My biggest fear as a newbie manual driver in a nice 2002 subaru wrx vehicle is stalling the vehicle in traffic and then getting honked at and now getting spanked by the embarrassment causing me to conitinue on stalling the vehicle If worst comes to worst, i'm stalling on a hill. what an embarrassing nightmare. Lets see, i stalled twice in the past 2 hours in traffic. I'm so worried about my clutch, i'm gonna break it.
if you are sitting still in traffic and need to start....dont apply any gas and just slowly let off the clutch to engage first gear. it will start rolling without gas
pratice pratice pratice! we all stall every once in a long while... it happens to get to upset about it... if you break something, you can fix it dont worry
yep stall all the time. It's been a year for my 5spd so it's all good. I had all those fears also. MN doesn't really have HILLs, well where I live there aren't many/ANY...
lol i am a newb at a manual too! but the prob is...my dad always take me to roads that have stop signs on hills and ppl r usually behind me! urgh! i wanna practice in the high school behind my house..
Stall on the hill? Apply e-brake, start the car and do your normal thing, just release e-brake gradually as you release the clutch and give it gas. Once you're comfortable with a stick, you'll no longer need this, except on some streets in San Francisco... The key - is getting used to where your clutch "grabs". To learn that - practice starting rolling without any gas, just with easing the clutch out. I'd try that first in reverse gear. You'll stall less that way.
a good way to look at it is apply the gas till you get say to about 1500 or so and as you let the clutch out, do not let the needle get below that mark, applying gas/ letting out the clutch as needed. seriously tho, after the first week or 2 it will become second nature, you have nothin to worry about!
prob with me is...is i never can practice! my dad is the only one in my family that can drive a stick and mom wont even be in the car wit me cause she doesnt know how...and my dad works nights so he is always sleepin or workin..
avoid Hills if possible until u are comfortable on street...Do it in a empty parking lot...Go Slow...Let the clutch off a slowly and step on the gas as u let go the clutch..If u feel the car is starting to shutter and stall that means u need to step on the gas a bit more and hold the clutch until u feel it catch, then let go... Let go smoothly...u let go to fast your car will *Hop* not a good thing...Just practice, practice, practice...Give me about 30 mins with ya, u should have a good understanding of how to balance it... No one else knows how to baby a car more than I do...lol
my prob is...(from wat ive noticed) is that i let out the clutch and apply the gas...but once i get to a certain point...i just let the clutch out all the way and dump the clutch...and then im hoppin around in the car...LOL
that's the problem...u let go the clutch to soon or dumping it...rather than just letting it out softly smoothly...than you car will be hopp'in...which is really bad on the gears in your tranny... If you gonna dump your clutch u better make sure u r stepp'in on the gas a bit more aggressive... note: the faster U LET GO the clutch the faster u have to STEP on the gas...
poor soul. Lets go practice the hardest! Starting on a hill. hA! no serisouly, after thsi session, you'll understand the dynamis behind letting the clutch slip and feathering it as well as engagment point. Then we'll go into learning how to not JERK the car between shifts. Shifting flow/speed......accelerating habits, and BAD habits.
Stalling is nothing. I owned my WRX for three years and even in year 3 I would still stall it out occassionally. No big deal. Of course that was after putting on the 12 pound lightened flywheel with the AC on... but I still stalled it.
dont worry about, especially if your still new to the car. i know the time i drove Shibbs' new WRX i stalled it and it threw me for a loop, thing is just keep your cool about it
yep... I learnt to drive a manual when I was about 7-8yrs old... (grew up on a farm) and even from time to time if I am not thinkin g or am distracted I have stalled my car... so yeah even after 15 yrs of driving a stick daily, it happens...
Subaru clutches are a lot harder to learn on honestly. If you want to really learn. Learn on a civic. They have a light clutch and requires no clutch ride to get it to move.
I disagree.... like Justin said.. ease of without gas.. as soon as you feel it gripping lightly and slowly apply gas... I personally think Subarus are real user friendly...
I do that no gas and ease out the clutch all the time in traffic. It really helps you feel the catch point on the high engaging Subaru clutch. Out of every manual I've driven, I think Subaru's are the hardest to drive. That doesn't make them less fun, though!
