Brand New Civic Type R 2018..first time Manual Driver ;_;

[davemarco]

Noob here as well. Let's say I'm coming up to a red light but still a good distance away. I'm cruising along in 6th gear at 45 mph and I think the light will probably turn green by the time I get there and I will probably slow down enough to be in 3rd gear. How do I downshift properly?

This is what I have been doing: Clutch to the floor, smoothly row through the gears from 6>5>4>3 (all while holding clutch to floor) as I slowly coast, let it auto rev match at 3, let off the clutch smoothly and then gas pedal as the light turns green.

Am I supposed to clutch down, shift from 6 to 5, clutch up so it auto rev matches, and then clutch down again for 5 to 4, clutch up, and then down again for 4 to 3? Or would that be something worse for the clutch and unnecessary?

Of course, there are times where I think I have to stop so I just coast in neutral but light turns green and I'll shift it directly into 3rd for example, is that also proper?

Just downshift directly into the appropriate gear. Nothing wrong with skipping gears, as long as your speed is appropriate for that gear. Your example with moving the shifter into each gear on the way down without letting off the clutch is only effective because of autorev matching. If I were to find myself in sixth at 30 mph, I'd just clutch in, shift directly to 3rd, blip the throttle a little bit (because my revs wouldn't need to go up too much at that speed), and let out the clutch.

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[WhatThePuck]

1. Every time I come to a red light I switch to neutral (even if im 2rd, 3rd, 4th gear) and come to a full stop. Then when the light is green I switch to 1st gear and have a really hard time switching correctly..the car always jerks heavily and im not sure why...If I recall when it happened this morning I let go of the clutch alot more then I pressed the gas and thats when it jerked so I pressed the clutch back in more and was able to make it speed it. (I really need help in this area)
Like others have said, this will take time. I struggled with first gear and the very first time I was taken out to drive a manual was in a parking lot, going from a dead stop just so I could practice where the pedals were when power was being transferred. My clutch pedal comes up about halfway, every car is different. I can tell you I've driven a manual for 12 years and on rare occasion I'll stall lol one time I stalled in a drive-thru. It happens. Let up too much on clutch and didn't apply enough on the accelerator hehe. It will be jerky for a bit, and like someone else said once that muscle memory is there it will be very smooth.
2. If im driving for example on 4th gear going 40 mph and I see a light coming up...should I just clutch/break while on the same gear and when I'm fully stopped switch to neutral?
I tend to do this, I usually throw it into neutral but hold the clutch in case the light changes then put it into the correct gear. Sometimes I have to blip the accelerator so I don't get the jerk motion when I shift.
3. When this car is parked and need to reverse... it seems that I dont need the gas and I can just use the clutch to back up (also use to slow or fasten the backup?) Is this the correct way of doing it?
With my experience it varies. If you're on a slight incline you probably won't need it, you'll just start rolling back, hover over the brake in this case. Where I live it's really flat so I have to use the accelerator to backup sometimes.
4. How soon should I switch to 2nd from 1st?
For this I agree with Broin, between 10-20mph, I personally like to do it closer to 10. Once you are driving for a few weeks you will discover your way of doing it, and as long as you aren't grinding the hell out of the gears you should be fine. Folks on here are really knowledgeable and helpful! Congrats on the purchase!

 

[fiend busa]

When going from 1st - 2nd give it very little gas to do a smooth engagement.

Switch to 2nd - clutch out to biting point - very little gas for like 0.5 seconds and then release clutch slowly but fast (I know how that sounds) but yea..

Also getting off the line - its a lot faster and easier to bring the clutch to the grabbing point and then give it some gas.

 

[blinkz0rz]

4. Shift to second after hitting VTEC yo. Just kidding. Typically shift into second between 10-20 mph or after 3k RPMs? Answers will vary depending on you want to drive.

My habit has always been to shift into 2nd at 10mph or at 2k depending on the vehicle. Actually I always shift on the 10s:

2: 10mph
3: 20mph
4: 30mph
5: 40mph
6: 50mph

The rpms are usually at 2k following this sequence. I try to keep the rpms from 1600-2500 on my car.

 

[Captaindicki]

In a manual, everything revolves around the clutch. Take your car to a vacant, flat lot, and just practice finding the point at which the clutch starts to engage and the car starts to shake (known as the "biting point"). Don't touch the gas or the brake. If you gradually (slowly) release the clutch through the biting point, you'll feel the car begin move forward on it's own as if you were driving an automatic. Once you're through the biting point and moving, you can release the clutch and give gas as normal. You need to practice getting to the biting point and moving the car without using any gas over and over again until it's second nature. Then you do the same thing on a small incline. Holding the clutch at the biting point will allow you to hold a static position on a hill and not roll back. This is something that you need to experience to trust it, so practice practice practice.

