ok so i just called one of the dealers near me and they said its recommended to put it in Neutral at a stoplight.

 

Okay, straight from the Evo manual:

Reasons not to put it into neutral at regular length stoplights:

"Do not accelerate immediately after moving the gearshift lever. It may take some time for the transmission to shift to the selected gear."

""N" Neutral: At this position, the transmission is disengage. It is the same as the neutral position on a manual transaxle and should be used when the vehicle is not moving for an extended length of time during driving, such as in a traffic jam."

"For short waiting periods, such as at traffic lights, the vehicle can be left in gearshift lever position and held stationary with the service brake.... For longer waiting periods, with the engine running, place the gearshift lever in the "N" (NEUTRAL) position and apply the parking brake, while holding the vehicle stationary with the service brake."

So, traffic jams = put in N. Regular 30 seconds to 1 minute stop lights = leave in gear & possible apply handbrake.

Hope this clears things up.

 

i always put it in neutral when stopped but am guilty of changing SST on the fly... might not do that anymore, however when I go from sport down to normal on the fly the change seems very smooth and doesn't just quickly try to upshift, i noticed today it held rpms high like i was still in sportmode a little bit until it comfortably changed

 

hrmm.. makes sense now i'm just confused which to do, been usually putting in N for 30sec stoplights

 

thanks kidneythief13 for that! i haven't looked at my owners manual once yet, maybe i should. lol

 

i am same as you......... i put in neutral even for short stops.

.......i feel , why not play it "safe" with the sst and put it in neutral and save a little wear on the clutches.

besides.... it is not like it is hard to do !

............and after you do it for a while , it will become a habit and you will not even have to think about it.

 

I notice that in stop/go traffic jams when I take off I feel like I'm putting alot of pressure on the clutches and my car jerks when I'm accelerating on first. Could it be that I have a heavy left foot?

I dont think its cause I'm not giving enough gas cuase I do have a heavy foot.

 

I have the same exact thing! I can actually hear and feel something pounding sometimes. It sounds like a hammer hitting into something and then I start moving.

 

The biggest hit i notice is when i first start the car in the morning. When it shifts to 2nd it feels like a pretty hard shift.. after that its smooth the rest of the day.

 

I get hard (shifts?) in 1st when im rolling at 3mph through a stop sign and then when i start to go i get that hard hit. Think its anything to be worried about?

 

nah i think its normal... its just the clutch disengaging because it thinks you are going to stop, then it engages when you hit the gas again.

 

^ +1. It'll get better over time. I don't really experience that in my MR any more, but did every now & again for the first couple thousand miles. The really freaky part (which has only happened to me once), is when stepping on the gas, releasing it, then stepping & releasing again. The computer doesn't now what to do & is pretty much saying f*** you & slaps the car into a gear of it's choosing, making a loud bang & the whole car shake. This scared the crap out of me... lol.

 

My assumption is that it sounds like that because there's nothing to dampen the sound when it's being shoved into gear (just metal hitting metal hitting more metal) where as in a regular manual transmission the shift cable, bushings, and even your arm act as a dampener in the cog engagement.

I don't think it will be a problem, but they could have probably added some sort of bushings inside the gearbox in order to absorb some of the impact.

 

Even modern slushbox automatics do crazy things when you mess with the throttle like that

 

^lol. I had heard other people talk about that in the Evo X section, but had yet to experience that myself. I guess from now on, when there's traffic w/people not wanting to let me in or knowing how to merge, I'll just pop it into manual.