Question about driving a stick shift???
 

I know I should know this stuff, but I don't. I am picking up my 2002 Mazda Protege DX (US) tomorrow and it is a stick shift. The only problem is that I have only driven a stick shift a couple of times. I am sick of steering my car. It is time to actually drive it. Here are my Questions: 1. When I am taking a 90* corner is it ok to hold the clutch down? 2. When I am slowing down (not stopping) do I need to downshift or can I keep it in a higher gear??? Are there any other things I should know to prevent burning the clutch out???? Any and all comments will be very much appreciated!!!!!! Thanks:)

I think you need to down shift when slowing and not stopping. But staying in the higher gear would just be bad on the gas and power I don't know if it matters to the clutch. How fast to you plan on taking the 90* corner? If you are in 2nd I don't think you need to hit the clutch unless you are going real slow and are fearful of spuddering.

I think where you need to worry is moving from a standstill and shifting. I give the car lots of gas as I let out the clutch. Im sure this is going to cause more clutch wear on my car. finding that perfect timing is going to take a while. I think out clutches can handle it though. And as long as you aren't grinding the gears...

there is no point in holding the clutch while making the 90 degree turn........depending on how fast you want to take the turn downshift before the actual turn..........if driving relatively slow you can even downshift into second.....

when you are slowing down and you know you will stop (example.....red light in front) just put it into neutral and press the brake (without clutch to prevent wear) ........or you could downshift, but there is really no point (if for certain you will eventuall have to stop) ............if you are slowing down and say the light turns green in front there is no point to downshift......you can keep it in 5th, but acceleration will be very slow.......if you don't want that just put it into 3rd and you're set.......

that's at least what I do.....if you have any other questions just ask.....

and once you get everything down you will be so happy that you got a stick shift......good choice !!!

double clutching comes next, but that's after you get a hang of just regular driving............do a search here in the forum or on yahoo.com for how to double clutch and prevent wear.....

later

the clutches will handle it, but don't abuse them........go to a park and just practice the start.........there is no point in reving the car high and just releasing the clutch..............
practice makes perfect you know:D

i hope this helps you out
1.forget slowing down in a turn stomp on the gas:D
2.stay in a lower gear and stomp on the gas
3.yea hold clutch in ,stomp on gas and release clutch
4.dont stomp on gas...

i hope that helps

That would work too.........if you don't give a shit about your car;)

or if you are a race car driver;)

if you are a race car driver that doesn't give a shit about his car;)

Priority.....Identity has a really good idea....get your car out to an empty park...or shopping mall on a day when they are closed or nearly empty....and practice....its really not hard...and you will get the hang of it faster than you may think.

personally....I downshift when I am slowing down....just how I learned many years ago to drive a stick.....as far as holding in the clutch going around a corner...usually NO...you power through a corner...if you have the clutch in...all you are doing is steering and you have no true control of the car....put it in the appropriate gear for the speed you are going through the corner and go. as you drive your car more you will come to KNOW what speeds coorespond to the gear you are in....top and low speed for a particular gear.....shift your car to keep the rpms in the bands for that gear...it will help with gas milage as well.

WOW!!! That was fast!!! The thread has only been here for like 20 min and already tons or replies!!!! Thank you for the tips!!!!! I will keep them all in mind tomorrow EXCEPT for craigrrrp's post (unless I race) I'll check back later for more replies if anyone has anything else to add

or a race car driver that doesnt dive a shit about his car ..because its someone elses;)

HEY!!!!!!......no im just kidding do not, i repeat DO NOT do what i told you to do....(unless your next to a civic:evilgrin: )...lol

Sorry craigrrrp I meant I'll ignore Identity_X's post, it was funny though!!!!! :D

yea hes the one giving you bad teqniqes.....;)

personally i would put it in neutral when slowing down then depending on how fast you are going then down shift. The one thing that is bad for clutches is 5500+ launches, its only good if you are next to a civic then it is not bad for it but rather better for it.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

That's a good point, but none of us a race car drivers and the only cars we drive daily are our own;)

WTF ????

go ahead and do your 5000 RPM launches then!!!

ok, so I picked up my car today!!!! I put 100+ miles on it just driving arround town. I LOVE IT!!! I am going to list my shift points: 2nd 10 MPH ///// 3rd 23MPH //////4th 35MPH ////// 5th 55 MPH.....Does that sound right to everyone????

