Your advice on standard transmissions...

[Chris Luva Luva]

Can I ask you guys some questions about the standard transmission?

I broke my car in according to the manual by granny shifting for 600 miles. For those who don't know, this car doesn't have low end torque, it's the opposite of a GTI. This car is kinda like a Honda S2000 in that it needs to be wound up past 5k RPM for it to start smoking. Ive been keeping my RPMs low and shifting around 2.5k-3k RPM. I got 29MPG on my 1st tank and it's not even broken in yet.

I made a few beginners mistakes though...

1. I didn't fully depress the clutch and I ground 2nd gear for about 1.5 seconds. I'm not experiencing any issues with 2nd gear but do you think I may have really hurt anything?

2. I'm still getting the hang of "rev matching" so the car doesn't surge forward when down shifting. I know that the surge stresses your mounts and transmission. I haven't done it often but would anyone have any advice on how to rev match or is it even unnecessary?

3. Is engine braking good or bad? I know that I'd rather replace brake bads than transmissions.

4. Honda doesn't recommend changing the engine oil until the oil notifier gets down to 5%. They use a "special" break-in oil with their cars from what I've read. Should I change it on my own since the break in period is done?

5. I've just started leaving the car in gear while parked, is that a good rule to live by? I've hard that e-brakes can fail, especially with disc brakes. It was something about the discs cooling and contracting, thus causing the car to roll.

More to come.

[GSPODS]

Fully depress the clutch. Honda's are damn hard to damage but you can have the throwout bearing eat the clutch plate if you make a habit of not pressing the clutch to the floor. One time probably didn't hurt anything.

Downshifting is more about the speed of the engine than the speed of the vehicle. Obviously, you don't want to downshift into 2nd at 5000 RPM. The best way to practice downshifting, from my experience, is to start by downshifting one gear at a time. Better to downshift too little than too much. You can always go down another gear if necessary. You'll get a feel for what gear to downshift to in short order.

Engine braking is for semis. It's not a good thing for passenger vehicles.

Yes, change the oil yourself. Better too often than not enough.

Leaving the car in gear is fine so long as you don't leave the car in a forward gear facing down a hill. The vehicle can go into "torque lock" if you do that and it is a real pain in the ass to get most vehicles out of torque lock.

Just my half-witted opinions.

[Cappster]

1. I don't think you really hurt anything. I have missed gears before while doing full throttle shifts. Not saying that wouldn't hurt anything but for everyday putting around town missing a gear, I wouldn't worry about it. Just try not to do it too much.

2. When slowing down but not coming to a stop, I usually depress the clutch and wait until I have to start accelerating again and "peddling/revving" the gas a little while releasing the clutch to keep going. You just have to learn your cars tendencies and what gear + given speed give you the RPM you are looking for.

3. Engine braking is bad because it stresses the crankshaft and other engine internals. Unless you are going down the side of mountain, I would depress the clutch until you come to a stop. To add onto that, don't sit at a light with your clutch depressed as it can cause unnecessary wear on your pilot bearing.

4. Not sure what the oil notifier is but if the break in period is over, I would change the oil. Depending on whether you use regular or synthetic oil, if I were you, I would go between 3,000 and 5,000 miles. Follow your manufacturers instructions is probably a pretty safe bet though.

5. With a manual tranny, you should always pull the e-brake. I wouldn't recommend just pulling the e-brake or just putting the car in gear. I would do both as to double your protection.

[Fios]

5. With a manual tranny, you should always pull the e-brake.

Yeah ... I'm going to go ... somewhere else ... don't follow me

[Chris Luva Luva]

5. With a manual tranny, you should always pull the e-brake.

Yeah ... I'm going to go ... somewhere else ... don't follow me

I was careful with my choice of words because of rogue posters such as yourself.

And with the conclusion of my previous sentence, I began to fully understand your reasoning...

I noticed the surface level but it wasn't until.... Let's just say I understand.

So Cappster, is this a gradual pull on the e-brake or a yank?

[Cappster]

5. With a manual tranny, you should always pull the e-brake.

Yeah ... I'm going to go ... somewhere else ... don't follow me

I was careful with my choice of words because of rogue posters such as yourself.

And with the conclusion of my previous sentence, I began to fully understand your reasoning...

