Hello,
I just bought a 300zx Twin-Turbo a few weeks ago. I absolutely love the car, and love driving it. This is the first car I've owned with a manual transmission, (always wanted one though). I've been driving manual transmission since I got the car, having very little experience before. It's my daily driver, and I can shift smoothly generally 85% of the time, but I was hoping maybe someone could impart some tips on how to drive better for me. For instance, I find that I have to let the clutch out pretty slow when shifting from 1st to 2nd, I was wondering if this is normal. I also can start very smoothly in 1st, but its always jerky if I try to start a little faster.
Thanks!
Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
My Z is an auto, but I've been driving a stick for most of my life.
Practice makes perfect. The more you drive the more it will come natural.
The shift from 1st to 2nd should be pretty quick, like a second or two after you take off. 1st gear is really just to get the car moving. It sounds like maybe you are winding 1st out to long and then letting the clutch slip to keep it from being jerky. That isn't good for your clutch.
One of the big things with a clutch, is don't use it more than you need to. It will wear out, and using it wrong will wear it out fast.
Short quick shifts. Push the clutch more or less down to the floor with each shift, don't push it just part way down. Also, get your foot off of it when you are not shifting. Some people tend to rest their foot on it, which can partially engage the clutch which will wear out your throwout bearing much faster.
The hardest part of a stick shift is taking off from a stop going up a hill. It is much worse if some jack wad pulls right up on your back bumper giving you little to no room for error if you roll back. In these cases you might have to rev the engine with the clutch partially engaged to take off without the car rolling back. It isn't good for the clutch to do that, so don't if you don't have to. Often if I see that I'm going to have to take off on a hill and someone is coming up behind me, I'll intentionally let the car roll back a bit as they are coming up so they will hopefully stop short and give me a little more room. You might want to find a quite street with a good uphill incline and practice starting without rolling back. It is a bit tricky... you don't want the first time you need to do it be when your girl is in the passengers side, and a $70,000 BMW is behind you on your bumper.
Again, the more you drive it, the more it will come to you.
Enjoy your Z!
Practice makes perfect. The more you drive the more it will come natural.
The shift from 1st to 2nd should be pretty quick, like a second or two after you take off. 1st gear is really just to get the car moving. It sounds like maybe you are winding 1st out to long and then letting the clutch slip to keep it from being jerky. That isn't good for your clutch.
One of the big things with a clutch, is don't use it more than you need to. It will wear out, and using it wrong will wear it out fast.
Short quick shifts. Push the clutch more or less down to the floor with each shift, don't push it just part way down. Also, get your foot off of it when you are not shifting. Some people tend to rest their foot on it, which can partially engage the clutch which will wear out your throwout bearing much faster.
The hardest part of a stick shift is taking off from a stop going up a hill. It is much worse if some jack wad pulls right up on your back bumper giving you little to no room for error if you roll back. In these cases you might have to rev the engine with the clutch partially engaged to take off without the car rolling back. It isn't good for the clutch to do that, so don't if you don't have to. Often if I see that I'm going to have to take off on a hill and someone is coming up behind me, I'll intentionally let the car roll back a bit as they are coming up so they will hopefully stop short and give me a little more room. You might want to find a quite street with a good uphill incline and practice starting without rolling back. It is a bit tricky... you don't want the first time you need to do it be when your girl is in the passengers side, and a $70,000 BMW is behind you on your bumper.
Again, the more you drive it, the more it will come to you.
Enjoy your Z!
Last edited by nexus08 on Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Oh, and when at a stop light, be sure to put the car in neutral and let the clutch out. Again, leaving the clutch engaged more than it needs to be will wear out the throw out bearing sooner.
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Ziggy1621
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Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Welcome to Nico! Post some pics of that new ride! how-to-post-pictures-using-photobucket-t521110.html
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DCaff300ZX
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Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Good info from Nexus, but I'll add that while on a hill you can also use the e-brake to hold you while you then are free to comfortably use both feet to "catch and hold" the car with the clutch and throttle for a second, then take off. This way you lose the small move backward as you go to grab the car with the clutch, making it easier and smoother and allowing you to feel the friction of the clutch enough to hold the car steady as you go through the procedure.
And as Nexus mentions, practice makes perfect.
Moving to your 1st-2nd gear shifting comments, another thing that may be at hand is that the 1-2 and 3-4 syncros on our transmissions are often going bad, and cause friction or even grinding as they fail. This is a common problem due to the style and age of our synchros and can cause some notchiness and noise.
And as Nexus mentions, practice makes perfect.
Moving to your 1st-2nd gear shifting comments, another thing that may be at hand is that the 1-2 and 3-4 syncros on our transmissions are often going bad, and cause friction or even grinding as they fail. This is a common problem due to the style and age of our synchros and can cause some notchiness and noise.
Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Hello everyone. Thanks for the responses!
There aren't many large hills where I live so I don't really have to deal with using the e-brake. I usually roll back only a tiny bit so it's not too big of deal. Sometimes I do forget to rev the car more though, and get close to stalling it. I hadn't thought about the shift from 1st - 2nd being difficult because of mechanical wear, it does seem to be the only shift I have trouble with. I don't ride the clutch, but I do have to coast around with the clutch in or feather between clutch and 1st alot because of how bad traffic is around here.
An example of shifting from 1st to 2nd and why I have trouble. I generally rev the car up to around 3-4k in 1st and then shift to 2nd, this requires holding the clutch at the engagement point for about half a second, maybe less, but if feels like if I let it out too fast the car lurches forward. Shifting at a lower rpm seems to make it harder to shift to 2nd and then the car usually has no power by that point. I can make clean fast shifts at any other point. I also can't start the car from a stop terribly fast. I usually have to go slow.
I also have a lot of trouble preventing lurches when downshifting. I drive this car everyday, so I'm getting better everyday, but still far from perfect.
That's my car, 1991 300zx Twin-Turbo. It has a little over 100k miles on it, drives really well in my opinion. The only problems I can notice is that it seems to idle pretty hard when I start it in the morning. In fact I stalled it this morning pulling out of the garage, because I have to go extremely slow due to having a steep drive way. The car is 100% stock.
There aren't many large hills where I live so I don't really have to deal with using the e-brake. I usually roll back only a tiny bit so it's not too big of deal. Sometimes I do forget to rev the car more though, and get close to stalling it. I hadn't thought about the shift from 1st - 2nd being difficult because of mechanical wear, it does seem to be the only shift I have trouble with. I don't ride the clutch, but I do have to coast around with the clutch in or feather between clutch and 1st alot because of how bad traffic is around here.
An example of shifting from 1st to 2nd and why I have trouble. I generally rev the car up to around 3-4k in 1st and then shift to 2nd, this requires holding the clutch at the engagement point for about half a second, maybe less, but if feels like if I let it out too fast the car lurches forward. Shifting at a lower rpm seems to make it harder to shift to 2nd and then the car usually has no power by that point. I can make clean fast shifts at any other point. I also can't start the car from a stop terribly fast. I usually have to go slow.
I also have a lot of trouble preventing lurches when downshifting. I drive this car everyday, so I'm getting better everyday, but still far from perfect.
That's my car, 1991 300zx Twin-Turbo. It has a little over 100k miles on it, drives really well in my opinion. The only problems I can notice is that it seems to idle pretty hard when I start it in the morning. In fact I stalled it this morning pulling out of the garage, because I have to go extremely slow due to having a steep drive way. The car is 100% stock.
Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
I didn't mean to say that the mechanical wear is what makes the shift from 1st to 2nd hard. What makes that shift less smooth is the difference in engine rpm's that happens from shifting from 1st to 2nd.
The same thing is happening in downshifting except the reverse. The engine is having to speed up to match the rpm's to the speed. I personally never did a lot of downshifting, tending to use the brakes to slow down/stop rather than the engine. I always figured brakes were easy to replace, clutches not as much. When I did need to downshift (say for curves), I'd let it coast with the clutch in until it slowed down a bit before I let the clutch out.
I've never been a racer, so in racing you would obviously need to do more downshifting at speed... but then if you are a racer you don't care if the ride isn't so smooth.
Anyway, nice looking TT!
The same thing is happening in downshifting except the reverse. The engine is having to speed up to match the rpm's to the speed. I personally never did a lot of downshifting, tending to use the brakes to slow down/stop rather than the engine. I always figured brakes were easy to replace, clutches not as much. When I did need to downshift (say for curves), I'd let it coast with the clutch in until it slowed down a bit before I let the clutch out.
I've never been a racer, so in racing you would obviously need to do more downshifting at speed... but then if you are a racer you don't care if the ride isn't so smooth.
Anyway, nice looking TT!
Re: Manual Transmission Driving Tips
Thanks again for response. Yea, the more I drive the car, the more I get used to when to shift, how fast to let the clutch out, etc. I'm still far from perfect, but it's getting better everyday. It just takes some time. Oh well, I assume that this is relatively normal. At the very least I can drive it around town without stalling or doing anything stupid.nexus08 wrote: The same thing is happening in downshifting except the reverse. The engine is having to speed up to match the rpm's to the speed. I personally never did a lot of downshifting, tending to use the brakes to slow down/stop rather than the engine. I always figured brakes were easy to replace, clutches not as much. When I did need to downshift (say for curves), I'd let it coast with the clutch in until it slowed down a bit before I let the clutch out.