Blackjack

iTrader: (3)

My input... If you shifts aren't smooth, you may be engaging the clutch too much with each shift. You don't have to engage the clutch to the floor for each shift. It's more of a "half" I guess. I too struggled with this the day I first got the car because my last MT (a 1995 Jeep Wrangler that I had as an offroad toy) nearly required you to push the clutch all the way in to change gears. The G doesn't.

SilverRSXJezus

However...as a counterpoint to not skipping gears:


While in the absolute sense, it does further wear out your synchros, there shouldn't be a mindset that if you do it, you're seriously screwing things up.

Much like downshifting with or without rev matching, they are both bad to do, but if you do it every so often, or do it accidentally, it's okay.

Most synchos wear in general won't be immediate to most people or at least shouldn't occur in early mileage...probably closer to 100k, in my opinion, but of course that is an unsubstantiated number. Just from personal experience

iinviktus

Yep. The G's clutch has a high disengagement point. This is different for most cars and a lot of people will tell you that you should push the clutch in all the way to change gears, but its obvious, that if the car isn't shifting smoothly, you're doing something wrong.

jarborn1

iTrader: (5)

^^ Thats weird. When going into first the clutch engages almost immediatly. Much different from any other cars i have owned. Like almost "On the Floor"..

jarborn1

iTrader: (5)

OHhhhhhhhh disengage...........haha got it !!

DetroitG37Joe

iTrader: (2)

but if you plan on ever driving the car aggresively or semi-launching and hard launching it - then whats the point of shifting early. To the OP, the 1-2 shift is pretty jerky and the clutch is touchy - just keep practicing - I think it basically has to do with speed. I found that clutch in, ram it down and gas it all in about .5 seconds helps - it's that delay that makes u ride the clutch. Doing it fast will be jerky in the beginning but it will get better.

Also lastly - other 6MT owners can chime in on this - but the car's clutch and shifting really becomes less abrasive and smooths out after it's broken in like around 5-9k miles. I recently crunched into 2nd pretty harshly in high revs and noticed the gears to shift alot smoother thereafter. I know that sounds odd - but I truly think the clutch has a break in period - that once surpassed - the car's clutch is truly tamed.

DetroitG37Joe

iTrader: (2)

This is cool and all and I do it too out of being lazy and granny driving but in any "off the line" spirited launch situation - you are not going to put the car's pwoer to use doing this. This car thrives at higher RPMs - it's when she really pulls - so you need to master shifting out of 1st at 5-7k if you wanna have a respectable launch. Once you take the baby steps to master that (which is where I'm at) - then a red line shift from 1st to 2nd shouldn't be too hard.

last lemming

reality check people.

I've been driving sport cars with manuals for over 20 years and I've never worn a tranny because of skipping gears. And I've rebuilt them.

Its actually quite rediculous to think that skipping gears will "hurt" the tranny. It doesn't "hurt" anything. It just causes a different wear rate. The engine and tranny ARE wear items and they will both need rebuilding eventually. It's meant to be "skipped" - you going down a strait and a hairpin turn comes up. You are not going to shift down 5>4>3>2 for instance (unless you have a sequential tranny), your going more like 5>2. The WHOLE point of the manual it to select the gear BEST for the condition, and unless your going to keep the car over 10 years or you just bash on the car constantly you tranny will be fine - just dont drive it like an *** hat. And rev matching will help with wear if your concerned with it - but wont eliminate it. Mind you, driving the car at all will wear the tranny to, but you not going to stop that are you?

What will "hurt" a tranny is dumping the clutch at 5K-6k rpm.

But for God's sake, drive the thing like it wants to be driven. Like a performance car.

SilverRSXJezus

Not really true.


It's probably true that you didn't wear out a transmission on the only condition of skipping gears, but no single factor can be attributed to transmission wear. Some actions may be more significant than others, but it's a fact that skipping gears put more wear on the synchros, albeit you may consider them to be nearly negligible.

Like I said before, it's something to be considered, but it's definitely not something that is significant to say, directly contribute to the transmission wear in a noticeable way.

last lemming

While I can see where you are coming from (and to the extent that there is marginal wear I agree) I feel telling someone "not" to skip gears because it hurts the tranny is misleading the OP into thinking that there might be premature transmission failure by doing this. I don't believe this to be the case unless there is an inherent flaw in the syncro/tranny design to begin with. A properly built tranny (and I have no reason yet to believe the G37's tranny isn't) will last many, many years before syncro failure comes into play. Your more likely to cause damage doing many other things with the tranny like shifting hard at redline, or abrubtly engaging gears, or engaging the clutch before the gear is selected and grinding the synchros.

It would be sortta like me telling you to not drink beer because it causes liver failure (sorry if the analogy isn't perfect). While that may be true, is would only occure after many years of excessive drinking. The fact is your liver can deal with the beer and is designed to do so - up to a point.

Just a side note, many Corvette owners have been skipping gears (1 to 3)for years in order to save gas.

I don't mean any disrespect to you btw, it is after all just my opinion

SteveBKNY

+1 on the skippin a gear. I do it all the time. Nothing wrong with it.. And as far driving more smoothly, it boils down to getting used to the cars gear ratios, rev matching and timing. It took me about 3 weeks to get used to the car. Now it feels as smooth as an automatic when I'm driving... PS dont know how many miles u have on the car, but the clutch itself appears to break in and become smoother over time. I now i have 1300 miles thus far.

Mike

iTrader: (1)

Yes, it is. Keep in mind, a 6->4 shift will still load the synchros with almost double the load of a 5->4 shift.

You don't even have to clutch in when you shift down.

You can just Clutch, shift 6 -> 5 -> 4, Clutch out.

Mike

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you may come from an older generation of cars where everything is overbuilt.

Keep in mind, the Vette's tranny is DESIGNED with skipping in mind. Hell, you HAVE to rev a certain amount to even be able to use 2nd and 3rd... otherwise you're stuck with... 4th...

The newer Japanese cars are built to meet the needs of normal conditions, as is this tranny. It was not made with skipping in mind, and thus, I can't recommend it. Newer cars are made to waste as little as possible, and are engineered down to the 0.001th decimal place to make sure it doesn't exceed the spec by too much. The era of 2JZs and RB26s is gone.

If you're never had a bad experience, then, I can't stop you from skipping. I would expect to get some noticeable notchiness by 60k and even difficulty getting into gear by 90k.



my $0.02.

Keep in mind I've seen more G's than most people do in a lifetime

DrJones

iTrader: (1)

go 1st, 3rd, 5th.... everybody is doing it!

SFG37S

Yep, with any stick shift you drive you gott'a pedal it when you shift it to get a smooth shift. Feather the throttle a little as you depress the clutch and keep a small amount of rpm's up. You will find your shifts are lot smoother. No need to bury the clutch pedal into the floor board!(unless of coarse you have a very short throw clutch)
Practice makes perfect.