I noticed the surface level but it wasn't until.... Let's just say I understand.

So Cappster, is this a gradual pull on the e-brake or a yank?

A yank if the car is in motion in an icy parking lot and a gradual pull if you don't want to break your parking break cable. If you are at a drag queen show...well, lets just say to each his own I prefer "natural born" women.

[KazooSkinsFan]

I will only buy cars for myself with standard transmissions. Here are my views on 1-3. On 4 I don't drive a Honda and on 5 I try not to park on steep hills, but I don't leave the car in gear. If it's steep I do point the wheels so the car would not roll into the road but I've never had a car roll anywhere.

1. I didn't fully depress the clutch and I ground 2nd gear for about 1.5 seconds. I'm not experiencing any issues with 2nd gear but do you think I may have really hurt anything?

- EVERYONE grinds the clutch once in awhile. The better you get the rarer it is. If it seems to be working OK I've never had an issue where it was "damaged" and stopped working. What you are doing is wearing it out faster though.

2. I'm still getting the hang of "rev matching" so the car doesn't surge forward when down shifting. I know that the surge stresses your mounts and transmission. I haven't done it often but would anyone have any advice on how to rev match or is it even unnecessary?

- Mainly practice. You may want to guess high until you're better at guessing. Like if you think you need to drop to 2 only drop to 3 and then drop to 2. But you're right, you want to stop doing that.

3. Is engine braking good or bad? I know that I'd rather replace brake bads than transmissions.

- It's bad. Break pads aren't that expensive. The only time I've ever done "engine breaking" is for bad (icy) weather to slow down w/o sliding and even then it's still rare.

[hailskins666]

and to add on number 3.

letting the enginge 'drag' the car down will cause the engine to 'burp' motor oil into the intake and air filters, which doesn't help performance at all. like others have said, use the brakes for what they are for..


the only other advice i can give on a stick transmission is to bring the rpms to about 5 grand, then sidestep the clutch and hold on. it's fun!

[Chris Luva Luva]

and to add on number 3.

letting the enginge 'drag' the car down will cause the engine to 'burp' motor oil into the intake and air filters, which doesn't help performance at all. like others have said, use the brakes for what they are for..


the only other advice i can give on a stick transmission is to bring the rpms to about 5 grand, then sidestep the clutch and hold on. it's fun!

Charlene is a screamer she likes it at 8k RPM. LOL.

I do appreciate your advice.

[Redskin in Canada]

Ever heard of heel and toe?

You (and your car) will love it once you get the hang of it. my bimmer and I have perfected it. It works differently on each car.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Ever heard of heel and toe?

You (and your car) will love it once you get the hang of it. my bimmer and I have perfected it. It works differently on each car.

Yes, I've been reading up on that and it seems very dependent on the placement of the pedals. I tried it out as others have who have this car and it's darn near impossible. I'll take pictures later to show you.

[Redskin in Canada]

Ever heard of heel and toe?

You (and your car) will love it once you get the hang of it. my bimmer and I have perfected it. It works differently on each car.

Yes, I've been reading up on that and it seems very dependent on the placement of the pedals. I tried it out as others have who have this car and it's darn near impossible. I'll take pictures later to show you.

Look, the pedals would have to be placed literally further away than the size of your shoe in order to be really impossible (although there might be some other akward arrangements). If your shoe can touch the two pedals at the same time when twisted horizontally, you could do the heel and toe maneuver.

A soft-core version (you can try this at home):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPj9XXW25GA

A hard-core version (do not try this at home):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuoZeuSgEj4

Read here:

http://www.torquecars.com/articles/heel ... change.php

Waiting to see the pictures ...

[welch]

I say skip the heel-and-toe. Just practice coordinating both legs until you can shift by the feel of the engine. If you want to cheat a little, my old Honda liked to run at about 2000 RPM; 3000 was about time to upshift.

The engine noise will tell you, and, at low-speed, you can feel when it wants to go.

As mentioned above, never downshift to slow down. That's what brakes are fore, and pads are cheaper than a new transmission. Also work better.

One trick, one you should repeat until you do it without thinking, is to shift out of gear into neutral as you come up to a stop. Then waggle the shift lever just to make sure you're in neutral. It's a bit embarrassing to pull up behind a nice car and suddenly jump smack against its rear bumper because you are still in 1st!