General MT Questions

hwasa

hwasa

Well-Known Member
382
93
Long Beach, CA
Vehicle Model
Civic Si
Body Style
Coupe
My Si is my first manual so I hope you don't mind these nooby questions:

1. Sometimes (everyone makes mistakes, right?) I don't put the clutch in quite enough and it makes a kind of grind sound if I start to shift (about half way). Obviously this is not on purpose and I pull back to neutral when I hear this but what is happening and how bad is it for the car?

2. It seems to me that unless I really rev out 1st my si is really slow taking off (particularly when I'm switching to 2nd at like 8-10mph; its usually kind of clunky) during city driving. Any tips?

THANKS!
 
Definitely run the revs higher in 1st gear. 8 to 10mph is too low in my opinion. The car doesn't have low end torque at that slow of speed in 2nd to accelerate quickly. Take 1st gear to say 4k rpm and see the difference. It'll be night and day. Grinding isn't good, so do your best to either adjust your seat closer to the steering wheel, or make an effort to push the clutch in further. Grinding the transmission gears will literally eat away at the teeth & cause metal shavings in your transmission. You do not want to continue grinding gears.
 
I try not to! Its usually going into 3rd for some reason idk why. Is there something I should do about the metal shavings possibly already in there or?
 
When you take your car in for an oil change do the dealers also check your transmission fluid?
 
There is a dipstick just like your oil dipstick that can be checked for level. The transmission drain bolt should have a magnet on it. It'll collect any shavings on the bolt. When you do/or have someone do a transmission fluid change it'll be stuck to the bolt. Since you stated this is your first manual, maybe make a conscious effort to not touch the stick shift until your clutch is depressed. You may be moving your hand on the stick shift & starting to shift gears before it's depressed fully? It's not uncommon for people learning. Just take your time. It just takes practice. Timing the hand/foot takes some experience.
 
So I know its bad and there could be shavings in my trans but as long as I make a conscious effort to not grind gears and don't do it anymore I'm fine for now and I don't need to take it in to the shop? Does the magnet save the trans from damage due to shavings by collecting them? Thanks!
 
The purpose of the magnet is to collect shavings/metal particles. You'll be fine. Just try to avoid grinding gears. If it's literally grinding all the time with proper shifting, you need to take it to honda to have them look at it.
 
If you think you've ground more than what makes you feel it should, just take it in to the dealer and have them change your tranny fluid, very cheap way to be safe.

There are a few opinions on how to shift gears....... Like to push the clutch to the floor or to only push far enough to take pressure off the gears to make the shift(either of which should be done with the rpm's at least somewhere around 4k or more(at least till you become proficient with shifting).
There is another point to ponder, there's a balance between gear-jamming and shifting to slow, learn by trying to feel the shifts. there's a feel to it when trying to take it out of gear into neutral, and another when going into the next gear. but not too fast, or too slow.
The reason it's easier to shift at higher rpm's, is that it gives the engine rpm momentum to keep spinning while you have disengaged the clutch, and that is the final goal not to allow there to be to long a lag between shifts. Everything works smoother if the whole drive-train is spinning close to the same speed, that's engine, tranny, drive wheels.
 
I've done it less than 10 times over 8k mi idk exact #. All low speeds like 15
 
Scuderi said:
I've done it less than 10 times over 8k mi idk exact #. All low speeds like 15
Click to expand...
It's not just a number of times it's ground, but a combination of times & how much pressure was being put on it, AND how long it was held while grinding......... As a normal person, I'd say most would let the pressure off as soon as they feel/hear it.
Then comes the next step....... when missing a gear, or doing anything that leaves you in neutral while coasting, brings up how and where to put it back in a gear....... the rule of thumb is to go for a higher gear/lower gear than you just tried, because of the car slowing down not having it in gear..... Time lapse.
 
It certainly takes time to learn to shift smoothly with anyone new to driving stick. When I first started, I found it incredibly helpful to understand what the parts I was moving around were actually doing and what they looked like just by watching a few youtube videos like the one below. Unless you're really jamming the shifter into a gear or jamming 1st gear, you're probably just grinding the syncro rings inside your transmission. Repeated wear will still cause problems down the road, but a dozen times overall isn't that bad. Hell, I still grind reverse when I'm in a hurry and forget to come to a complete stop, and I've had mine almost 2 years.

 
Yeah, I bought the Si in April of '14. I bought it so I could learn how to drive stick, and I've only ground it...twice? Hurt my soul every time I hear that sound. It was typically because it popped out of gear, not from the clutch. Before I start the car, I always sit in the seat on level ground and make sure I can comfortably push the clutch all the way down.
 
I learned on my '03 LX. Lots of bumping and grinding in the process of learning and from inattention over the years. When I got rid of it it had about 125,000 miles on it and there were no noticeable problems with the transmission or shifting.
 
