A guide to smooth shifting for your Si, Sports, or other Civic manual

[Ron R]

For sure the Amsoil Synchromesh will really make things smooth. The Acuity shifter Rocker upgrade is an added benefit making the shifter tighter

Thanks for your feedback. I will put the Acuity Rocker as future mod.

I will try to get the Amsoil done in the near future too.

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[Neps18Si]

How do you like the Acuity Gear Knob? I am eying that Red one

I absolutely love it. All this combo by far has been a great upgrade on our cars. The next big thing of course would be the Acuity shifter itself, but my car is a lease, so if I do keep it I would upgrade to that. I am though happy with my set up and the knob was what i was looking for in design and I had to get the red to keep the theme going. It spices up the interior.

 

[ozzie1230]

I absolutely love it. All this combo by far has been a great upgrade on our cars. The next big thing of course would be the Acuity shifter itself, but my car is a lease, so if I do keep it I would upgrade to that. I am though happy with my set up and the knob was what i was looking for in design and I had to get the red to keep the theme going. It spices up the interior.

i bought the white one like 2 weeks before they released the new colors

 

[Neps18Si]

i bought the white one like 2 weeks before they released the new colors

sell yours for cheap and get one...they are freaking nice. I am in a chat on whatsapp and group of us all bought them as a group discount.

 

[James3spearchucker]

That is a great write up and on future interior mod list. I do like the factory shifter, and the feel of it. But I am curious if it will smooth out my shifting.

The family and I just got back from Monterey few days ago. On the ride home my little 6 year got nauseated. The wife said it could have been from my shifting? She had the same issue when she was little, and her parents had the manual Datsun 510.

I have no problems with the shifter, but like taking the SI on family trips. And the wifey can drive stick shift too. Just wondering if the mods will smooth out the shifting?? Yes driving skills matter, but I know I can get bit sloppy if exhausted lol.

When you are driving the family around you will notice the small displacement of the 1.5T somewhat but it does have amazing torque around 2k RPM. Therefore if you spin up to only say 2600 and then shift quickly to the next gear and you keep a light throttle, the changes in inertia will be minimal, as compared to shifting up around 4k, the RPM gap becomes larger and the accel-coast-accel sequence more jerky. The terrain in important because going uphill requires more revving. The heavy flywheel does make this car shift fairly smoothly.

 

[COOL COUPE]

I am trying something new with some pretty good results. The problem with us old folks is the old habitats that are hard to break. Today I tried this: Push the clutch to the floor and hold. I say to my self in that internal voice "push and hold" DONT move your right hand to shift. Freeze in place. Then move forward ... and shift ... all goes more smoothly.

 

[Ron R]

I absolutely love it. All this combo by far has been a great upgrade on our cars. The next big thing of course would be the Acuity shifter itself, but my car is a lease, so if I do keep it I would upgrade to that. I am though happy with my set up and the knob was what i was looking for in design and I had to get the red to keep the theme going. It spices up the interior.

Thanks for your reply. I think the Red Knob and the Rocker upgrade will be my next mods

Need to see if my local shop can do the Rocker upgrade.

 

[Ron R]

When you are driving the family around you will notice the small displacement of the 1.5T somewhat but it does have amazing torque around 2k RPM. Therefore if you spin up to only say 2600 and then shift quickly to the next gear and you keep a light throttle, the changes in inertia will be minimal, as compared to shifting up around 4k, the RPM gap becomes larger and the accel-coast-accel sequence more jerky. The terrain in important because going uphill requires more revving. The heavy flywheel does make this car shift fairly smoothly.

You are correct and the SI is easy to shift. I had open freeway this morning and was shifting smooth. Guess exhaustion and heavier traffic got my driving little bit sloppy few days ago.

 

[wintercast]

I’ve had my Si since April, it only has 2500 miles on it and I don’t even notice the rev hang any more. I drive it normally and I shift slow. Not really slow, but I don’t shift fast. It might actually take 1-2 seconds to shift. I have no grinding, no notchyness (not even a word lol), no nothing, just a smooth shift. I believe to many people think they’re driving a race car and it’s not performing like they think it should.

