Chirping Gears?

Hi,

I just started driving stick and im 16 years old. I am starting to get pretty good at it. At little bit smother shifting gettin out of 1st though:)
I need help on how to clarrify the different answers people are telling me and myths on driving stick.

I have a 90' civic LX with a 5 speed tranny.
Will chirping gears wear out my clutch faster?
Some people have told me it will and some told me it wont.

What is defined as riding the clutch cause I heard it wears it out easier.

Also when I wanna come to a stop sign, light, or turn I like to press my brake then fully press my clutch and shift to a lower gear. Say im goin in 4th gear and I wanna turn so I downshift into 2nd gear. Thats ok to do right?

thanks,
Owen

chirping the tires once in a while is ok... but if its everytime you shift it will cause damage over time.

down shifting from 4th to 2nd is ok... i do it all the time.

riding the clutch is having part of the clutch pressed in while driving, this causes slip wich over time can cause preamature wearing.

Hello, and welcome to the wonders of the standard transmission!
Unless your car is very powerful (and it's not; I have the very same car with the wimpy D15 motor) the only way to 'chirp' is to rev up the engine while your foot is on the clutch, and then let out on it real quick. That is always bad and will damage the clutch. If you treat your clutch well, it'll last 150,000 miles before you have to replace it.
"Riding the clutch" is something grandmothers are famous for. They think the clutch pedal is a nice place to rest the foot. This will kill a clutch very quickly. Put your foot on the clutch pedal when you're taking off, or when you want to shift. Apart from that, rest your foot on the floor, not on the pedal and you won't ever be 'riding the clutch'.
I will also tell you this: Hondas are happier in the higher RPMs. They don't make much power below 3,000 RPMs. If you're going up a steep hill and your RPMs drop below 3,000, downshift. In fact, it's actually very hard on your engine to try to climb a hill with the RPMs too low. That's called 'lugging'. Lugging=Bad.
Yes, you should probably be downshifting to second or third to go around corners. If you're going around corners in 4th, and you're going less than 70MPH, you are probably lugging.
Now, did you know that once the car is moving, you can shift gears WITHOUT HITTING THE CLUTCH PEDAL?! This is one of those mysteries that will take you many years and much grinding to figure out. This is the way big trucks are driven. Truck drivers use the clutch when starting from a standing stop, and then don't use the clutch again until it's time to come to a complete stop. That's the way I drive my Honda!
But you are not ready for those mysteries yet, Grasshopper...
Flunky

Thanks for the info.
You guys have helped me alot.
What if your goin like 50 mph in 4th gear and I want to slow down for a turn to about 20 mph. Can I first press the brake pedal, then fully press my clutch and shift to 2nd and make the turn?

Thanks,
Owen

i used to be able to drive without the clutch in the mg but cannot do it in the civic

ok I got a question for you guys too while we are on this. when my car is cold its really hard to shift into first gear ... should I double clutch into it or is something on my car fucked up or what?

Personally, I like to downshift through every gear. If I want to slow down from 50 to 20, I use the brake a bit, gear down to third, let out on the clutch and let the engine slow the car down, with no foot on the brake. The nice thing about this method is, your car is almost always in a useful gear. If something's coming at you and you want to speed up, you're already in gear; you hit the gas and get going.
Then again, practically everyone on this forum is always looking for excuses to speed up.
So: I like to downshift through every gear. That's my preference, not a rule.
Flunky

Originally posted by Melt
i used to be able to drive without the clutch in the mg but cannot do it in the civic

ok I got a question for you guys too while we are on this. when my car is cold its really hard to shift into first gear ... should I double clutch into it or is something on my car fucked up or what?

try to put it in 2nd first, but not let out the clutch and then move it to 1st.

Originally posted by 88CiViC_DX
try to put it in 2nd first, but not let out the clutch and then move it to 1st.

My mom does that all the time, but wont that eventaully wear out second gear also and ill have the same problem with that ... or what?

Hey, Melt!
What kind of oil have you got in your transmission? I use 10W-40, which means it's thin at low temperatures (like right when I start it up) and then gets thicker after I get it warmed up, by driving down the highway. If you have straight thirty weight, your oil will be thick when it's been sitting all night, and hard to get into first right when you start it up.
Nothing wrong with double-clutching, or anything else that keeps things from grinding.
Flunky

Originally posted by Melt


My mom does that all the time, but wont that eventaully wear out second gear also and ill have the same problem with that ... or what?

i dunno about wearing it out. its just the synchros arent lined up so when you do it it lines em up i think.

