FONZIE

I have been practicing my 6 to 4 shift to pass people on the highway. At first it wasn't working, but now I can get it to work most of the time. The more I do it, the more it seams easier to do so it got me thinking. Am I breaking-in some part in the transmission by doing this? Is this a bad thing to do?

Buckeye3d

Perfectly fine and quite fun. :D

zoom44

what i do if i really want to pass is get my line set and shift to 4th to bring the rpms up. then i hold it there and wait for the opening to start to appear(i.e. they start to change lanes to GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!!) as soon as it's clear i drop it to 3rd and mash the gas. this is waaayyyyy fun!!

FONZIE

Then what part of the transmission am I breaking-in that makes shifting from 6 to 4 easier with time?

red_rx8_red_int

Yep 3rd can be a little more fun than 4th. I always overshoot my cruising speed and than coast back down to it.

RotorMotor04

Syncros! They are not worn down enough yet to make them mesh easy enough. The more you drive the easier it will be to shift

red_rx8_red_int

None, you're just getting smoother at it. You're learning how to instinctively rev match and feather the clutch for a smooth transisition.

XcelR8

Your both correct. The sycros slightly wear to mesh better and byt the nature of the beast the more you drive the 8 the easier it is to shift.

zoom44 - you hit the nail on the head, 4th hold it - Accord finally gets the hint - shift 3rd "beep", 4th "beep", 6th and coast back down to crusing speed. Too much fun to be legal!! Wait - it's not legal cause you just hit 115 before shifting to fifth.

robertdot

Unless your average fast lane highway cruising speed is 85... then that third gear thing... well, it doesn't quite work out.

We all know that sometimes an Accord going 85 in front of us is too slow!

zoom44

hehehe yeah i forgot to mention the "to the beep" part and once i am going as fast as traffic allows i shift to 6th ,skipping 5th, and just coast back to legal speeds. it is so much fun i'm going to go out for a drive now!

red_rx8_red_int

Yea it depends what your initial speed is. If I'm following someone going 80 and want to cruise at 90 I won't shift down to third, fourth is fine. But if I'm following someone at 60-70 and want to go 80-90 then yes a third gear shifh is is order. Sometimes I just beep in third and back to sixth other times I beep third and beep fourth before coasting back to cruising speed.

On another note, I am seeing more and more 8s. I am probably seeing 2 a week the last several weeks.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Oh, please remember to linger at the neutral position, so the shifter lines up nicely between '3&4', otherwise you risk the dreaded '6to2' shift......
....been there too often, got the T-shirt.....

S

lafrad

At least I did that in the demo car, not mine..... sales guy next to me panic'd for a moment, but then went on to tell me how nicely the whole car handled an over-rev to 12K and a "reverse drift" on the hiway at 70 mph.. :-P

red_rx8_red_int

LOL, I wish I was there!

OdinGuru

Is everyone here doing a straight 6 -> 4 shift?

cluch in, 6 -> N -> 4, cluch out

Or are people going to 4 through 5?

cluch in, 6 -> N-> 5-> N -> 4, cluch out

I found when I was first learing the car that it was very dificult to do a 6->4 shift directly (syncros would have to work VERY hard). A friend recomended going through 5th. Although this takes a little extra time, the lay shaft gets accelerated by the syncros in two much easier stages and seems to be much happier. I haven't tried a straight 6->4 shift in a while tho, so perhaps with more worn syncros the 6->5->4 may not be nessisary. Although I'd probably still do it when I have time to perpare for a pass (just to minimize wear and tear).

Xyntax

I do the same!!! hahah! The first time I did that I was kinda afraid if I would break something. But after the first try, I found out my style and a style that I use frequently on downshifts now.
- Let go of the gas pedal
- Press clutch pedal
- Shift from 6th to 4th
- Tap on gas pedal to rev up but not keep my foot there
- Quick-feather release the clutch
- Step back on the gas pedal (flooring it)
- If the acceleration isn't enough, I repeat the steps to shift to 3rd

This happens so quickly that you no longer have to think about it once you're used to it. It's nice coz your car doesn't jerk, it just increases its acceleration; sort of like how A/T's downshift. I guess that has been my whole motivation with driving M/T. Making it feel as close as the A/T.

Whenever I do this, I can compare it to how you hit a ball with a bat. You toss the ball to a certain altitude and when it starts going back down, you swing and hit it. Only it happens too quickly, you don't have to think about the steps.

ps. The Quick-feather release is important IMO, coz sometimes you could shift to the wrong number and risk destroying your transmission (even engine). I have dropped to 2nd (from 5th) a few times, but never destroyed anything as I detected the error and stepped on the clutch again and automatically shift to neutral to avoid other mistakes...and then say "whew".

Also, I do 6 - 5 - 4 on days when I don't feel as confident on my driving skills.

FONZIE

Thanks for all the great responses

I have another question....


I've done some searches about shifting here. My transmission doesn't grind at all, but all the shifts seem a bit notchy. Instead of shifting 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to etc.... It feels like 1 out/in 2 out/in 3 out/in 4, etc....

Anyone else's transmission like this? Also, my 1 > 2 shift is a little tougher than the rest. I plan on changing the transmission oil at 5K miles as some people suggest, if that doesn't work then I'll ask the dealer to check the pressure plate bolts or the shift forks..............

loco4rx8

Passing in 3rd gear on a country two-lane highway is a major rush! I LOVE it!

Jailbreak'74

I can't believe how many of you guys beat the hell out of your cars. There must be an age or money gap here or something. I plan on driving my car way past when it's paid off, not driving to get repair parts after 50K.

Seenitall

Anybody here know what double clutching is?

Aratinga

Double clutching is this sequence:

depress clutch pedal
take shifter out of gear into neutral
release clutch pedal
re-depress clutch pedal
put shifter into desired gear

In the dark ages before synchros, it was necessary. Maybe in some cases it still is, but I never do it.

red_rx8_red_int

I plan on getting at least 200-300k miles out of this car. I don't see how any of the posts in this thead relate to beating the hell out of the car. There is nothing wrong with using the entire band of the rpm. Actually this thread is more about not injuring your car by shifting carefully. A fast feather is proper so if you do misshift you can catch it.

Xyntax

amen bro. it's not really beating the hell our of the car. it's more like knowing your car more and knowing how to shift quickly and smoothly. i rarely jerk my 8 on upshifts and downshifts because of my exploration during the first 3 months i got it.

Rotarian_SC

Fonzie I do seem to have a similar problem as well. My 1->2 is harder then the rest and it does seems a bit notchy, and it wasn't notchy when I first got the car. I'm going to ask them to look at the transmission soon when I take it in for an oil change.

Seenitall

Saves the synchros, and if done properly, you can drop a couple of gears without getting a big lurch when the clutch hooks up again. Try it-you'll like it.