Max's Max

Hey guys. I brought my 2001 5 spd about three weeks ago. It had 10,500 miles on it. I learned (still learning) to drive stick on it. I do okay driving it. Sometimes I release the clutch out to fast and the car goes in second or third gear hard. But my question is do the manual trans feel different once broken in. Yesterday I began feeling that the shifter on my car got loose. It takes half the effort to shift it into any gear. It feels weird now. Could releasing the clutch out to fast and not giving the car enough gas damage the trans.

JeffesonM

iTrader: (5)

When you say that it goes into second or third gear hard, do you mean it's difficult to get it into gear? Also when you say "the shifter feels loose", could you describe exactly what about it is loose?

Make sure the car is in the desired gear before letting the clutch out... grinding gears is very bad for the transmission. Get used to shifting slowly before you try and shift fast. As for where you noticed it takes half the effort to shift into gear, the shifter will slide into gear much easier as you get better at rev-matching and shifting in general.

howstuffworks.com has a good explaination of how the transmission works, and I found it very helpful to learn the mechanics of what I'm doing when I was first learning. Also if you search around, someone had a link to a tutorial about learning to drive manual.

Max's Max

What I was trying to say is that when I shift into 2 and 3 hard, the shifter goes into gear okay, but I release the clutch too early without giving it enough gas. I feel the car kick. The trans shifts fine (no grinding). The shifter itself just feels different now.

maseo77

iTrader: (1)

dont shift fast if your not racing, i had my car for 3 years and it did that hard jerk when i let off the clutch too fast on day 1 and it will do it the same today, if im cruising i release the clutch about 60-70% and do a slight pause for less than half a second before i do a full release unless im racing then i jump off the clutch like its burning my foot.

JeffesonM

iTrader: (5)

I'm guessing the "kick" is probably just the clutch grabbing real quickly. Taking the extra time to properly match engine speed with transmission speed will go a long way to save your clutch, motor/trans mounts and transmission. If you put just a little bit of pressure on the shifter as you go through neutral, but before it goes into the next gear, you can usually feel the point where it slides in with no effort. That's when everything's all matched up.