Hey everyone. I been driving stick for about month and 1/2 now, but still have few questions. When I drive in city, 35MPH limit, I usually go in 4th gear, but I know maxima can go in 5th as well. But what I dont know is if its good to drive around in 5th gear around town. Friend told me that its bad becuase for the engine (something about putting more work on the engine at low RPMs). The question is: Can I drive in 5th gear at 35MPH and still do no bad to my engine. Thank you.

 

I'd try to stay between 2-3kRPM.

 

i would think it saves more gas because the rpms are pretty low. Think of it as riding a bike, if you go slow in high gear, it would take very little rotation to make the bike move foward therefor, less rotation(rpms) would waste less gas but you won't have much power.

 

Well, i really dont care bout 'power' All i need is for the car to go forward, and get me from point A to point B.

Also I noticed (or maybe just my crap shifting skillz). Sometimes, when I drive around, (say 10-15MPH) in 2nd gear and want to jump to 1st, it doesnt let me. Is there some kind of "Safety" mech. which stops me from doing so?

 

I was wondering the same thing too. Heard stories in the past about luggin your car in a very high gear at low mph is bad. I have no idea why but I just heard that. Maybe at that low of an RPM yer engine is beggin for extra air making it bad for the engine?

 

I always stick it in 5th when I reach 40mph. Its not that low of an rpm, when It was automatic the rpms were lower so.......

 

i never put it in 5th in town... im in 4th most of the time, 3rd if the traffic is slow/or if i need sudden acceleration

 

why would you want to jump to first unless you're starting for a <5mph stop. It's hard to get a smooth downshift to first without your car leaping foward if you manage to hit first. plus you would have to shift to second which will bog your car again. first gear should be for just getting your moving from a stop. Seems like first gear "opens up" @ < 5mph anyway.

 

Don't shift into first when moving. 1st gear has no syncros, so it's a b!tch if you're rolling.

If you really want to get it into 1st while rolling, you could rev-match, but it's generally a bad idea. Our car pulls quite well in second gear.

As for the bike analogy, yes...lower RPM (by definition) mean lower rotations required to travel the same distance. Try this experiment: Get on your ten speed and start in 10th gear...going uphill. Fewer rotations isn't everything. There is a point where low RPMs cost more than they're worth.

 

Internal combustion engines are most mechanically efficient at low RPM and wide throttle openings.

 

Big second on that. Also, if you are at lower rpm and going up hills, it puts extra strain on your clutch. When the clutch was starting to slip in my old honda accord, I'd have to get it up over 3.5K to keep it from slipping while going up several hills around town. Though even if your clutch is perfectly healthy, I just can't imagine it being wise to go up any sort of hill at low rpm (well unless you are in low gear, just starting out, but still, you get the point).

 

you know its not good to have the engine RPM's too low... if you driving 35mph and you put it in 5th, then you want to accelerate you are actually going to be using more gas and putting a bigger tax on the engine, its working harder and not going so far...

 

It is okay to shift into first if you are moving if you know what you are doing and rev-match. I put it in first anywhere below about 15mph, but I am good at matching the revs and it doesn't jump forward. It took me a while to do so.

What is rev-matching, you say? It is when you are going to downshift, but your speed is too high to just put it into the lower gear without it lurching forward.....and to remedy this, you rev the engine to match the gear. When it gets really difficult is when you have to do it while you brake, but it is fun, and you will never go back if you learn it. It is much easier on your clutch to do this, because it doesn't have to grab and slow down all those rpm's when dropping to a lower gear.

 

Driving at the RPMs you are talking about will do absolutely no harm to the engine or clutch. Shift to fifth and enjoy the higher mileage.

 

You will also probably not get higher mileage at that low of a speed(35mph) being in 5th. There is such a thing as being in too high of a gear....it is called "bogging." It may be fine if you are not accelerating very much, or going up hills. If you are just kind of keeping a steady foot on the pedal, it will be fine. Otherwise, you will actually lose gas mileage being in 5th @ 35 rather than 4th.

 

thats what i was trying to say with little success thanks

 

Ya, my car also wont let me downshift to first when im going more than about 5MPH, but when it gets under that, itll let me put it in first. I think our cars have a block or something so that we dont use 1st unless were starting from 0mph. Any else have this 1st gear block or is it just on some maximas?

 

When your RPM's are too low it will make a wierd sound. Just put it in 5th at like 20-25 and push on the gas a little and it'll sound alot different. You'll get to know how the car should sound.

