r/stickshift

I learned to drive manual about a month ago with some great help, I even drove with a friend today (mainly flat roads - residential streets) and they thought I was a pro lol they didn’t know I just learned - but I’m very familiar with Sydney roads and our city unfortunately is built on sandstone ridges and valleys, (if anyone is familiar with Sylvania / Blakehurst area) you’ll know what I’m talking about and I detour and use long routes just for simple drives. I practiced some hill stuff with handbrake, all went well but I get slight roll back I’m driving a 1991 Honda CRX but man, I want to get over this fear, if someone is behind my, I full panic 🫨

I don’t want this personally 🤮. But this may appeal to a stick shift human, who wants a “manual” in their ⚡️🚙

I've been told you should go down a gear when going up hill, but isn't that "money shifting"? Is there some way to do it without slowing down or money shifting??

I personally prefer polished aluminum.

It is just...kids here (Europe) are learning to drive in manual and they stall and make mistakes all the time. Like driving in european cities there are pedestrians cyclist and what not trams, it is congested.... and it is overwhelming and you will stall it or choose a wrong gear in the begginings like all the time. Driving schools have like 8 students a day in one car. Usually you have to do like 30 hours or so in this car total. And these cars are ok. The cars can handle it.

Took my car to a supposedly renowned tint shop and asked them multiple times if they could drive manual well (not an easy car to drive manual in. 400/350 HP/TQ and an aggressive clutch) and if not I'd prefer to move the car for them. They laughed it off and said of course and when I replayed my dashcam video I see them slipping the clutch and stalling out multiple times.

I was an auto tech for four years and while I'm aware they could've theoretically damaged the flywheel, glazed the friction material, damaged the engine/transmission mounts, etc on the other hand I want to believe the vehicle is well engineered with some margin for abuse/these types of scenarios... or not and I should approach them respectfully and ask to have an independent tech test drive and do diagnostics at their expense?

Like I said, not the easiest manual to drive smoothly and the day I got it back it was impossible to get a clean/smooth shift which is what prompted me to replay the dashcam footage. Over the course of a few days of babying it it's a little better but I dunno am I being a Karen or not - WWYD?

I’m obviously a learner driver and i think i just messed up the car. Was driving and was trying to go 2nd to 3rd and i think i went into first instead ( not 100% sure but what else could it be) , the car pretty much stopped as if i jammed on the brakes, the car still feels fine to drive but theres a very noticeable whining noise now when driving. Cant really hear the wine in first, barely in second and it gets louder the faster the car is. It’s also louder when accelerating but when foot is on the clutch the noise stops so is the gearbox badly damaged?

My manual 2008 accord is having a problem in any gear other than 1st or Reverse where the gear doesn’t seem to be engaging all the way and even lightly tapping the gas even when at speed shoots the RPMs up to 3-4000 and barely provides acceleration. Any advice on what could be the specific issue and how easily fixable it may be? I can’t really provide any more info for a bit so if this isn’t enough to tell anything I’m sorry lol.

Just turned 18 three months ago and im learning how to drive. I have always been a car guy since I was about 12 and finally getting behind the wheel feels amazing. My dad owns a manual so thats what I will be driving and im learning in an old manual too. I can pretty nicely shift gears without stalling or jerking the car when its moving and im good at braking too. The area im struggling is getting the tires rolling. I push the clutch back as far as possible and slowly release it back while trying to find the "bite point" and giving tiny amount of gas. But the car is jerking too much, not stalling, even my instructor said that I need to get this down properly but im stuggling how to.

I've been learning manual for a couple of months now and feel like I understand it for the most part. However, I'm still struggling to figure out how to drive this thing fast. If you want to launch as fast as possible and say you approach red line in first gear, at what point are you supposed to shift? Are you just supposed to guess where the RPMs should be in the next gear when you shift?

So I got my drivers licence just last year. My feet are very long ( i'm 7 feet tall ) so instead of my regular everyday shoes I got used to drive specifically with a very thin footwear ( i do not know how to call it in English, but it's like a sandal that straps your entire feet. ).

Today I had to attend to an important meeting so I drove there and instead of those sandals, I got barefoot ( only socks ) while bringing formal shoes on the passenger seat with me.

