Need help downshifting
 

A couple days ago I made a thread about my evo jerking when going up gears, that has now been resolved (still get little jerks going from 1-2 but it's getting better.) This is my first manual transmission car, I got almost all of it down, hill starts, moving from complete stop, reversing, everything except shifting down a gear. That is where I get my jerks. I tried writing down my mph and shifting points and this is what I got:

• 1st 0-15 mph 1-3k
• 2nd 15-30 mph 1500-3.5k
• 3rd 30-40 mph 2.5-3.5k
• 4th 40mph 2.8k-?
• didn't take it to fifth gear, just to post what I got above to see if I'm doing this right

Does this seem accurate? If I was going 40mph in 4rth gear and saw traffic upfront and wanted to go down to 2nd at 20mph , I would have to clutch in, move to neutral and blip my throttle somewhere in the range of 2k rpms, shift to 2nd for a smooth downshift? :confused: :crap: :helpme: evo is bone stock

Yes you need to learn how to double clutch -

Clutch in, put it in neutral
Gun the car up to the RPM's you WILL be in. In your example from 40mph you would rev it to around 4k
Clutch in
Put it in gear
Release gear and start applying gas as you do so

This should be a very quick sequence when you have it down. I can do this in a second or so. Once you get a feel for RPM's at various gears it will get easier.

If you do this when driving, your clutch will last a loooong time.

Good luck and enjoy

Its really hard to explain over the interwebz but try not to practice skipping gears when downshifting its hard on the syncros. Plus its easier to learn to blip the throttle and downshift if all your thinking about is going down one gear instead of skipping one. Also clutches are expensive and this cars clutch is pretty unforgiving to new drivers so I would try to practice on another car if possible. Don't worry so much about the RPMS it really is more of a feel type of thing.

Here's a really thorough explanation by a nasally dude on youtube:

Really ??? double clutching ?? This is a modern car !! NO need for that **** .. Learn how to drive ..

There is really no need to rev match or double clutch these days. If your speed/rpm is appropriate for the next gear then you should be fine so long as your not releasing the clutch super fast.

I tried double clutching and that's been working the smoothest for me (any downsides to this?), I haven't tried rev matching yet but it almost sounds the same?? and what isn't "super fast" when releasing the clutch using your method, cause the car jerks down pretty bad when I tried it

Seriously. Another one of these? Just relax, drive and enjoy the car. You'll get the hang of it. You're thinking about it way to much. You're going to spend most of the time staring at the gauge cluster than looking at the road.

From what I find with this car more than most manual cars, is that you need to feel it. Everything in this car is based off of feedback and feel. This is opposite to my Vr4 where you can shift whenever you want due to massive amounts of torque being available everywhere.

wut?

You can't be serious.

You're dropping down a gear without rev matching etc. you're just eating up clutch and synchros.

My heavy driven 08 STi clutch lasted 110 miles with mods and HARD but proper driving. Good luck doing that without rev matching.

That's what I was wondering, People say they never rev match when they downshift and they've been driving for a decade plus, I think they do it but maybe don't realize it? Anyways I was practicing rev matching today from gears 5-4 and 4-3, but rev-matching from 3-2 is a pain, I just leave it in 3rd gear while taking a turn, not sure if that's good or bad but I guess I'll practice some more. Oh and I usually Clutch in>Rev>throw it down a gear. That's how I've been doing it (the confusion was if I rev in neutral or the gear I'm in), correct me if I'm wrong?

It should be seemless. Clutch in, blip the throttle while changing gear, release clutch once new gear is fully selected. Same thing goes for down shifting while braking, except you'll be heel/toeing the throttle and brake.


There is absolutely no reason to double clutch this car.

As someone else who is learning stick on this car, I feel like I'm at a comfortable enough point right now. I can hit my Rev matches fairly accurately, tho sometimes it's tougher at slow speeds.

I have never double clutched, or tried to. From what I've read, it's u necessary for these cars, and more so for older cars. If anything I'm cautious of not over revving the engine during these shifts, as not to burn up my clutch after reading horror stories on here of clutches going bad way early (5k miles).

Here I am, at almost 5k miles, feeling ore comfortable, driving around, starting on hills without the ebrake, etc. I think I'll be fully confident/capable in a year.

So 'leaving it in 3rd' could be fine, but know the following things about a small motor + turbo -

It's VERY bad for you to be at a low RPM high load. So for instance, if you are in 5th gear and going 30mph and want to pass someone - DON'T FLOOR IT.

Downshift.

High load - low RPM = death to turbo engines, especially when modded. You might get away with it stock, but it is still not advised.

So if you do roll through a corner in 3rd, unless you're going pretty quickly, ease on the gas and slowly build up to speed.

Good rule of thumb - Don't floor it unless you are over 3200 RPM's in these cars.

This is another way of safely bringing the RPM's up. I'm a bit more old school so do agree that fully double clutching might not be 100% necessary, it's just what I am used to doing.

Clutch in - neutral - gun up to RPM's - put in gear and clutch out works as well (just feels weird to me lol)