When I'm driving in 2nd gear, at about 1900 rpm, 20mph - e.g. driving through a school zone, and I take my foot off the gas it lurches a lot. My foot is barely on the gas as it is..But when I take my foot off to slow down, it makes the whole car lurch forward.

Is this normal? Does anybody else have this happen? Anyone know what I could try to remedy this?

 

It lurches forward?

 

Maybe it lurches him forward?

 

I guess what I mean is that you are thrown forward as the car slows drastically.. just as Victim64 correctly translated

 

hmm mine doesn't. Only if I am going 20Mph and shift to 1st. but it is ery smooth when I go 20MPH and I shift to 2nd. If thats what you mean.

 

Yes I get that, I think it means we need a new clutch within the next 15k miles.

 

I'm not shifting. I'm already in 2nd, driving for maybe a couple of blocks at 20mph. If the person infront of me slows down, but not enough for me to have to apply my brakes, I just take my foot off the gas, and I am thrown forward.

The clutch feels fine on hard driving - no signs of slipping whatsoever - It was only replaced about 20k miles ago by the previous owner.

 

CHECK THE MOTOR MOUNTS!
or have someone do it bro. let me know.

 

Yeah I have the same problem, and I have new motor mounts and clutch with less than 100 miles on them. Its only in really low rpms for me thoug liek if completely let of the gas at under 2k it will slow drastically.

 

1. Check motor mounts (the north and south ones, since they are the ones that deal with the engine rocking back and forth under power)
2. Check your throttle linkage and throttle body to make sure that they are clean and not grabbing/sticking on anything.
3. Be sure that you aren't jerking your foot off the gas too suddenly. If the car still rocks with you paying close attention to your throttle inputs, then its something mechanical.

 

Wow I wish i could get into first at anything faster than a crawl...

 

My mounts are 140k miles old... clutch is new tho (about 20-30k miles).

I get those "lurches" in really really low RPM.

 

I cleaned the TB today, so I'll check the throttle cabling etc. to check it's not catching on anything.
My foot is barely touching the gas pedal at 1900 rpm, so it's not being jerked off.
Could it be a fuel pump issue? The car also hesitates to start unless I pump the gas pedal a couple of times. If i pump the gas it starts immediately, if I don't it'll turn over for 3-4 seconds before firing.
I already changed the fuel filter last week, as well as spak plugs, pcv valve, oil, mt fluid.

 

Is it like when your in first, going slow and let off the gas, the car jerks a little bit? If so it's normal all manuals do this including mine. It's just the clutch slowing the engine/car down. Mine does it more noticably in first, but second too.

 

I am pretty sure this "lurching" happens with any manual transmission car. It happens because when you let off the gas, but your tranny is still in gear, the friction inside your engine acts as a brake and your whole car, including yourself, will lurch forward.

As long as it is not too drastic, I wouldn't worry about it. My car does the same thing in second gear, and even worse in first.

 

yea, my first gear is vicious...when u say u lurch, what rpm are you letting go into second gear before letting go of gas?

 

I think what you're feeling might be normal - just a transfer of torque direction. When you let off the gas and you're above idle, I'm pretty sure that all fuel, even idle fuel, is cut off. I know this was true on my old 90 Camry. My Max does something similar, just not as severe. Probably due to better engine controls.

You don't feel driveline shocks like this in an automatic, because the slipping torque converter and fluid coupling vs direct mechanical coupling numbs a lot of the sensations.

I was never THAT bad in my Camry. And it's not really bad at all in the Maxima. If it really is *THAT* bad then yeah, maybe you have another problem.

 

As for 1st gear, yeah, lots of engine braking. If you have to slow down from a roll and you're in 1st gear, it's best to ride the clutch a little bit. The tiny bit of wear you'll put on the clutch is most likely less abusive overall than the stress you'll put on the rest of the driveline and the motor mounts.

For example, I'm cruising in heavy traffic at a good 10-15 mph in 1st about to make a mad dash into another lane when my lane suddenly brakes and there's no room to squeeze out. Gotta let off the gas. If you let off the gas at that point with the clutch fully engaged you *WILL* get a big ol nasty driveline shock as the torque switches directions from steady acceleration to full engine braking.

Best to just ride the clutch a little bit just to smooth it out if it's already speeding up again so that you don't have to rev-match as much, or disengage it fully if you're coming to a dead stop (duh)

It really should be all that sever in 2nd at 1900rpm, though.

 

uhhh, you drive a 5 speed, you slow down with gears... thats just how it works, the power of slowing down with no brakes.....

 

You can downshift to 1st doing 20? I pretty much have to be at a standstill before I can put mine in 1st.

 

Anyways...this will happen more when the car is cold, obviously. Other than that, it's normal to some degree. When I don't want to try to feather the gas just right, I'll just drop to neutral and then rev-match and put it back in gear when needed. Like an extended double-clutch.

I do this out of convenience, and because my clutch is old anyway.

 

Might it be due to the 10:1 compression ratio giving us really good engine braking compared to other cars? I don't know what the CR is in a Camry.

I have found that it takes a really steady foot on the gas pedal and very smooth and subtle changes to avoid "lurching", but that is really only when the engine is cold. Once the engine is warmed up it is much less sensitive to minor pedal movement.

 

I definitely get the lurching too...it's almost like there's play in the drive train that you feel. When I have passengers in the car I feel like I'm driving ****ty.