Holy &^%$! Nice hill. I think I see red light 1/2 way up. That would suck.

 

I've driven manual for like a total of 15 minutes combined from 3 different cars over the last 2 years, and then I bought my first manual car...

I'm still learning, and getting a smooth shift out of 1st into 2nd is soo hard on this car. I pretty much got a hang of it, with my ADD I actually LOVE it... and don't mind standing in traffic with a MT. I frequently find myself rolling back and forth on a red light on a slight uphill, is it really that bad? I mean as long as I'm catching the engagement point, does it really harm the clutch?

I'm also having a harddd time downshifting coming to a stop, I don't understand how I'm supposed to rev match while breaking at the same time, ough soo hard, when I end up tapping the gas to rev match, I think I end up letting go off the clutch too soon and the car ends up going into a higher RPM than it's supposed to pushing me forward instead of slowing me down.

One more thing... I heard that when shutting the car off, it's better if you hold the clutch down, it shuts off a lot smoother... from experience, it does shut off smoother, but does it benefit the motor/clutch in anyway?

 

Don't use your clutch to hold your car steady on a hill or an incline, you will shorten the life of your clutch tremendously.

Rev matching requires a lot of practice; the brake pedal and gas pedal are close to each other on the G37, so you should be able to move your foot between both pedals without lifting it off the floor which makes heel-toe shifting easier.

There are some good videos on youtube that demonstrates how to do a proper heel-toe shift.

 

Hill-holding with the clutch is definitely bad for it and will wear it out faster. I don't think it matters whether you engage the clutch to shut down the car or not. As far as rev-matching goes, its a tough skill to master. I've driven MT's for 15 years and I still suck at it. The trick is to hold constant pressure on the brake while stabbing the throttle with your heel (or the side of your foot) and quickly depressing the clutch. Its kind of like juggling and takes a fair amount of cooridination to pull off. Luckily, heel-and-toeing isn't really necessary in day-to-day driving. I usually just shift to neutral and coast to a stop....

 

i'm getting very worried now haha

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what he's talking about there. CVTs certainly don't have 7 gears. That would kind of defeat the purpose.

Some other Nissan automatic models do have a CVT though. We rented a Murano on vacation in Alaska. Wasn't impressed with that transmission.

 

You'll be fine. We're all talking it up since it's comparatively harder than other MTs most of us had driven before. But it's still extremely drivable. You said you at least know how to drive one, even if you haven't actually owned one. So you'll get used to it quickly.

The first time I test drove one I guess I let off the clutch kind of fast like I was used to doing in my old car and it hopped forward about 5 feet and stalled! After that I kind of got the idea, just took a while to get it smoothed out.

 

yeah don't worry at all, you will be fine.

I'm coming from Jeep M/T's, which are probably the most forgiving, loosest transmissions ever. Coming to the G the engagement point is just much smaller and touchier.

 

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That actually sounds harder to me somehow. I guess because I've never tried it. I usually just jump from the brake to the gas and go. The trick is just to time it by starting to let the clutch out enough in advance so you reach the grabbing point at the exact same time your foot comes off the brake.

 

^ that's a good point, but doesn't that go along the lines of what we've talking about on "hill starts"...? you have the weight of the car as opposed to well...a hill. seems like engaging the clutch without accelerating is a no-no?

 

basically your ebrake is doing all the work on a deep hill starts. By using your ebrake, you are not adding all the downhill force to your clutch load.

simply rule, everytime your clutch engage to the flywheel, you are using something on the clutch, so repeatedly going back and forward on a hill shorten life of the clutch

as far as downshifting to slow down? I don't do that unless it is emergency and I need to stop very very quick. a very good car builder once told me "just use your brake, pads are a lot cheaper than your transmission and engine, you don't want to wear those down"


I haven't driven a 6MT G, so I can't tell you how it is, but I had a 240SE MT long long time about I would say it is pretty easy to drive. The hardest MT car I had is the M3. German Clutch is definitely harder to engage than Japanese.

 

I've haven't owned a MT car since Aug 2003, but drove MT cars only for 11 years before that. I never used the e-brake method on a hill, it never even occured to me to try that. I just learned where the sweet spot of the clutch was, had it at that spot, then quickly moved from the brake to gas pedal. It helped that most of the cars were V8s with a lot of torque, so you could pretty much just let the clutch out and the car would almost pull itself. I did the hill-hold thing sometimes, and never replaced a clutch on any of my cars. But I also never kept one more than 2 years back then.

FWIW - I test-drove a 6mt G35 sedan last Summer (after not having a stick for 6 years) and never stalled it. Was even able to hit a couple rev-match downshifts (missed a couple too -lol). So don't worry you guys with the new m/t cars, just learn that stick and have fun! I am kinda itching for a stick-shift again myself.............

 

The idea is to be accelerating at the exact moment the clutch reaches the grabbing point. At least that's what I'm aiming for. Otherwise it's rolling back a foot or two before it starts accelerating which doesn't seem like it would be any better. At some point in letting the clutch out the transmission is going to have to handle the weight of the car, whether taking off from a hill or not -- that's the only way to get the car moving. The point I think is not to sit for a minute with it at the grabbing point fighting gravity which just puts needless stress on it. Probably moreso if you're rocking back and forth.

For downshifting I usually heel-and-toe these days which is using a combination of braking and the transmission to slow the car down. Also puts less wear on the transmission by matching revs and eliminating (or at least reducing) the downshift jolt.

My feeling is the same that it's better to wear brakes than the transmission, but I think there becomes a certain point where it isn't. If you just put it in neutral all the time and used only the brakes to slow down, you'd probably spend just as much in brake pads over the life of the car as you would for eventually replacing the transmission. The transmission is built to handle downshifting and I'm not sure that the added wear is anything significant compared to brakepad wear -- as long as you're not being overly harsh with it.

 

I NEVER used my tranny to slow down. It was always Neutral and the brakes for me. I didn't have any wear problems with brake pads in the two years and 40k miles I had my 08 G37S coupe. Slowing the car down is what the brakes are designed for. They will not wear out just because you use them!

 

Well, okay then. Different strokes for different folks. The last car I had, (a much cheaper hyundai so there's obviously no comparison in quality), 10 years ago I used to do exactly that also. I went through brake pads long before many other people did with the same car -- the next set I forced myself to downshift more and the brakes lasted longer. Anyway, at some point the pads will wear out no matter how you do it -- just because you use them. They don't last forever .

But that's good to know the Infiniti brakes have held up as long as they did for you. I see the "S" in your sig; I assume you have the sport brakes like I do, so I'm pretty optimistic about that now.

Nevertheless I prefer to heel-and-toe method to downshift which mostly uses the brakes to slow down, but also uses the engine somewhat. I imagine it's similar to braking with an automatic transmission. IMO the engine can also be used to slow the car down. And the MT won't wear out just because you use it! FWIW Edmunds.com agrees with you, that the brakes won't necessarily last significantly longer from downshifting. But I still think it's more fun to do it that way!

As I said before, many years ago I was an over-the-road truck driver. Much different application because you are trying to stop 80,000 pounds. But downshifting there is a necessity -- the brakes alone may not be enough, especially on a hill. So I guess it's somewhat just old habits in my case too.