The vid was a nice show of knowing how it works...........
Let's say we looking down at a 4 speed.... 1st is top left; 2nd bottom left; 3rd top right; 4th bottom left......
So to put it from neutral to 1st, think of an(capital) H....... so pull the stick all the way to the left and then up to the left(by riding the walls it can't go any where except to the top left....... so the rest work the same way, follow the walls to go where you want to go.......
Now newer cars (pretty much) have 5, 6, 7 gears..... so now you need to be able to feel those other walls inside the original H, which takes time to feel(they feel like a drop bump while sliding across the top/bottom part of the H's cross bar).

The control of the clutch/gas is evenly important ........... With to object of trying not to let any more time lapse than necessary to get to the next gear in mind....... Finding the pressure point with your foot of the clutch pedal without actually moving any part of the clutch plate(which will disengage the clutch). That pressure actually cuts time when ready to push and inch or 2 more........ so your hand should also be putting pressure on the shift stick ready to go into the next gear, but not actually putting enough pressure to move it out of gear....
Now with both your hand and feet feeling pressure, now follow though with both and it will side into the next gear like butter.
Only one thing left to work on, and that's the gas pedal when going up/higher a gear you want to let off the gas just enough to let pressure off the *drive-train(*engine/tranny/wheels), it only takes a blip(modern race tech can get this done by elec' cutting the engine off for a mille-sec so as to take the pressure off the d-train).
Now going down/lower a gear, you need to do the same with the gas pedal to release pressure, but you want to give it a little(very f'n little) more gas as you slide into the lower gear, because when it goes into a lower gear it's going to require more engine rpm's to match the speed of the d-train.
When moving you don't want to push the clutch pedal to the floor, because that takes more time, and that's time that allows the drive-train to get out of sequence, and makes the gear change rougher.
You don't want to gear-jam/speed shift either that pushes gears together that aren't ready to be together yet(like marrying someone you just met)....:D

Now, please....... All you peeps that are highly advanced gear changers, let's not confuse the newbies that are learning to shift, with how to speed shift. If you see anything wrong with this for NEW ppl, by all means chime in.
 
Gonna watch the video now. Gotta say though shifting at higher RPMs does wonders for smoothness of shifting. Also I have a question I thought of today: will you get better MPG going 40 in 5th or 6th? 30 in 4th or 5th? If you drive a 14 you'll know what I mean. Not quite sure how to explain it but it seems like sometimes if you're going a speed in the low range of a gear you might possibly be using more gas. Thanks again for all the replies !
 
For me

0-15 1st gear
15-24 2nd gear
24-30 3rd gear
30-42 4th gear
42-57 5th gear
57- infinity in 6th gear

I always try to stay above 2k RPM and shift around 3K.
 
Scuderi said:
Gonna watch the video now. Gotta say though shifting at higher RPMs does wonders for smoothness of shifting. Also I have a question I thought of today: will you get better MPG going 40 in 5th or 6th? 30 in 4th or 5th? If you drive a 14 you'll know what I mean. Not quite sure how to explain it but it seems like sometimes if you're going a speed in the low range of a gear you might possibly be using more gas. Thanks again for all the replies !
Click to expand...
You can get worse mileage from going too fast, or too slow. The engine works better at it's optimum rpm, and that will give you better mileage......... Then there is wind, hills, etc.
Do the Si's have a running meter of how your gas consumption is doing at the time? My EX does. If so try so diff' things and see if it goes up or down.
 
Michal006 said:
For me

0-15 1st gear
15-24 2nd gear
24-30 3rd gear
30-42 4th gear
42-57 5th gear
57- infinity in 6th gear

I always try to stay above 2k RPM and shift around 3K.
Click to expand...
This would help acceleration quite a bit and if I recall correctly don't you get 35 mpg? Up until a few days ago I'd go to 3rd at 10 4th 20 5th 31 6th 39. Feel like that isn't optimal gas mileage wise is it?
 
Scuderi said:
Gonna watch the video now. Gotta say though shifting at higher RPMs does wonders for smoothness of shifting. Also I have a question I thought of today: will you get better MPG going 40 in 5th or 6th? 30 in 4th or 5th? If you drive a 14 you'll know what I mean. Not quite sure how to explain it but it seems like sometimes if you're going a speed in the low range of a gear you might possibly be using more gas. Thanks again for all the replies !
Click to expand...

When I first started driving I always shifted very high. Over time I have brought that down, and when I started using 6th gear at 35mph cruising around town I noticed a gain of at least 1 mpg on my average. I still shift higher up, as I feel this engine is designed to work at higher rpms (part of why I bought it ;) ) and then let it coast to slow down closer to the speed limit in 6th.


Michal006 said:
For me

0-15 1st gear
15-24 2nd gear
24-30 3rd gear
30-42 4th gear
42-57 5th gear
57- infinity in 6th gear
Click to expand...

I think this is almost exactly what the manual says for suggested shift speeds.
 
PainlessCandy said:
When I first started driving I always shifted very high. Over time I have brought that down, and when I started using 6th gear at 35mph cruising around town I noticed a gain of at least 1 mpg on my average. I still shift higher up, as I feel this engine is designed to work at higher rpms (part of why I bought it ;) ) and then let it coast to slow down closer to the speed limit in 6th.




I think this is almost exactly what the manual says for suggested shift speeds.
Click to expand...
0-infinity run please [emoji57]
 
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