Yeah, im wondering, i seem to miss 4th, and only 4th when i miss a gear. It happened TWICE today when i was trapping myself at a local 1/4 spot (i trapped at 98!!!!) and when i was racing my cousins '03 Accord V-6 coupe (dont worry, i still took it)...


What gear do you guys miss?


Eric

 

I dont know how you can miss 4th but I miss 3rd on a 2 to 3 shift.

 

i miss 5th gear cuz i don't have it anymore now that i have an auto! but i'm still happy with my max, much better than that american piece of doo doo.

 

when i miss a shift its almost always the 2-3 shift. i went WOT for the first time in a long time today and missed 3rd.

 

I miss 3rd because I let out the clutch before I had time to get into gear so it never goes in. I need to slow my foot down.

 

For all you guys who can't drive stick, why don't you stop trying to look cool and just drive an automatic?


















forgive me, i feel bitter

 

i missed the 2 to 3 shift twice at the track...and punched my stereo cause my hand slipped off the shift ****.

i think the 3 to 4 shift is the easiest one...don't know how that gets messed, its a straight shift with no angles.

i guess we have different weaknesses...

 

i dont know how i miss 4th gear either, it seems its cocked to the right, like theres a kink in the gear or something, but i never miss any other gear, i nail the 1-2 and 2-3 shift like a charm!

lol, jeph, yeah i used to miss 5th when i switched form 5sp to auto, now im back to 5sp, cant live without it!

anyone else?

 

hahahahaha, riiiight...

eric

 

 

2-3 if I'm really getting on the thottle and try "force" it in

 

2-3 shift: palm open, fingers resting on the passenger side of the ****, push straight up = no missed 3rd gear.

3-4 shift: thumb pointed down, fingers wrapped around the front of the ****, pull straight back = no missed 4th gear


This is the way the pros shift, fellas. Do it all the time, even at part-throttle driving. You'll also notice how much easier the car goes into gear.

Class is excused.



Dave

 

3...but i just started driving a manual so hopefully i can clear this up (i think i get too excited on the shift and try to force it)

 

Third gear should get you through the quarter mile. Why would you waste the time upshifting to fourth? Third's good for nearly 100 mph, and with only the mods listed in your signature, there's no way your car is going that fast at the end of the trap.

 

dude, that is exactly how I do it now that I think about it. cool. I never noticed it until you described how to do it. I must be a pro. j/k

and the first gear i ever missed in my car was 3rd. its been a long time since i missed a gear now that i think about it. :knock on wood:


tbirdrob:

and 3rd doesn't take you up to 100. i finish the 1/4 at bout 91-92 mph and 3rd gear is almost at redline.

 

If you have a 4th gen with the US-spec intake manifold then shifting to 4th is mandatory assuming you're trapping over 92mph in the 1/4 mile. The optimal shift rpm is for the 3-4 is 5900-6000rpms or approximately 90mph. Taking 3rd all the way to redline will only make you slower.


Dave

 

3rd is hard to get into sometimes... damn STS

 

I have similar problems sometimes with the 2-3 shift. Mostly cause of my STS. But when i am driving slow i usually get it with no problems.

 

 

2-1 shift for street 'situations' havent grinded gears but sometimes as I'm sure everyone knows 1 is a tough lil sumbish occasionally

 

try doing it the way Dave B said to. I do it that way and I haven't missed a gear in the longest time.

 

yeah, i think ill just have to practice more on that 3-4 shift, and tbirdbob, i dunno about you, but i HAVE to shift into 4th in the 1/4 so maybe your talking about yourself


eric

 

In a year of driving the Maxima I've only missed gears twice. Once was a full-throttle 2-3 where I got stuck between the gates. The other was the 4-5 just the other day running a WRX down 270.




I'll have to try out Dave's tip

 

That's hilarious man. "punched my stereo" LOL

 

Double clutch while doing a 2-1 downshift will be much easier.

Double-clutch:

Clutch in, shifter into neutral, release clutch, clutch in, blip the throttle while moving shifter to desired lower gear, release the clutch.


Dave

 

No, it won't.