I don't think it'll wear it out. Shouldn't harm anything if you're just using 2nd gear to make sure you are properly lined up to get it into first.

I have a few points:

I got 168,000 out of my first clutch.... ;) FerioSiR got 315,000 or some crazy ass mileage out of his :eek:

Not using the clutch wears out the synchros in our cars...rev matching is they key there, but it still puts some load on the synchros. I have a bad 3rd, and rev matching and double clutching really helps cut down on the grinding.

I don't usually put in the clutch when I am slowing until the engine is at 1000-ish RPM...just before you're going slow enough that the engine is still trying to make the car go but you have the brake on. If you push the clutch in as soon as you brake you have much less control, as Flunky said...you never know what crazy-ass peeps are doing around you, and with both feet pushed in you can't get to the gas and avoid their dumb-asses...also, that lets the weight of the engine take the load as you slow, taking some weight off the brakes...they'll last longer.
I usually downshift to about 3rd for things like traffic lights...then I leave the clutch out until about 20-ish MPH...which is 1250 RPM or so..then I push it in as I complete my stop.

There's my $0.02

Hey, SAstanley-
I got that rev-matching DOWN!
Flunky
PS-Only REALLY funky thing about shifting without the clutch is it totally freaks out the cruise control. If I've got the cruise control on, I can rev the engine a bit and take it out of gear, but then it screams all the way up to the rev-limiter, which is quite a surprise when I'm lost in my own thoughts on a long trip. Those poor engineers at Honda never prepared for someone to take it out of gear without turning off or deactivating the cruise!

synchronizing the gears is a sweet trick my buddy can down shift and up shift all the gears without using the clutch, I can only do 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but I grind now and then so I dont do it much...Its so cool though haha

how do u shift without the clutch ? ive never tried that before because whenever i shift fast and like i shift faster than my foot can hit the clutch pedal, it grinds. so how to u shift without the clutch, im curious to know

yes, please explain.

when coming to a stop and i see it ahead of time, i throw it into neutral and just use the brakes. I got lifetime replacement on the brakes, so i'd rather burn those than the tranny,.

You are cruising along, your car is in gear. Put your hand on the shift stick. Push the gas down a little, and then let off...at the very moment that the RPMs start to fall, you can easily pull the shifter into neutral.
Let's pretend you were in first when you started this exercise. Now, you are in neutral. Before the car loses any velocity, move the shifter just a little towards second, not applying any pressure. If you have a brief pause in neutral, less than a second, and hold it just ready to go into second, you will feel one brief moment when everything lines up, and you can safely move it into second without ever having touched the clutch pedal.
That's how you shift to a higher gear. Downshifting is even more fun. Let's pretend you're in 4th. Give it a little gas, and then let off the gas. Just as the RPMs start to fall, you can pull it out of gear, into neutral. To get it into third without using the clutch, you give the gas a little rev with your foot. If you were at 3,000 when you took it out of gear, you might have to rev it up to 4,500 or so. Give it that little rev, hold it in the 'almost ready for 3rd' position, and you'll feel things lining up again. When they are right, you can feel it, and that's when you stick it in 3rd.
I mastered this technique when I drove a '76 Vega with a broken clutch cable. I drove it thousands of miles like that.
It was great practice for when I became a truck driver, though.
Flunky
PS-I knew this could be done, because my dad showed it to me once, when I was a little kid. Most people just use it when downshifting from 5th to 4th to pass somebody, or go up a hill.
PPS-Shifting with the clutch is faster. This will not in any way help you in a race. It's just cool...especially if you're about to change transmissions, and don't mind some grinding while you learn.

shyt on my dads lx basically mine cuz i drive it everyday, everywhere i can shift all gear with no grinds not using the clutch and downshift everygear with no grind and clutch its awesome, clutch has 250,xxx miles on it its great to show people that are learning how to drive a stick or just dumb people cuz they go crazy and ask a bunch of questions

hey 4 door that was a pretty good how-to.
Melt I have the same prob when my car is cold too. I have to double clutch it for first gear! I hate that i thought I had a problem but I just rebuilt my tranny last summer. (not that it needed it) to make a long story short i thought I blew 1st gear at the track.so i took it apart and it turned out it was just a little spring that broke in the tranny so i fixed it and while I was at it I rebuilt it! sorry there really isn't a point to my story! haha;)