^ lol yup i remember my first hill

 

oh and as my dad told me, if you dont feel confident because your on a hill and you think the people behind you are too close, put the parking brake on and get out and tell them now they need to go around you because they got too close. Its not your fault they are inconsiderate

 

ON a hill. No problem.

Just

put parking brake on.

Put in gear, take foot off of brake and on gas

lift clutch to catch point.

Put down parking brake and drive away.

 

The way I taught a few people to drive a stick is by getting on a slight hill, and make them slip the clutch and blurp the throttle to hold it even on the hill, 30 second hold and they could start in first(flat or incline) without a hitch, I recommend using somebody elses car!

 

^ ya good techniques but if you get stuck in a situation you dont feel comfortable experimenting in, dont forget the option of just getting out and telling them to go around

 

some good advice above, some summary points:

- don't worry about wearing out the clutch by slipping it too much when you are learning, slipping the clutch is key to smoothness . . . you can learn now to slip it less later
- learning to get the car going without using the gas pedal -- meaning by slipping the clutch slowly -- is real good practice
- even after many many years driving a stick I still get nervous at a stop light on a hill with cars behind me and still stall once in a while . . . so try not to worry about it, it happens
- back when I learned to drive, a "hill start" (using the parking break) was part of the test, even in an automatic . . . good technique to learn . . . . I wonder when they dropped that?

 

^ probably when they realized most cars had enough torque to pull you up most hills, or atleast make it so you wont roll backwards lol my moms MKX will roll forward on a very steep hill by our house with no problem

 

Some slipping isn't a problem but I remember teaching a friend's son how to drive a stick and I didn't notice that he was resting his left foot on the clutch pedal all the time. He burned out the clutch in just one afternoon. It wasn't a new clutch to start with but I had difficulty explaining to my friend why his car needed the clutch replaced so soon.

 

Ah......maybe back in his day. I don't think I would do that nowadays. LOL

Cheers.

 

Yeah, you might get shot

 

Thanks for all the help guys. Just another reason why I love this forum.

A couple more questions...

Slipping the clutch is pushing the clutch in and out versus riding the clutch is just keeping it partially up or down? Am I right? In general do you only want to slip the clutch occasionally?

 

Slipping the clutch is when you have the clutch partially engaged. The clutch is made to slip as you engage it upon take-off or as you ease into the next gear or when hill holding.

You want to minimize the amount of time that the clutch is in a slipping situation as slipping the clutch creates excess heat and accelerates wear. You have to slip the clutch as a matter of proper operation but to maximize clutch life you need to minimize clutch slip as much as possible.

Sounds like a oxy-moron doesn't it?

NEVER, repeat NEVER, ride the clutch. Never ride around with your foot on the clutch pedal. As soon as you have the gear selected and engaged get your foot off the clutch pedal, even if it is just for a few seconds between gears. The biggest reason for this is to keep the throwout bearing from having constant pressure on it and wearing out faster, and it also keeps pressure off the pressure plate of the clutch and accelerating the wear on the fingers of the pressure plate.

I learned all this the hard way on my first car, wore the clutch out within a few months.

 

This is one of the best way to learn starting on a hill;

And in some parts of Scotland I've been in it's the law that you do this.

 

Curious if anyone can explain this to me since im new to a manual also.

It seems as if the clutch grabs in slightly different positions for each gear. It seems to be the same general area but kinda different. Is this true? or is it just my imagination/me being an idiot?

 

Always the same physical spot. But you may or may not notice the actual point based on the difference in RPMs between gears.

ie When you are stopped and letting out the clutch in first, the transmission is spinning at 0 RPM so the grab point is pronounced. Likewise, if you are running the engine hard, when you shift the engine/transmission RPM difference is more pronounced.

But if you're taking it easy shifting and the engine/tranny RPM isn't as pronounced, the clutch is actually physically engaging before you get the physical feedback.

 

Great answer, had everything i was looking for a more.

On to question #2, Can anyone give an explanation about downshifting? Ive been driving the car for a few weeks now (again this is the first car ive been driving a manual full time in) but find it hard to downshift smoothly, especially if im on the highway and wanna pass someone.

I know theres some sort of technique and i would assume its all about timing the clutch and gas pedal. Any help?

 

Should be noted too like waiting at a light.
Don't leave it in gear and hold the clutch down for the duration of the red light.

Heat kills clutches...slipping it a bit while learning, as long as your not riding it while going a good clip...you'll be ok.
Slamming down the gas while slipping the clutch, will kill it a lot faster .... NOT a good thing.
You'll learn very quickly what a burning clutch smells like

 

my friend taught me how to rev match on downshifts, i think he said something about multiplying or adding 15% to your current RPMs and revving to that before you downshift. like everything with manuals though, i just got the feel for it and it came naturally everytime i wanted to downshift eventually

 

To downshift, push clutch, rev engine rpm to match gear going into (**), release clutch
After a while of going through the gears, you'll have a better idea or where your revs have to match based on gear/speed.

So going from 5th to 4th you'll need to get your RPMs up, going to get 5th - 3rd, will require the rpms to be even higher.

This takes a bunch of practice.
Sometimes its smooth, sometimes its not depending on how close you are.

 

What... you mean these new-fangled cars don't need to be double-clutched to downshift?