See Steve's post:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=188758

 

Well, I usually don't have much trouble in the lower gears, but sometimes when I'm cruising and not paying FULL attention, I may end up going to 4th gear from 5th instead of to 6th as planned.

Luckily, this is when I'm cruising, so the rpms are relatively low, and the misshift doesn't make the engine go into redline.

The problem with the 5-6 shift is that unless you keep a little sideways pressure on the shifter, it will naturally try to slide into 4th. Granted, I've only been driving manual for like 3 months now, and this misshift doesn't really happen anymore, but it used to when I first started.

Another interesting question along this line would be--which gear do you miss on DOWNshifts? I'm sure some people have had some pretty terrible mishaps on downshifting at one time or another. Me, I've done 6-2 instead of 6-4. Again, wasn't revving the engine high at the time, so didn't end up causing any harm. Nowadays, I can usually tell if the shifter went into the wrong gate before I let the clutch up, so I can correct the shift without causing damage.

 

When I mis-shift racing, 99% of the time it isn't because of the shifter, its re-engaging the clutch before the gear is fully engaged.

It makes a yummy grinding sound!

 

Automatic - Don't have to worry about shifting.

 

This is the shift i miss when I drive my friends 5spd.

 

I wish I had a 6th gear...........

In my 4th gen.

 

i guess i should clarify, what i meant about missing 4th is that i dont have the gear engaged all the way, most of the time i let the clutch in and out before its in the 4th gear gate...Now so much that i miss the gate completely...


eric

 

Oh, aiit. I wasn't sure what you guys considered "missing a gear" Still a newbie to manuals pretty much!

 

Stock 4th gen running the 1/4 mile? Yes, hold 3rd because the car will struggle to break 92mph in 1/4. If you have a y-pipe/intake and you are putting down around 175-180fwhp, you'll need to go to 4th since your trap speeds should well over 92mph. Of course all of this depends on your shifting skills. Believe me, I did not make these shift points up, they are calculated from my USIM dyno numbers (intake,y-pipe, b-pipe, UDP). The "torque@shift" and "torque after shift" numbers result in the following shift points:

1-2 6500
2-3 6200
3-4 6000

I've experimented with this and if I hold all gears to redline (with the USIM), my ET/MPH was higher 14.8s@94mph on average. Shifting at the correct rpms dropped my average down to lower 14.7s@96mph. That's shifting earlier plus having an extra shift. It was worth ~.15 seconds and 2mph on average. If that's not proof, I don't know what is


Dave

 

It is proff, that each car/driver is different. I've done both as well, and find that my results are the EXACT opposite as yours.

Note that I have to shift into 4th no matter what, its just a question of when.

Shifting 3 to 4 around 6k RPM usually gets me 14.7's. Holding 3rd until the redline _then_ shifting nets me 14.5's (both NA of course).

Bottom line, each car and driver is different. Nobobdy can make blanket statements that if you shift at certin points you'll get the best time. Everyone has to try for themselves and come away with what works best for them.

 

I've missed a gear once in my life on my sis's 5spd 94' Jetta GL, never again...never again...

 

This is how I miss shifts too. And it's not always when trying to accelerate fast.....sometimes even just driving leisurely I do this.

 

To supplement Dave - I've found the key to not missing 2-3 shift is to shift STRAIGHT FORWARD.

To do that, make sure your elbow is away from your body.

I used to miss 2-3 and couldn't figure out why until I got the STS. Once I installed the STS at its shortest setting, I found that I had lots of problems with the 2-3 shift.

I was shifting at an angle - maybe towards 2:00 on the clock - because of where my elbow was and because I was being lazy.

Once I made certain that my arm was basically parallel to the cupholder - I stopped missing the shift.

 

I normally miss the shift from 2nd to 3rd when I'm at the track

 

Thats exactly how I was taught to do it. Feels so smooth. I don't even have a 5-speed. I see people who have driven manuals for years and they do the pistol grip through all the gears. Ick!

1-2 shift: You just hook the front of the shifter with your palm and flick your wrist down. You don't actually grip the shifter. Actually, you never actually grip the shifter unless you're going from neutral to 1st. Mostly, your thumb stays out of the whole mix. No thumbs!

ZuM