Hello guys,

I just got my 2k2 maxima one week ago. It is my first stick shift car. I am trying to improve my driving skill by reading on-line tips. Some guys say when upshift, you should pause at neural, and then shift to the next gear. But when I try it, my car is jerking when shift from first to second. Withoud pausing, the shift is more smooth.

Is that because the 2k2 maxima's gear box is controlled by cable. And the rpm will not drop quickly after gas off and clutch in. Or it is just because my poor driving?

Anything special with the low ratio 6-speed gear box?

thanks

 

not the gear box but the throttle. drive by wire system.

From what I understand emissons are less at higher rpms. So car manufactuer's leave the engine at a high rpm so thier is not drop , hence it will put out less emissions.

 

Once you learn how to drive a stick the car won't be jerky. It's just how you drive. I had a 5spd 98 I30 and it was exactly the same in terms of a smooth ride and shifting.

 

You don't need to do anything special with the 6-speed to get it to shift well. It is similar to any 5-speed manual tranny, just with an extra gear and closer ratios. What you need to do, for both upshifts and downshifts is make sure that you are trying to "match" engine rpm's to the appropriate gear. To see what I mean, on a straight away, get the car up to about 45 mph in 4th gear. Note the rpm's. Down shift to 3rd and note that the RPM's have risen. Go back to 4th and then upshift to 5th. Note that the RPM's have dropped. By knowing this behavior ahead of time, you can estimate the anticipated engine rpm for the gear into which you are shifting. As you shift, do your best to maintain your engine rpm slightly above the anticipated post shift rpm. If you do this, your shifting should be much smoother and more precise.

For a beginner, do not hold the stick in neutral between shifts. Just shift directly from gear to gear. Regulate the gear engagement by feeling the point of engagement on the clutch and regulating the engine throttle.

Note: there IS a special (advanced)way of shifting where you blip the throttle with foot off the clutch and with the stick in neutral. I believe this is called "double clutching" since you disengage the clutch twice in a shift from one gear to the next. I think this is mostly used on manual tranny's that don't have syncro's. Syncro's help match gear rpm to engine rpm and make shifting much smoother overall. Double clutching yields a similar result but generally slows down overall shift times due to the second use of the clutch.

At any rate, good luck and enjoy it!

Andy

 

Thanks all of you a lot.

Andy, I will take your advice and pratice it this weekend. I need to reduce my shifting time. Since every time I upshift, I first gas off, after that I clutch in, my speed drops and the car behind me catchs up very quickly almost rearends me. It happens especially when I change from first to second gear.

With the 2k2, should I accelarate to above 4rpm in first then chang to second or should I get just enough momentum in first gear and chang to second very quickly at low rpm, say 2rpm. I am talking about a normal riding not racing.


Have a nice day!

 

It took me about a week to get used to that throttle hang. Now that I've had teh car for 9 days it's getting better. The stick and the clutch are getting better too. At first teh clutch was way too light and tehw stick wouldn't go into gear all of the time.

You'll get used ot it. Good Luck

 

The 6spd has cone syncros on 1st and 2nd gear, so forget about double clutching or spending too much time matching speeds before engaging 1st or 2nd gear.

Do not take your foot off the gas before depressing the clutch. That uses the engine as a brake which is why people are trying to rear-end you. You can ease-off on the throttle as the clutch starts to disengage. If you are REALLY slow the engine will rev up 100-200 rpms, but you shouldn't break (just coast). Do your 1-2 shift between 1500-2500 rpm for normal smooth driving. You can even start off in 2nd gear (unless going up a hill), to practice smooth clutch engagement.

It's boring but you can drive around quite comfortably with the 3.5 engine and never have to exceed 3500 rpm's.

 

 

It's not cable controlled, it's cable actuated...they tend to be a little clunkier than rod actuated tranny's, like Honda's. You'll get used to it. I would let off the gas a little when upshifting...I'd rather have a little engine braking than slip the clutch while the the pressure plate matches speeds with the rest of the tranny...

 

I have a 6 speed max.. learned stick on a 92 stanza 5 speed .. and i can tell u there is such a big difference between the cars' shifting.. the stanza bucks if ur not used to it.. but the maxima is smooth shifting... i have only redlined my car once getting on the highway.. and i almost cried .. its soo quiet that u dun realize u've gone 6000+... however, all the other times i can drive my car under 2,500 rpm... heh.. 6th gear @ 45 mph is around 1,200 ish


have fun driving stick MAXIMANIAN and welcome to a club of very few 6 speed maximas

 

well... my $0.02 worth.

I've had my 2k2 6 speed SE for a little over a month now, with 2400+ miles on it. I found, at least in my car, that the shifting to a higher gear is best done at the upper end of the 2500 range. That's mainly because the rpms in the next gear will be close to 2000, which is where you start to "feel" the power of the engine. Now, I live in Florida, where we don't even drive the speed limit, much less get a chance to speed. So when I am driving around town, I usually will shift at the lower 2500s just to "shift at the same time" as the person in front of me. But when I get on the Interstate/Turnpike, it's 4000+ before I shift, because it's my one chance to actually see what she can do. As for the jerkiness, 2 things. 1st-it's a new car, they are like that until they are broken in. 2nd-it's you, and that will change with time. Keep practicing, watching your rpms, and most importantly, the road. Because after all, what good is good shifting gonna do ya if your car is totalled?

 

Maximanian,

In my opinion you should shift at different RPM's depending upon the type of driving you are doing and the type of fuel economy you want. When I'm driving conservatively around town, or on the highway for that matter, I typically shift at around 3K rpm's. I believe this yields a decent compromise between performance and fuel economy. It also keeps the engine in a part of the power band with decent torque. I always try to go to the highest gear I can, without bogging the engine, to provide improved fuel economy.

For better performance I'll shift at higher RPM's - like on entrance ramps to highways. I decide my shift points on the fly depending upon what speed I'm trying to reach and how fast I want to get to that speed.

I will delay upshifting more (in other words increase my rpm at the time just prior to upshifting) to get improved acceleration.

Sometimes I will skip gears on upshifts. For example I like to accelerate quickly in second gear to get up to a given speed and then will upshift directly to fourth gear to get improved fuel economy and to reach a better cruising rpm. By the way, skipping gears also works well for downshifting particularly when you desire engine braking . . .

Don't be afraid to experiment with it - just make sure that you don't downshift to such a low gear that you run the engine rpm's over redline and if you notice the engine bogging (it will get noisy and vibrate a lot) just downshift 1 gear.

Good luck!

Andy