New to Manual Transmissions

[Marioshiboi]

and they walked to school in the snow, uphill, both ways.

without shoes, and there was broken glass on the streets. What they would've done for some shoes, let alone a car.

[biniciWRX]

Glad I'm not the only rookie here. Been about a week as of today since I bought my car and today was a real smooth ride to work!

[jeffdill]

I'm new to manual as well, and only had the car a couple days. I found that I could stop stalling altogether if I just launch very slowly...let the clutch start the car rolling then give it a bit of gas. I'm very slow off green lights and stop signs and whatnot, but hey, it's faster than stalling and restarting the car.

I still have some work to do though. I get nervous every time I stop and someone pulls behind me...I'm pretty bad at hill starts, I might have to bail and try the E-brake trick...and my shift to second is almost always jerky. Hope it comes in time!

EDIT: Just tried letting the RPM settle down to around 2200 while shifting into second like was suggested, and man it was smooth as silk. Thanks for the help!

[Pdot]

All you gotta do is find the kickpoint in your clutch and begin practicing from there. Find a small incline of a hill. Put car in first and slowly start letting off the clutch...you will roll back slowly after the hill assist if off. When you get about midway of letting it release, give it a little gas and keep letting off the clutch slowly until completely out and a succesfful smooth launch is complete. You may rev it too high the first few times but you get a great feel of where the kickpoint is Do this a few times to get use to the clutch and it's kickpoint and then stop doing it. You don't want to ride your clutch obviously but it's a great way to learn for begginers how the car releases and how it feels to take off smoothly. I find the WRX has a very small kickpoint, at least the 2011 does, IMO begginers learning on this car is not really the smartest option though.. Good luck...

I'm new to manual as well, and only had the car a couple days. I found that I could stop stalling altogether if I just launch very slowly...let the clutch start the car rolling then give it a bit of gas. I'm very slow off green lights and stop signs and whatnot, but hey, it's faster than stalling and restarting the car.

I still have some work to do though. I get nervous every time I stop and someone pulls behind me...I'm pretty bad at hill starts, I might have to bail and try the E-brake trick...and my shift to second is almost always jerky. Hope it comes in time!

EDIT: Just tried letting the RPM settle down to around 2200 while shifting into second like was suggested, and man it was smooth as silk. Thanks for the help!

[PHDX]

I'm new to manual as well, and only had the car a couple days. I found that I could stop stalling altogether if I just launch very slowly...let the clutch start the car rolling then give it a bit of gas. I'm very slow off green lights and stop signs and whatnot, but hey, it's faster than stalling and restarting the car.

I still have some work to do though. I get nervous every time I stop and someone pulls behind me...I'm pretty bad at hill starts, I might have to bail and try the E-brake trick...and my shift to second is almost always jerky. Hope it comes in time!

EDIT: Just tried letting the RPM settle down to around 2200 while shifting into second like was suggested, and man it was smooth as silk. Thanks for the help!

It's like a bike. Once you get the hang of where the sweet spot is in terms of letting out the clutch and giving just enough gas to roll, you'll never have to worry about it again. I learned on an old BMW with a very springy clutch so it took me about a month, and I was like a pro after that. The e-brake will take some of the fear out of learning where that spot is, but you won't need it for long.

[Mikie13]

It's like a bike. Once you get the hang of where the sweet spot is in terms of letting out the clutch and giving just enough gas to roll, you'll never have to worry about it again. I learned on an old BMW with a very springy clutch so it took me about a month, and I was like a pro after that. The e-brake will take some of the fear out of learning where that spot is, but you won't need it for long.

I was wondering if anyone would use a reference for a motorcycle...its a good one. Figuring out the grab spot of the clutch by sloooooowly letting it out and noting where in the RPM range/pedal travel range is VERY useful.

[sc13]

will shifting into first gear with about 25-3,000 RPM cause excessive wear on the clutch? basically, is that bad or normal?

[topdawgx99]

bad. 1.5 - 2k is normal.

[Mikie13]

will shifting into first gear with about 25-3,000 RPM cause excessive wear on the clutch? basically, is that bad or normal?

Oh yeah, you're whining that out waaaay too high...it *could* cause excessive wear on the clutch.

[sc13]

hmm. ive been revving around 2000 RPM but by the time the clutch and flywheel meet it settles down a little below 2000. still bad? its kinda hard for me to try to give it a little gas and not stall out.

[poly_poly-man]

will shifting into first gear with about 25-3,000 RPM cause excessive wear on the clutch? basically, is that bad or normal?

LFMF - it's not just bad for your clutch (I'll be replacing mine sometime this spring), but it's also dangerous.

I was at a stop sign, turning left. I started off in that range, letting out the clutch slowly. Turns out that giving the car power from a stop, pointed in some direction, when the ground is a bit slippery even just from rain, the rear is going to unhook. Playing around on the snow later on showed me how easy it is to fall into that. If you launch like that when starting in a turn, you will lose the back one of these times. And these cars take the best damn driver in the world to correct from something like that - basically you have to instantly end your countersteer the moment before it catches, and you might be okay.

I got lucky - I over-corrected AWAY from the other car, and just ended up hitting a guard rail at 5-10mph.

[Asharus]

Wow good to know. This is my first AWD car. I've only had RWD cars in the past.

[Mikie13]

hmm. ive been revving around 2000 RPM but by the time the clutch and flywheel meet it settles down a little below 2000. still bad? its kinda hard for me to try to give it a little gas and not stall out.

I think I know what you're talking about here...you just give the throttle a little blip to give the clutch a chance to catch, as the RPMs come down, the clutch pedal comes up and it catches smoothly, with minimal slip...I'd venture to say that's pretty much what everyone kinda does. I know I've been doing something like that my entire 10 years of driving manual and I've never had a clutch go bad on me (200k+ miles worth of driving)

[Asharus]

It's definitely a lot different from my previous car (2001 540i/6). I used to be able to rev to 1100 with no issues starting off in 1st, but I find that I have to go between 1500-2000 on this car so I don't stall.

[pwbeninate]

also seems like i have to wait almost 3 seconds before fully letting the clutch out in 1st to get a smooth start... seems like a really long time. am i wearing the clutch too much?