so... just picked up my 2010 G37S 6MT yesterday. i had previously learned to drive manual a little bit in a honda civic si (for like 15 mins LOL), but other than that, no experience! =T
so when my bf was teaching me to drive my car yesterday, i freaking stalled it SO MANY times!

hope i didn't f**k my car up...

today, i was able to drive it and only stalled once when i was trying to reverse out of my driveway.... so i'm getting the hang of it yay. but i'm really worried about what i did to it yesterday haha!

so, tell me, how bad is it to stall your car many, many times?? especially in such a short time span? (i think i smelled some burning?)
the bf says it's ok...but maybe he just doesn't want me freaking out!? (i totally was freaking out about it hahaha)

thanks in advance for any input.

 

It's okay, don't worry about it, what you smelled was probably your clutch. I learned on this car too and it's not an easy one to learn on! So your a girl driving a manual G, hahaaa props.

 

No worries...stalling isn't going to really hurt the car. The most you'll do is put a little extra wear on your starter motor and maybe your battery....

Once you get a good feel for the clutch, you should be able to drive without ever stalling.

 

+1 Only real damage your doing is to the clutch. Thats where the burning smell is comming from. Everyone does it, and will go through it when driving a stick for the first time. But very nice to see a women driving a G, yet alone is being a 6-speed.

 

congrats on the G....you'll get the hang of it quick....just make sure the reason ur stalling is cuz you have the handbrake up lol....ive seen people make that mistake.

theres nothing hotter than a girl in heels and a short skirt driving manual

 

give it more gas around 2.5 RPM and u won't stall...

 

you are BURNING your clutch if you are holding it until 2500 RPM...

My clutch is fully engaged at b/w 800-1000 RPM. I think the highest it's ever been under normal driving is 1200.

If you are sitting on the clutch until 2500 you are going to have to replace it much much sooner than you would need to under "normal" driving

 

You must never really launch your car.

 

Obviously if you are trying to launch your car then the RPM's will be higher. But this girl is just learning to drive a M/T and if you are driving NORMALLY then engaging the clutch at 2500 is terrible.

I guess I shouldn't have used the word "launch"...but when you begin moving the RPM's shouldn't be that high under NORMAL driving conditions.

 

You'll get the hang of it. I learned how to drive stick on this car and it took me a few weeks before I didnt have to worry about stalling.

For smoother shifts from 1-2-3 try bringing it up to 3.5k RPM before shifting. The car tends to be clunky if you shift lower and dont feather the clutch a lot.

 

Bit high to be JUST starting to let off your clutch. Ive only driven a couple manual G's but they surely engage around 1K RPM's to say the least.

 

If you really want to get a good feel for the clutch, try this:

Find a nice level (and empty) parking lot. From a dead stop, let the clutch out slowly without ever touching the gas pedal. Repeat this until you can make the car smoothly pull away (no bucking and no burning of the clutch). Once you get a good feel for the clutch, you can use it to your advantage in normal driving conditions.

Whenever I teach someone how to drive a stick shift, I always start with this. I think it really shortens their learning curve.

 

This is the best advice in the entire thread. I learned to drive stick like this and it definitely shortens the learning curve. You will learn the feel of your clutch and know exactly how/where it engages

 

Also, this car's clutch engages very high for some reason on the compression of the clutch. There is no need to go all the way to the floor with it and was an interesting adjustment at first. Good luck though, sounds like you pretty much got it and your car will be fine. Girl + 6MT = Hot!

 

^^^ Exactly what he said. ^^^

You don't need to rev the engine to anything. If you can get 1st gear engagement butter smooth with the engine just idling, everything else is gravy. You'll get a good feel for hos the clutch engages/disengages which is what you need. It's more about feel than a set formula of how many RPM to rev to.

Also listen to the car and get in touch with how the engine sounds when you are shifting. It's easier to hear the right RPM for shifting through the gears than to look at it on the tach, at least for me. Once you are practicing your 1-2, 2-3, etc. shifts, you'll be able to feel and hear when to shift better than you will know from looking at the tach. At least I think so.