If you can get used to manipulating the clutch to and through the biting point smoothly without gas in a variety of situations, everything else is easy.

Exactly! Learn clutch control. Gas it after you release clutch

 

[goldKing]

Not sure why they think that.

If you search around on these forums, there's a few people who's first time with a manual is the CTR. Here's one with a lot of information: https://www.civicx.com/threads/manual-transmission-newbie-questions.27192/#post-457256

To directly answer your questions though, here's my thoughts:

1: Smooth, consistent application of clutch & gas is your friend here. I would sit in an empty & flat parking lot and commit to muscle memory where the clutch engages. You can do this by leaving the car in first, foot off the brake, pressing the clutch in, and slowly letting it out until the car starts moving forward on its own accord. After doing that a few times, try applying gas during that transition, lightly. Once you get it to a point where it's smooth, do it more

2: This is debatable. Some people cruise to a stop in neutral, and some downshift and brake. Personally, I downshift and brake since if the light changes, or an event happens where I need to accelerate, I'm already there and ready to go. New manual drivers should downshift to not panic and hunt for the right gear if traffic accelerates. Try it on a side street with no traffic!

3: Anti-stall on the CTR is pretty strong, and reverse is geared pretty low, so idle will move the car when you slowly release the clutch. You will need to give gas on an incline, and the mechanics are the same as 1st.

4: Edit: I misread your #4 question to mean shifting from 2nd to 1st, not sure why..., I normally shift from 1st to 2nd at ~3k RPM or less, especially when cold (pre-edit: I shift down to 1st normally around 10-14mph. In stop & go traffic I wind up blipping the throttle with the clutch in to help the transition back into 1st, since it can be a little finicky meshing back in. If you have problems, you can likely stay in 2nd , press in the clutch, and slowly apply the gas to accelerate if needed. Don't accelerate hard and lug the engine (look that up if you're curious).)

Hope that helps!

Awesome thank you for the replies! Here are my thoughts/questions below.

1. When you say "where the clutch engages & gas during that transition" are you referring to that point when the car starts rolling forward on its own as i SLOWLY let go of the clutch? So If i have the clutch fulled engaged (meaning pushed forward..hope i got the verbage right ;_ and I slowly let it go...the moment it actually starts moving forward to give it some gas lightly?

1a. If while letting the clutch go and it starts moving I can press the clutch back in to make it stop or just clutch/break to make it stop right? I want to make sure I dont damage the engine/transmission thats my biggest fear in all this.

2a. If Im on 4th gear going 40 mph and theres a red light coming up ahead..then I go into Neutral and clutch/break to slow down...what if the light turns to green and I need to accelerate? Which gear should I go too? If when I see the light turn green and iv already slowed down to 15 mph on neutral....can i switch to 2nd gear?

4. I noticed that when im in 1st gear I get to 12 mph really quick.. in seconds. I usually feel the need to go to 2nd at 12 mph because i hear the loud revving sound. Is that alright?
4a. Should I be worried about blipping when downshifting right now? Or just downshift regularly?

 

[MonkeyConQueso]

Awesome thank you for the replies! Here are my thoughts/questions below.

1. When you say "where the clutch engages & gas during that transition" are you referring to that point when the car starts rolling forward on its own as i SLOWLY let go of the clutch? So If i have the clutch fulled engaged (meaning pushed forward..hope i got the verbage right ;_ and I slowly let it go...the moment it actually starts moving forward to give it some gas lightly?

1a. If while letting the clutch go and it starts moving I can press the clutch back in to make it stop or just clutch/break to make it stop right? I want to make sure I dont damage the engine/transmission thats my biggest fear in all this.

2a. If Im on 4th gear going 40 mph and theres a red light coming up ahead..then I go into Neutral and clutch/break to slow down...what if the light turns to green and I need to accelerate? Which gear should I go too? If when I see the light turn green and iv already slowed down to 15 mph on neutral....can i switch to 2nd gear?

4. I noticed that when im in 1st gear I get to 12 mph really quick.. in seconds. I usually feel the need to go to 2nd at 12 mph because i hear the loud revving sound. Is that alright?
4a. Should I be worried about blipping when downshifting right now? Or just downshift regularly?