 

when you are driving around town your mileage goes down because of the stop and go nature of driving around town, its not because you aren't in 5th gear. I would assume that at 35mph in 5th gear you are doing about 1300 rpms which is really damn low and in 4th probably around 1800rpms, the added mileage that you might get from dropping down those 500 rpms would be negligible when compared to the gas wasted when stopping and starting.

 

crusin yes drive in 5th.....to me as long as you don't floor it or let it drop to the point the engine is rumbling your fine. Just rember to drop it to second when you wanna fly from that mph hahaha. Rev it high let it fly!!!!

 

I have to be almost completly stopped to go into first. On a downhill i have to be completly stopped.

 

This is true of all modern MT cars. It's by design. Someone said 1st has no synchros. I didn't know that, but it would make sense and explain this phenomenon. Hmm, actually, I swore I read that the 4th gen's 1st gear has synchros.... Reverse does not.

Really, one of the most basic lessons you should learn when learning stick is "don't shift into 1st if you're moving." If you didn't learn this lesson, you should now.

Speeds of 5 MPH and up definitely call for 2nd gear unless you do a double-clutched, rev-matched downshift to 1st.

 

With a properly running engine your car, in fifth gear, should pull smoothly from 800 RPM to top speed. If it bogs or lugs, you've got other problems. It won't damage the clutch any more than going through the gears normally. If you're not in a hurry, fifth gear works fine for much suburban driving.

 

OK, let me introduce an analogy here: on my road bike, traveling into even a slight headwind means I am not in the highest gear. I can pedal in the highest gear in such a situation, but it takes more work than a lower gear even though I'm at lower RPMS. The load is too high for that gearing to keep the "engine" at its most efficient RPMs, which is about 90-120 RPMs for a biker's feet.

The question for our cars is, on a flat surface, what is the most efficient RPM? Probably somewhere between 1500 and 2000? Although I read once that an engine is most efficient at its torque peak, and that would be, what, 4K-ish?

 

Did you not read any of the other posts, namely mine?
I said that you can put it in first, you are just not doing it correctly.
If you can shift out of 1st at like 40mph, you have to be able to shift back into it. You just have to match the revs(or rpm's) with what they would be if you started out in 1st and drove in that gear until you were going 40mph. It is just that simple.

I say that as a fact to prove my point, because I have done it. You must know what you are doing, or your will lurch forward when you let back off and the gear catches. Also, I don't make a habit of shifting into 1st going that fast. I have before, but don't on a regular basis. I do, however, shift into 1st from 2nd quite often in the 20-25mph range. It is fun, and you get all that instant power that 1st has to offer, without bogging in 2nd.

 

[QUOTE=Brudaddy]Did you not read any of the other posts, namely mine?
I said that you can put it in first, you are just not doing it correctly.
If you can shift out of 1st at like 40mph, you have to be able to shift back into it. You just have to match the revs(or rpm's) with what they would be if you started out in 1st and drove in that gear until you were going 40mph. It is just that simple.

so does the gear open when you rev match. Because it sure feels it wont open enough to slip it into first. I cant imagine getting into first gear at anything over 15mph's.

 

It's not as simple as Brudaddy implies. If you're going above 5 MPH, 1st gear doesn't care if you've revved the engine to redline—it will still protest. You can get a smooth shift if you rev match but you will still have to force it into gear. But if you double clutch, you have now spun up the layshaft (AKA intermediate shaft) to match the shaft with the gears on it and 1st shouldn't protest. I have not personally done this in 1st but that's the way it's supposed to work.

 

Well, I have personally done this, and I never force it into gear.

Yes, the gear does open up. I was not saying to rev it to redline....just to rev match. This is the test...start out in 1st gear and then shift into 2nd at like 30....take note of what the rpm's are when you shift out of 1st.
Now, be rolling at 30 in 2nd, and put the clutch in and rev the engine until it gets to the same rpm's that they were when you shifted it out of 1st, and shift it back into first. This will be jerky for you, because what you don't know how to do yet is after you do that, in 1st, you actually have to kind of get back on the gas so that it does not lurch. (after you play with it for a while, you will understand....it too me a while....but I eventually got it and now I drive that way a lot.) I would not really worry about this right now, but just practice putting it into the lower gear after matching the revs.....for practicing this, I would recommend using different gears than 1st and 2nd (i.e. 2nd and 3rd) because they are less harsh than 1st. The rpm's drop off so quickly and with first being a short gear already, it makes the difficulty level much higher than the other gears that are more closely related.

 

cool, i just did this today, went to around 30 with second and clutched out, reved the engine to around 4kish 5kish and the stick finally went in, almost grinded though but hey, it works. Don't know why i would use it though, second is fine for me