentally, blipping the throttle is just a little stab at the petal, enough to raise RPMs to the desired level. You do not want to be on the throttle long because you will be in the process of shifting. Yes, this does take a lot of practice and may not come easily for many, but it is the best way, in fact the only proper way, to downshift because it very significantly reduces clutch and synchronizer wear (especially clutch), and once you get the hang of it, you will be able to do it quite fast.

The bottom line to all of this folks is to match engine speed to wheel speed in a given gear, and to do it in such a manner as to eliminate undue trauma to your drive train. I do this all of the time and have been downshifting like this since my late teens. I actually learned it from a magazine article (as I can best recall). If you know how a manual transmission and clutch assembly operate, all of the components and how they perform together, you will understand the beauty of the process.

Oh the grinding noise Junkyard hears when he starts letting up the clutch too quickly is most likely due to not having fully engaged the gear teeth and they separate (pop out of gear). That or he actually begins engaging the gear teeth before the clutch is fully depress so there is still some flywheel/disk/pressure plate contact.


One of the things I noticed right off the bat on my SE was that the clutch began to engage much too close to the floor for me (a contributor to the problem Junkyard has had). It was starting to engage about 1 inch from the floor, so I adjusted it out to 2 inches and it is fine. If you do this, just make sure you have the required toeplay, otherwise you will prematurely wear out your release bearing.

The purpose of letting the clutch out some as you pass through the neutral gate is to spin the gears up in preparation for the speed at which they must be at for the lower gear selection. This will allow you to get into that gear very easily. When you depress the clutch, you disengage the crankshaft from the transmission. The gears in the transmission will begin to slow down. By letting out the clutch some (or completely) in the neutral gate, you once again, MOMENTARILY, engage the full drive train and get the gears spinning. Only this time since you have blipped the throttle, they'll be spinning faster. As they slow down from the higher speed, your clutch will be coming out for the final time with the transmission in gear and the mesh will be smooth.

Try it both ways. Do it first the way you do it and notice that you have to add a little bit of force to get the shifter into gear. That's because the synchronizers are doing their job of gear speed meshing. Now try it the way I outlined and if you do it right, you will have virtually no resistance as you slip the shifter into your chosen gear.

Instead of going right into first as the light starts to go green, try starting the shifter into second gear.. don't have to go all the way into gear, though it won't hurt. This slows the gears down just as though you had gone on into first, but it's much easier on the synchronizers. And you won't get the "crunch" you mentioned when you have to move quickly.


To prevent rollback; practice, practice, practice, practice.

One way to do this is to find a nice little hill someplace where you won't be a bother to anyone. Take along some masking tape and mark off two sections with the tape a foot apart. Your goal is to keep the car from coasting back more than 1 foot.. of course you do not use the clutch to hold the car.. use the brakes. As you learn to do this, find another hill a little steeper. And so on, and so on.