Quick shifting question/clutch question
New Member
Joined: 03-02-06
Posts: 147
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From: Bluford, Illinois
I agree with the others on the downshifting, whoever said that downshifting is bad for the tranny is full of it. Thats what the tranny was made to do, upshift and, yes of course, downshift. Also, you really should use the clutch all the time if you are moving the shifter(unless it is already in nutral and you are just checking lol)
Senior Member
Joined: 06-08-05
Posts: 18,529
Likes: 1
From: Pittsburgh
Originally Posted by EricTF28
This thread just said that downshifting is bad from about 4-5 people. In this same thread, people say downshifting is okay and even good for the drivetrain. Not one of these claims seems to have any evidence supporting either of them. When I drive, I downshift through every gear using my clutch. This is the 4th 5-speed vehicle I've done this with, and not once have I had to take a vehicle in to have the synchros or drivetrain worked on whatsoever. So my question at this point is to all the people here who say downshifting is bad for the drivetrain: I was taught to downshift by my father when I was learning how to drive at 16 years old, and that was 7 years ago. Where did anyone find any information that states in any way that downshifting is bad for your drivetrain? If anyone can point me to anything like that, I'll start neutral dropping.
Senior Member
Joined: 02-05-06
Posts: 727
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From: Kakabeka Falls, Ontario
Originally Posted by alleycat58
I think people are referring to downshifting without either waiting for the revs to drop on their own or rev matching to save wear on the syncros. If it's done properly, it's fine, but I've seen (and HEARD) people that will be coasting toward a red light in 5th (or 6th, depending on tranny) that will just throw it in 3rd when they're still coasting along at a good clip. THAT kind of downshifting isn't good.
Our transmissions are made for upshifting and downshifting with the clutch. You can double clutch during a DOWNSHIFT if you want to...just be sure to do it correctly and you will save wear on your clutch plate and synchros but you will be utilizing your throwout bearing 33% more than usual (not a big deal as I double clutched on my VW since the day I bought it and it held up just fine).
Floating the gears (Shifting without the clutch) on any tranny that is not found in a big rig is stupid...so dont do it. The reason is that a big rig has 10+ very narrowly spaced gear ratios and the tranny can be shifted without the clutch very easily once you have driven for awhile. On our transmissions...you have 5 WIDELY spaced ratios and you will most likely turn the insdie of the tranny onto a nice paste consisting of gear oil and metal shavings with a chunk of gear here and there.
Power shifting on 90% of mass produced car transmissions is a very bad idea and will cook your clutch in no time and can also cause other damage like warped driveshafts, fragged CV joints, sheared drive axles, people laughing at you, etc... Our transmissions were not made to powershift...so again...dont do it!!!
I am not trying to be a jerk or anything...but I have been reading alot of posts about how "our clutches are soo weak" because people think that these cars were made to be drag raced and are driving them like they are street legal drag cars. This is not the case! The BEST drag transmissions DO NOT have H-Patten shift layouts! the are clutchless sequential or AUTOMATIC gearboxes.
These are excellent cars for the money and the transmission can handle more them most people here will throw at it in terms of engine mods...but they WILL break/fail if people dont know how to properly break in their clutches and/or dont know how to properly drive the car for it's intended purpose -----> a sporty economy car!!
End Rant..
-P
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