Well, thats sounds sort of right, but i usally look at the tach to shift. Ive been driving my P5 for about 4 mths now, its also my first stick ive owned. I notice that sometimes I dont even look at the tach, I just listen to the car.

One thing I would like to know is how can you tell if you are wearing your clutch out? I hear some people say that their clutch is slipping, what exactly does this mean?

If anyone wants to explain double clutching that would be great, otherwise I guess ill do a search to find out :)

Ive done some research on double-clutching, and ive come to the conclusion that it is unnecessary. If this is the case, why do people say you should learn how to do this? According to www.howstuffworks.com and www.cartalk.com , modern cars have synchronizers which eliminates the need for double-clutching.

Can somene give me second opinions on this?

Here are some other links I came across


http://www.s2ki.com/faqs/faqpdf/Double%20Clutching.pdf

http://www.howstuffworks.com/transmission4.htm

http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Arch...cember/11.html

I have the DX model which has no tach....so I have to go by speedo, sounds, and feeling.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: .....thats some ass shit!

1) number one rule,,,,,, don't ride the clutch pedal ,, either your foot is on ,, or it is off, but don't ride the pedal as this will burn out your clutch and easily cost you about a premature 500 bucks ....

2) when coming to a stop you have 2 choices you can put the gear selector in neutral and brake the car using the brake pedal , like a auto ,,, do this at first to get used to the car ...
or
you can shift down to the next lower gear while braking , just make sure you sink the clutch and let go of it so that you will actually be slowing down , you will notice that you will slow down much quicker this way..

3) when going around a 90 degree corner , that depends on if there is a stop sign there , sometimes you can get away with rolling the stop sign and keeping the car in second , wich is a bad habit of mine, or you can come to a complete stop but the car back in first and then roll like that ,,

4) the main thing you have to remeber is to keep a cool head, don't get impatient and don't let other drivers honking and what not phase you ,,, remeber if you have to , just put on your hazards,,, you are in the wright as long as you have those on ... then noone has a reason for hitting you in the back ....
Bruce

My personal opinion on stick driving. When turning a corner (90 deg.), drop down to gear-2 and turn as you drive, this maintains drive-power to the vehicle. Never drive (including turning) on neutral or depressed-clutch, because the vehicle has no drive-power and this eliminates your emergency manuovers if needed.

Btw, never sit on a stick-shift, it could be painful at the end.

Probably not a good idea unless your REALLY proficient. We do that with heavy trucks. (only use the clutch for starts) all shifting done by rpm. BUT diesels rev very slow and are designed to do that. If you want to rip off shifts like that without leaving your transmission in the street, buy a transmission with dog ring gears instead of syncros like a Jerico.

Don

PriorityShip,

Your shift points look alright. You could increase all of them by 10MPH without too much trouble. I have the ES and I can run 1st to 20MPH without going nuts. I usually try to shift it between 10-15MPH though. Your engine will always sounds like it needs a shift awhile before it does anyway (plus the fact you should have a rev limiter like I do). If you are really going to run your car then you might want to invest in a tach or an extended warranty. It is easy to blow some important and expensive stuff when you run an engine too hard. Sometimes the wiring is already there for the tach and you can just get one from an LX or an ES (at the junkyard) and slap it in there. That would be your best bet.

I have been looking for a tach...but they are hard to come by. i have called all local junk yards. The dealership wants $329. I laughed in the guys face!!!! So if anyone has/can get me one...PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

Thanks

I have seen some vehicles with tachs as an option that were not prewired. It just depends. Most of the newer ones do though. It just depends on whether the manufacturer decided to have two different wiring harness's for the tach and non-tach models.

Anyone know if the 1st gen DX's come prewired for a tach?