1. With the clutch pedal depressed you have the clutch disengaged. With the clutch in position during driving, it is engaged. That out of the way... The best way to think about it is mechanically! The clutch is a piece of hardware that uses heavy friction between the engine and transmission to either engage and give power, or to disengage the engine from the transmission. Think about it like physically moving the engine away from the transmission when you press it in, and the action of releasing it pulls the engine back to engage with the transmission allowing you to deliver power. It's not really like that, as you can see here:

So the action of slowly engaging (pulling your foot off the clutch) is bringing the engine back to the transmission. The clutch is there to make sure the transition is smooth, but how smooth it is is dictated by your foot. Giving gas will increase the revolutions of the engine, putting more stress on the clutch as it comes into contact between the engine and the transmission. So as you engage the clutch, slowly giving power and letting it grip up will ensure the smoothest acceleration.
What it comes down to is.... play with how much gas you give during the transition. When people talk about 'slipping' the clutch, it's the act of giving way too much power and engaging the clutch, forcing the clutch itself to spin instead of using that force to power the input shaft. That material will get smooth and repeated abuse will cause the clutch to not engage and deliver power... which means you'll just sit there while the engine accelerates. (Edit: Note on this - it isn't to scare you. You really have to abuse the clutch, and by that I mean engaging the clutch slowly from a dead stop at 3kRPM repeatedly, and just trying to give too much power during the clutch transition repeatedly...you kind of have to either A) Try to screw it up, or B) Be extremely in-elegant when engaging the clutch)

1a. Pushing in the clutch in is the easiest way to disassociate the engine from the transmission, and is always advised when coming to a complete stop to push the brake and clutch in.

2a. That's where experience comes into play, and why I suggest downshifting. If you are doing 40 and in 4th, as you are slowing down (with ample time to slow down), shift to 3rd and let it go down to 20mph, then shift to 2nd, and finally just come to a stop by going into neutral and depressing the brake fully. If traffic accelerates, you're already in gear and ready to press on the gas again. Doing this repeatedly at different speeds will help your muscle memory, and allow you to stop really thinking about it and just go by speed/sound/feel to make those judgments. And that's where you can get lazy and just toss it in neutral if you don't feel like downshifting, and putting it back into the gear it should be at when you have to start going again. Aka: You toss it into neutral at 40 and slow down... traffic starts going again and you're at 28 mph, so you can toss it into 2nd to accelerate with some oomph, or put it in 3rd and continue cruising.

4. 1st gear is all about getting started, and nothing else. Going high RPM isn't bad, but if you're still breaking-in the car, avoid accelerating quickly (that's debatable, but I'm not going there ). 1st is loud noisy and a little dramatic, but just shift where you're comfortable; 12mph is totally fine.
4a. What I was describing before my edit was to actually blip the gas lightly to throw the RPMs up, with the clutch disengaged (not giving power to the transmission) then gently pushing the gear lever into 1st. It just helps it mesh in better, and blipping the throttle with the clutch disengaged is safe, and what the CTR does on its own while downshifting with rev-matching on.

Sorry if I'm a little verbose! I'm sure some others might be able to explain some of this better - I'm not the best teacher in the world since I over explain So just ask for clarification if something doesn't make sense.

 

[goldKing]

Exactly! Learn clutch control. Gas it after you release clutch

What do you mean gas after you release clutch? If im at a dead stop and switch to gear 1.... if I take my leg off the clutch fully it will stall wont it? I thought I have to give gas at a specific time when im slowly letting go of the clutch and then when it catches correctly..then take my leg off the clutch fully?

 

[goldKing]

1. Every time I come to a red light I switch to neutral (even if im 2rd, 3rd, 4th gear) and come to a full stop. Then when the light is green I switch to 1st gear and have a really hard time switching correctly..the car always jerks heavily and im not sure why...If I recall when it happened this morning I let go of the clutch alot more then I pressed the gas and thats when it jerked so I pressed the clutch back in more and was able to make it speed it. (I really need help in this area)
Like others have said, this will take time. I struggled with first gear and the very first time I was taken out to drive a manual was in a parking lot, going from a dead stop just so I could practice where the pedals were when power was being transferred. My clutch pedal comes up about halfway, every car is different. I can tell you I've driven a manual for 12 years and on rare occasion I'll stall lol one time I stalled in a drive-thru. It happens. Let up too much on clutch and didn't apply enough on the accelerator hehe. It will be jerky for a bit, and like someone else said once that muscle memory is there it will be very smooth.
2. If im driving for example on 4th gear going 40 mph and I see a light coming up...should I just clutch/break while on the same gear and when I'm fully stopped switch to neutral?
I tend to do this, I usually throw it into neutral but hold the clutch in case the light changes then put it into the correct gear. Sometimes I have to blip the accelerator so I don't get the jerk motion when I shift.
3. When this car is parked and need to reverse... it seems that I dont need the gas and I can just use the clutch to back up (also use to slow or fasten the backup?) Is this the correct way of doing it?
With my experience it varies. If you're on a slight incline you probably won't need it, you'll just start rolling back, hover over the brake in this case. Where I live it's really flat so I have to use the accelerator to backup sometimes.
4. How soon should I switch to 2nd from 1st?
For this I agree with Broin, between 10-20mph, I personally like to do it closer to 10. Once you are driving for a few weeks you will discover your way of doing it, and as long as you aren't grinding the hell out of the gears you should be fine. Folks on here are really knowledgeable and helpful! Congrats on the purchase!

