tonyatkayak

alright I will give youtube a shot.

one more thing. I was playing with the NAVI and they have this thing called messages.

then it freaked me out saying my airbags don't work because of a low wattage and my traction control doesn't work because of some wattage thing too.

What's up with these messages? Do I really need to take it to the dealer?

JwongTLS

Those message could be old from the previous owner. For example u might get a gas cap message saying its not tight when it really is. That's a common problem.

You can delete them unless they recently popped up then u might want to see whats going on with that.

tonyatkayak

it just popped up yesterday when I picked it up. I haven't had a full day to play with everything and I"ll probably do that tomorrow. Will see what's up about that but I wasn't sure if that stuff was legit since it didn't pop up. I was just digging around and found it.

Yvuru

I have had the airbag and traction control messages before. It means the cars battery is low or was low at some point in time.

Happened to me when I had my windows tinted and the guy left on my interior lights for a few hours. Had to hook my car up to a machine to charge the battery. Then when I drove off the airbag and traction control message popped up.

Yvuru

The car should be fine after a long drive. At least thats how it was for me. Haven't seen those messages since.

arrogantbastard

LOL! Don't sweat it man. I've been driving manuals for 20 years and I'm still refining my technique.

In the beginning, there's just no substitute for getting out driving. Don't worry about any advanced techniques yet.

Remember that any time the clutch pedal is anywhere between fully depressed or fully disengaged, you are putting wear on the clutch - so you want to minimize that "in-between" time as much as possible. And like Southernboy said, if you're sitting for more than a couple of seconds at a stop, kick it into neutral and take your foot off the clutch pedal to minimize wear on the hydro/mechanical components of the system.

Launching in first: get a feel for the engagement point of the clutch. As you're letting out the clutch, you should be feathering on the throttle. There's a balance to be found with engine rpm, throttle position, and the rate you are letting out the clutch - the only way to figure that out is to practice.

When you are downshifting (i.e. 4 to 3 or 6 to 5...) remember that the engine is going to be at a higher rpm in the lower gear, therefore you need to apply more throttle. This is called rev-matching. There are all kinds of advanced techniques to do this smoothly (heel and toeing, double clutching, etc...), but don't worry about that yet. Again it's about finding that balance point between rpms, speed, throttle position, and clutch engagement - the only way to figure that out is to practice.

Bottom line: get out and DRIVE!! Accept the fact that you are going to be a little clumsy with it for a month or two. Just be patient with yourself and before you know it you'll have the hang of it.

SouthernBoy

Do those messages come from the Nav or from the MID? Both of my 3G TL's have Nav and I don't recall ever seeing anything about this. But this is so much to learn about this car, anyway.