I think this is the first thread ive seen where the orignal poster has had nothing to say in return...
ya my clutch is gonna need to be replaced...but might as well wait cause there is no point in wreckin a new one! lol
I learned to drive a stick with the STi. Practiced in a parking lot for a bit and then hit the road. When I bought my motorcle a few years ago I didn't drive a manual or ride a bike so it sat in the garage few days before I had the courage to take it out one sunday morning and teach myself. Practice/time is all ya need it will become second nature very quick.
Find someone with a big diesel truck with a manual transmission. There is so much low end torque and the granny gear in 1st makes it super easy to get the timing down, plus you'll be shifting into 2nd or 3rd real quick to keep moving. <----learned on a 1950 McCormick Farmall Super M, a 91 Dodge Ram and a 94 Jetta. Growing up in the country FTW
My actual first learning experience driving manual was back in 2006, dont tell no one but forgot his subuaru forums name but his real name is nhia thao, i drove his 93 turbo charged 2.0 swapped subaru sedan and i have to admit that i did some massive stalling and shake riding on it. My younger sister let me test drive it and learn a bit on driving manual. Intensive jerking on the vehicle. so much gas, and letting off on the clutch fast and then click click click, whobble,whobble, vrooom vroom vroom. With so much newbie confidence for that 15 minute drive, the next few months later on october 2006, i test drived my friends mitsubishi lancer just because i brought a hot looking date to his house just to teach him some church stuff. With my newbie confidence, i stallled it, stalled it, stalled it. He came up to me and said hey, your gonnna break my clutch, so i had to tell my hot looking date to teach me how to drive manual for the next 20 minutes. It was a fun and seriously embarrassing experience, i actually lied to her to be cool that i can drive clutch, when i stalled it a few times, she told me, " you can't drive clutch". After i started to get a hang of things, i got the car rolling and then shifted to 2nd gear, as i approached the turn, i forced the clutch to 1st gear as the vehicle is still rolling. Sometimes i wonder how powerful is a mitsubishi lancer 8 clutch? But still, after those 2 newbie experiences, i still sucked in driving clutch. I even lost respect by my date. She decided that its best we keep it as friends that night in the next 3 hours after lancer driving. I basically got dumped. But driving that mitsubishi lancer really brought my enthusiasm and the wonder of how it would be like to drive a turbo charged all wheel drive vehicle. I started learning how to drive clutch 4 days ago, brought myself to amatuer level yesterday, and still practicing today. I stalled on a pedestrian crossing the road in the middle of traffic. omg, hesitation. thanks for the advice everyone.
LMAO lol i have no choice! thats the only manual car we got! (turbo AWD) i will practice in the high school parking lot soon!
oh yeah...the very first time i drove my car...it was perfect! lol the take off and from there was just perfect! but i guess it was beginners luck! my dad said not to get too confident cause thats when stuff starts happening....i wasnt too confident...but i thik those r some words of wisdom..
My first time Driving stick is in my friends 95 Integra sedan and drove it for about 1/2 mile around the block with traffics too. I was scared but I dont want that affecting my driving so I just take my time. DONT RUSH when you're learning in the streets and there are cars around you. At least I didn't kill the engine in my very first driving it. On a hill stop I would release the clutch slightly(keep other foot on brake) to feel the grab on the clutch(that way it reduses the car rolling back) than slowly gas and smoothing letting go of the clutch. If you're use to where your clutch grabs you'll be fine. Just takes time to get use to it. You'll get it. Funny thing is I tried to drive stick like a beginner but I can't. Just got it so smooth. I can't make the car hop like a beginner would do. um..i guess I'm just so use to it. I know you'll be too. trust me.
haha, try driving my old car with a 4 puck act heavy duty clutch and a fidanza 8 lb aluminum flywheel. I could hardly drive it out of the garage afterwards, but it rev'ed like a mofo!!
i drove my car today! hehe first i started out by taking off in the parking lot...and after doing this many times w/o killing it..i took it to the streets. haha we took some back roads and stuff and it was fun! i did much better than the last couple times! the take off wasnt perfect...but it got me goin! lol
or anything with low range 4WD. not quite as good as a diesel truck, but pretty damn good. I learned on my '85 D/R 4WD subaru. only took me a couple days to get a pretty good hang of it (driving up and down our driveway.....didn't have plates for it). now I put about 4-500 miles a week in downtown duluth with a 5-speed.....only think I've stalled it once this summer (and that was in St. Paul) and yes, I use the ebrake trick when there are people behind me.
