How Often Do You Make a Shifting Error - Manual Drivers Only

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  freddofrog42 on 22/11/2023 - 13:19

  Only used manuals in the early years and miss them now.

  One thing I remember to this day is having to drive back a BMW E28 528i with a failed slave cylinder from Le Mans in France, across the car ferry to the North of the UK. If you're careful it's actually remarkably easy to change gear in manual box without a clutch and without grinding gears etc. Just requires an eye on the revs and gentle hand to ease a gear in. Of course starting in 1st will require the starter motor.

  Taught my now wife how to do the same thing "just in case" on her 2004 Mini and it really teaches you about rev matching etc. The Mini was dead easy to do this with as a re most modern manuals.

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    Euphemistic on 22/11/2023 - 13:35

    I used to practice clutch less gear changes in our work utes. Got quite good at it.

    On the other side of manuals not working I had an old valiant that got stuck in 4th gear. Got it home, an hour away, just fine. Helped that it had a 360ci V8. Ease out the clutch to get it up to moving at idle speed then away it went. Didn’t win any traffic light gran Prix, but pretty much kept up with traffic.

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  Queue2Queue on 22/11/2023 - 13:54

  About once a year, and the shame carries for about a year to begin the cycle again.

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  McFly on 22/11/2023 - 14:30

  Not often, but when it does happen the worst is when there isn't enough toilet paper in the cubicle.

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  soaringphoenix on 22/11/2023 - 16:57

  During spirited driving, I very occasionally might make an error when rev matching on downshifts (typically not revving precisely high enough).

  My third gear is a bit busted (I think it's a synchros issue) and sometimes if I'm fanging it, I don't have the necessary force to shift up to third and I'll end up in neutral revving away

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    Mintee on 22/11/2023 - 17:45

    I'm curious " rev matching on downshifts (typically not revving precisely high enough)." - Is this doing a lot of wear on your clutch? I'm curious especially if you're only like 200 rpm short? less rpm gap less wear?

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      mccarthyp64 on 23/11/2023 - 01:25

      Rev matching doesn't involve depressing the clutch, so it won't do any damage really. What will happen in some cases is shocks through the rest of the drivetrain that the clutch would usually absorb if you don't get it right. With synchro boxes, it's easy to just push the knob into the gate and wait for the RPM to match rather than slamming it in and risking damage.

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        IamEzza on 23/11/2023 - 17:20

        You can still rev match while using the clutch, which is how most people will do it. Doing it without the clutch requires high precision on the rev match and the timing/force when you push in the gear selector, and isn't necessary on any modern car with synchros.

        If you are doing a track day, rev matching will help you under braking a lot, to keep the car settled. If you don't rev match when slowing down quickly from high speed the driven wheels will want to lock up/slow down harshly which will unsettle the car and it's also harsh on the drive-line.

        The more precise the revs are matched the less work the clutch and synchros have to do.

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  Outrageous on 23/11/2023 - 00:59

  Wrong gear has only happened if im eating maccas while driving. Left hand cheeseburger and gearstick, right hand fries/drink and steering wheel.

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  mccarthyp64 on 23/11/2023 - 01:23

  Once a week at least, but I drive fairly aggressively while keeping to the speed limit for the most part.

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  payless69 on 23/11/2023 - 07:54

  As for the stall issue,\if had chosen the wrong one I do shift fast
  Buy a Tesla Plaid, it finds out if you have a wall ahead and need to reverse.
  Caution: Americans never reverse, they back up.

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  imurgod on 23/11/2023 - 08:18

  Only ever happened to me on the track. Never happened on the road.

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  Leeroy Jenkins on 23/11/2023 - 12:02

  I guess I shift into the wrong gear once or twice a year driving every day, mostly 3rd when it's supposed to be 5th.

  The last time I stalled was a couple of years ago. I was at a stop light and I was trying to start when the car was in 3rd gear. It's almost impossible to stall unless my mind is 100% elsewhere

  Clutch too fast? Every now and then.

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  Bullion78 on 23/11/2023 - 16:27

  Never. Only ever driven manual cars and its like riding a bike. You never fall off.

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  Wiede on 23/11/2023 - 16:31

  Kinda off topic but I remembered first time I drove automatic car I used both feet (right for accelerate and left to break) for the first time and managed to jumped then shutdown the car completely. Never made that mistake again. I did remember that it felt like driving a bumper car or arcade car when I drove auto first time.

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  blonky on 23/11/2023 - 23:27

  When I was daily driving manual it would’ve been incredibly rare to stall or mess anything up

  After driving auto for a couple years I went back to manual and first drive forgot to engage the clutch when slowing for lights and stalled it

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