I picked up my 06 s/c yesterday and when I left the lot the car felt fine, but when I got to the first red light and had to stop and start back in 1st gear the car started do this jerking thing. I don't know if I was giving to much gas or what. Maybe I just need to get a feel for the car. Does anybody know what I might be doing wrong?

 

baby first gear for the first few hundred. If you feel hesistation, give her the gas. Honestly, I had this problem and it smoothed itself out after a few hundred. It has to get use to your driving habits before it runs better in reality.

 

It's the gearing of the car - it's really hard to drive them smoothly. Just practice, and you'll get better at it eventually.

 

yep the gears plus our drivetrain is pretty light, what you are having is called "lashback" it takes a little getting used to

 

It took me a bit to figure out the factory clutch in the SS . I used to cuss the hell outa the factory clutch , the jerky gear changes ect. But now after knowing in my car exactly where the clutch engages/disengages Ive got rid of all that jerkyness completely . I found on mine if I pushed the clutch in too much on a gear change , it kinda jerks on the shift . If I have the clutch pushed in too far when Im taking off in 1st gear , it doesnt release soon enuff before u want to be moving , so when the car does move it is jerk frikin city . Remedy on mine anyways is just barely pushing the clutch in at all . On my car anyways , full clutch engagement requires hardly any pedal travel at all . Once I figured that out , all my gear changes including leaving in 1st has been seemless and smooth .

So , try not pushing the clutch in so far ....errr , if ya are .

 

How does the SS/SC like to be started off in 2nd gear? For normal driving that doesn't need quick acceleration do you guys start in 2nd?

 

Practice... period. Ive had mine a little over 5500mi and I still suck at first... its like the bucking bronco...

 

Yep, Same Here. I have 2,600 Miles on it, First gear is still a little shaky. The clutch has a long travel in it, and it only bites in the last 1/4 of the Travel up. The best thing to do, is give it a little/ to no gas from a stop and be very slow and gentle with the clutch till it grabs. When shifting into second, unless your above 3,500 RPMs its gonna be jerky. My remmody to this is to shift at about 3K-3.5K and give it a little gas while you let up the clutch. It tends to stop that bogging jerky feeling. If you shift in the powerband it does not do this either. But for city driving its pain in the ass unless you like to "Quickshift" like your dragracing....

Drive the car, Drive the **** out of it. You'll learn the car, and as it gets broken in, it will loosen up some for ya.


By the way, what do ya think of the car? I love my car... :P

 

Yeah shifting 1st to 2nd I almost always get a slight hopping. It lasts for like 3 seconds. (it's my first manual car so that can be why too) but I ALWAYS put the clutch in all the way. I'll try just doing it halfway.

 

I love the car so far, thanks for asking. I'm not having a problem in any other gear but first, and I'm glad to see that's not me. A few hours after I went to work and told some of my friends about the car jerking the hell out of me and my dad and we all started laughing. At the time it was happing I didn't know what the hell was going on, but know when I think about it it's funny as hell. Like Exhondaman said I'll need to practice to get use to it, because comming from a 2.2L cavi. it's a completely differrant car.

 

I had the same problem with first gear. The more you drive the better you will get.

Peace

 

ahhh, you got hit by the "first time" driving a stick effect didn’t ya?
"Why's it jerking like that? giving us whiplash"
"Son, that is your own foot bouncing on the gas pedal to the effect of the car."

The cobalt has a really touchy throttle, especially when it comes to first gear.

You'll get used to it.