While going there I did not have much trouble. But while coming back I stalled the car almost five times. It was like I lost the muscle memory of where the bite point was by being barefoot.

Has something like this happened to you? Can some minor difference in footwear totally break your "sense" of the car?

I have been driving for two months and with no issues until today.

Let’s say I want to maximize acceleration in a downshift in a performance car. I’m at 3k rpm in 4th gear, and if I downshift I’ll be at 4.5k rpm in 3rd. Can I rev match but above the 4.5k (rev it out to 6k rpm) and then drop the clutch, and let the clutch + engine come together to accelerate? Is this any worse on the clutch than the slipping it to get started in 1st gear?

It is almost a month since I got my first manual car. I first learned to drive manual before I got an automatic. I only got to lear manual with a diesel engine (no stalling) for 2 days and that's it. It has been 4 years since that and now with my new gas manual car, I am noticing that sometimes I do perfect shifts but sometimes switching from 1-2 it jolts me back and forth. My fix for this is shifting down or up. This happens only about 10% of the time I am driving. Btw, I daily this car and commute is about 10miles away.

Could use some advice or tips or how to improve at rev-matching, and also rev-matching while braking. I find it hard to isolate the pressure between the brake and throttle, perhaps it comes with more practice. I drive a 25' type r. Am open to advice

Ex-husband crashed my car then asked for a divorce so all I could afford is a 2005 Golf for which I am incredibly grateful. 😂 That said I have intense shame around things I've never been able to learn regardless of effort such as dancing or the grammar of a country I moved to. My neighbors have been trying to teach me but are exasperated with me.

I can go through the city and highways etc just fine but how many hours will it take of practice before I can just like start on a hill or reverse on a hill etc? I just woke up my neighbors from the loud stalls ten times outside their house because I practice at night with fewer cars on the road and I am horrifically embarrassed. Is there a point where I have to throw in the towel and acknowledge that I will just need to have the hour commute to work instead of driving? I haven't managed to leave my village yet because I'm just terrified I will stall in some intersection or something and get killed.

Also driving school hours are 90 bucks here so I can't afford that either. I guess I just need to hear it was hard too for some people instead of these people who say "oh but it's so easy! You'll pick it up so quickly" 🙂‍↔️

My stops are abrupt. My dad has taught me brake and clutch and that l can stop at any speed. My stops however are far from smooth because l don't want the pickup to start shaking. I'm so confused really. The other day l tried partial clutch then brake then full clutch and the stop was prefect but that's not the proper way and just might be wearing out the clutch

I usually stop in 2nd gear, rarely 3rd gear and 1st gear in certain situations.

I drive a 2014 Chevy Cruze 1.4 turbo and I want to know if it’s ok to rev the engine to 1500 rpms before starting in first. I can start pretty smoothly using the clutch alone but when I’m in traffic, that method doesn’t allow me to accelerate away from a full stop quick enough. Also, the revs hang when shifting from 1st to 2nd so m forced to wait a little longer for the rpms to fall within the right rpm range for the next gear. I find that shifting at 2200-2500 rpms from 1st to 2nd doesnt hang that long. Is that a proper technique to avoid the rev hang or should I be shifting at the 2500-3000 rpm range since it’s a smaller displacement engine?

Ahoy!

Recently, my work gave me a 2025 Renault Clio with a 6-speed manual. Until then, I've been driving an old 2013 Peugeot 107 with a 5-speed tranny, loaned from a friend.

The 107 drives zippy as hell, what on account of its 1st and 2nd gears being pretty tall. That, plus I can easily just get the clutch to bite right every time and go up the gears real fast. It's really easy to get from a standstill to 100km/h without jerking about.

The Clio, though, is a different story​. First gear gets to 10km/h, maybe 2000-2500rpm, and past that, no gas will help, there's no power at all, but 2nd gear at that speed is lethargic. I thought maybe revving the first to 3000rpm, but then I hit the second hurdle - it blips the throttle every time clutch pedal goes past 30% from the bottom, so it jerks as if you gave gas on the upshift if you get to bite point immediately after shifting.

I've accepted for now that I just need to let is sync for s bit longer and I can't accelerate as briskly as I can in a simpler car. Perhaps someone has an idea of what I can do technique-wise to work around this transmission? ​