Yea I still dont understand how or when to blip yet..

4. How do I know if im grinding the hell out of my gears? ^_^'

Thank u for all the help!

 

[davemarco]

What do you mean gas after you release clutch? If im at a dead stop and switch to gear 1.... if I take my leg off the clutch fully it will stall wont it? I thought I have to give gas at a specific time when im slowly letting go of the clutch and then when it catches correctly..then take my leg off the clutch fully?

As stated, if you slowly let up off the clutch through the biting point, the car will move forward without you hitting the accelerator, just like an automatic. You just have to be slow and smooth. If you're moving forward and in first, it's very difficult to stall.

 

[CVCTURBO]

Seriously guys.....

Read CAREFULLY as you MUST follow these steps in ORDER for best results.

1. Let your foot off of the clutch
2. AGGRESSIVELY slam that gas pedal and send that f**ker!
3. Party, because you are going to have A LOT of snail trails on your windshield for the next few months!

It's a Type R

No pu**y footin around now!!

 

[RedGiant217]

@goldKing my serious advise to you is to get a friend that knows how to drive manual and have them spend time with you and teach you. Have them ride along every week or so and ask them for advise.

There is a lot of great advice in this thread. But there are a lot of things about driving manual that can't really just be described. It's better if someone can feel what you're doing and give you real time advice. Imagine trying to learn to drive by just reading about it and asking on forums. You may learn to drive, but you'd become a better driver if you had real time, in person advice when driving.

 

[Zeffy94]

Yea I still dont understand how or when to blip yet..

4. How do I know if im grinding the hell out of my gears? ^_^'

Thank u for all the help!

You’ll hear it, it’s a pretty distinctive sound, however some of the clunks I’ve gotten also sound similar to honestly I can’t tell 100% of the time when I do it.

When auto rev match isnt enabled, you have to blip the gas manually so that you can bring the engine speed to where it needs to be to ensure a smoother shift. If you let the revs fall below 2k RPM and downshift and let off the clutch slowly you’ll feel the car almost tense as the engine speed tries to sync up with the wheels. The auto rev match does this for you but in the event it doesn’t you just have to give it some gas and slowly release.

 

[WhatThePuck]

Yea I still dont understand how or when to blip yet..

4. How do I know if im grinding the hell out of my gears? ^_^'

Thank u for all the help!

Gear grind if you don't have the clutch fully engaged when shifting. You'll hear it, it's awful lol it's like GRGGHCCHKCHCHHHHH

 

[r712]

Noob here as well. Let's say I'm coming up to a red light but still a good distance away. I'm cruising along in 6th gear at 45 mph and I think the light will probably turn green by the time I get there and I will probably slow down enough to be in 3rd gear. How do I downshift properly?

This is what I have been doing: Clutch to the floor, smoothly row through the gears from 6>5>4>3 (all while holding clutch to floor) as I slowly coast, let it auto rev match at 3, let off the clutch smoothly and then gas pedal as the light turns green.

Am I supposed to clutch down, shift from 6 to 5, clutch up so it auto rev matches, and then clutch down again for 5 to 4, clutch up, and then down again for 4 to 3? Or would that be something worse for the clutch and unnecessary?

Of course, there are times where I think I have to stop so I just coast in neutral but light turns green and I'll shift it directly into 3rd for example, is that also proper?

In the end it's really a matter of learning the car and which gear you need to be in for a certain speed to keep the revs where you want it. When I'm letting the car coast in neutral while slowing down and need to accelerate again, which gear I throw it in totally depends on the speed I'm at. Like for example if I'm in mid 20's mph coming toward a red light but then it turns green, I typically throw it in 3rd or 2nd depending on how fast I want to accelerate.

I've also gotten much better at downshifting/engine braking such that when I downshift, the rev matching doesn't kick the revs over 4k. I rarely coast in neutral anymore now that I've had the car for over a year.

In my experience, it's different for every car and I've had to 'relearn' for a short period each time I got into a new manual. I definitely had to upshift/downshift at slightly different points when driving my old FB6 Si. Same goes for when I drive my dad's 5-spd 2009 Accord. If it helps, drive for a few days with no music and the windows down so you can hear the engine better. I know when I was learning manual for the first time, it helped me with learning the 'feel' for my car.

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