I am going to disagree on your shifter comment. Coming from a 2003 manual to a 2019 manual, the shifting is very short. Adding something to shorten it up further will just create problems for people who aren’t as experienced as some of us. When I first got this car, even I was having issues going from 5th to 6th gear. I was coming back down to 4th. So by adding an even shorter throw, I’m sure people could accidentally go from 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th. There are many videos with people racing with this happening. Even going from 2nd back to 1st.

This was my exact thought! I have not even gotten an SI yet. I was learning manual on a miata and a fiesta. The fiesta seemed like everything was far apart; and i was told the SI would feel the same. But, i would like to learn the car first, before i might shorten the throws.. I very much could see myself going for the wrong gear by accident.

 

[pdrumns]

I find my transmission pretty smooth, no crunching. As another member said a little hesitation in neutral before going into the next gear and the synchros allow for smooth entry. Hesitation though is a strong word. I think of neutral as a gear that you go into rather than crash through and its smooth for me. Im not racing cars at stop lights either, but when I need to have the speed and power, the shift are still smooth. Also for me, the only time I really push the clutch all the way in, is when Im stopped or coming to a stop for first gear or reverse. The other shifts I barely have to push in the clutch very far because the release is so high up. I do not get any lurching and have smooth shifts.

 

[randomisjustfine]

So after couple weeks since I read this post I can tell that this is the best, most important post on this forum by far.

I did not know about synchros in our trans. I enabled rev hang through cruise control button on Vits stage 1. And never disabled it since. From 1st to 2nd, stop for a split second in neutral and then give it another split second before releasing the clutch while in 2nd - and one of my biggest problem with this car is gone. It’s smooth af.

And the best part? It doesn’t add any time when changing gears... seems like synchros will drop the revs smother and quicker than just a flywheel...

OP deserves a medal. Literally!

 

[amirza786]

^ See what I mean @Honda_RacerX ? More and more people want to learn and drive manuals.

 

[Civic_Si_Yes]

So after couple weeks since I read this post I can tell that this is the best, most important post on this forum by far.

I did not know about synchros in our trans. I enabled rev hang through cruise control button on Vits stage 1. And never disabled it since. From 1st to 2nd, stop for a split second in neutral and then give it another split second before releasing the clutch while in 2nd - and one of my biggest problem with this car is gone. It’s smooth af.

And the best part? It doesn’t add any time when changing gears... seems like synchros will drop the revs smother and quicker than just a flywheel...

OP deserves a medal. Literally!

I bought my Civic Si with a Ktuner and VIT stage 1 already installed from the previous owner.
He removed the "rev hang" via the Ktuner and I notice the jerky shifting etc that everyones talking about.

How do i keep the VIT stage 1 map and enable revhang so i can compare the two and see if I like it or not?

thaks for the help


*how did you add the toggle function via cruise control to enable and disable the rev hang??*

 

[randomisjustfine]

I bought my Civic Si with a Ktuner and VIT stage 1 already installed from the previous owner.
He removed the "rev hang" via the Ktuner and I notice the jerky shifting etc that everyones talking about.

How do i keep the VIT stage 1 map and enable revhang so i can compare the two and see if I like it or not?

thaks for the help


*how did you add the toggle function via cruise control to enable and disable the rev hang??*

Just push the cruise control button on your steering wheel once. You will see green(I think) box with “cruise” or “cruise control” lit up on your dash. That’s it, your revs will hang like factory now and throttle damping will be there too.

 

[Civic_Si_Yes]

Just push the cruise control button on your steering wheel once. You will see green(I think) box with “cruise” or “cruise control” lit up on your dash. That’s it, your revs will hang like factory now and throttle damping will be there too.

Oh so that’s a built in function? I didn’t know that! I’ll try today and hopefully it works! Thanks.

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