Ever since I can remember many years ago when 5 speed transmissions came out, out of lazyness mostly, I have neglected to use 4th gear. I usually pick up enough speed in 3rd gear and go straight to 5th, I figured what’s the point? wasted time and energy, and quicker to go to the lower RPM speed. I have had mostly 4 cylinders (eagle talon tsi, Bug turbo, etc) with OK pickup so I don’t really NEED to push 4th gear. My question I guess, is if this is beneficial for the car, or detrimental. I have had some friends tell me it is good for gas mileage, others say it is not only bad for mileage, but bad for the clutch as well, and that I should be driving most of the time in 4th gear in city driving ?
I been driving stick shifts for nearly 25 years, MOST of those in cars that only had 4 gears, so I guess I don’t know much about the CORRECT way to use a 5 or 6 speed transmission. Any suggestions?
I am not a mechanic but this doesn’t sound like a great idea to me. From the clutch standpoint, the change in engine speed is larger skipping a gear, but then again, you’re only making one shift. So clutch wear might be a wash. But you may be lugging the engine, which is bad (but not if you really know what you’re doing). But consistently skipping a gear may have some impact on how the gearbox wears.
I doubt it hurts gas mileage, if you’re not lugging the engine. If you wait until you’re at highway speeds to hit 5th then it might be OK, and maybe better for gas mileage since you get into 5th sooner (but it may very well be that you’re pushing 3rd too hard and offsetting the gain).
They designed it to have those gears for a reason.
One of experts will be along soon, but until then you’re stuck with me.
I’d suggest that the gears are there for a reason, and you should use them all, especially in a four cylinder car. Some big diesel SUVs and the like are often started off in 2nd, but that’s about the limit of it.
It also depends wether your fifth gear is “taller” than fourth in an equivalent four-speed box, or whether it’s about the same, and the ratios are closer together. It’s probably the first situation though, with fifth being an overdrive gear. In any event, fifth isn’t a particularly good gear for city driving. I only use it when I’m getting up towards 80kmh (50-ish mph), and even then I will often select fourth instead if there are traffic lights, merging traffic etc. If you’re doing 35mph in fifth gear and the light flips yellow, you might find yourself stuck.
You are probably adding a bit of extra wear and tear on the engine, since you are winding 3rd up into higher RPMs than you would if you used 4th, and starting 5th in lower RPMs than you would had you come from 4th. If you’re not accelerating too hard, then it probably doesn’t make that much of a difference.
If you don’t compensate for the difference in engine vs. wheel speed by laying off the accelerator a bit, then it’s a bit extra wear on the clutch also.
I started on 5 speeds and only recently got a vehicle with a 4 speed. I’ve noticed with the 4 speed that I have to wind the engine up a lot higher than I’m used to before shifting. I suspect that you are used to shifting at a higher RPM. If you cut down the RPM you shift at a bit you’ll run through all 5 gears smoothly and save yourself a bit of wear on the engine.
Gotta agree with something clever, here, although IANAM.
I can acclerate to 60 with gears 1-3 without breaking 4k rpm. What is the point of going to fourth? 5th is my cruising gear. I save fourth for driving down secondary country roads that have a 45-50 mph range.
I guess there are mixed ideas but no clear winner, I will “explore” the 4th gear idea and see if it makes any difference in gas mileage.
I can’t even begin to entertain the idea of a six speed transmission, I am already confused as it is with 5. What could I possibly need 6th gear for. I drove my brother’s new vette once, I think it had 6 gears but I don’t remember, I do remember it was so powerful, I opted to start in second gear, go to 3rd and then straight to 5th
The answer to this is really simple: If you normally match RPM’s well as you shift, then an extra shift does not mean much in regards to clutch wear. Also, high RPM’s required to get from 3rd to 5th are unnecessary wear on the engine and bearings and belts, ect.
Sure, if you plan to stop. I’m actually talking about when the light flips yellow just at that moment where it’s touch and go as to whether you should go through or stop. It’s nice to have a bit of acceleration up your sleeve if you decide to go through. The same applies in heavy traffic generally. I just don’t feel safe as slower speeds in fifth when I need agility for quick decisions in heavy, multi-lane traffic.
I’ll put it into fifth at about 70kmh on the motorway if there’s not a lot of traffic about, otherwise I leave fifth until I’m going about 80-85kmh.
How is it a good way to wear out your clutch? It’s the proper way to stop a modern (less than 30 or so years old) car.
When you decide to stop, you just leave the car in whatever gear you were in, and brake. According to my Toyota’s manual, you then “depress the clutch just before the engine starts to lug”. I normally do this at about 20kmh, ot a smidgin lower. The clutch is fully engaged for most of this procedure, and then it is fully disengaged. There’s no wear on the plates.
I will go down through the gears sometimes though. An example would be when I don’t know how long the light has been red, and it could change any time. Then I like to be in the right gear.
I drop it into neutral when I make a stop. Hell, sometimes I’ll drop it into neutral when the speed limit changes by about 30 mph, and put it into the appropriate gear when I’ve reached that speed.
Tentacle Monster, putting the car into neutral when you stop is positively beneficial, as if you sit at traffic lights with your foot on the clutch, you might not wear out the clutch plates, but you’ll cause wear on other parts of the clutch - there are bearings which are in operation when the clutch is depressed.
As for sticking it into neutral when you want to coast down to a lower freeway speed, I fon’t think it does the car any harm, but I’ve always been told that driving in “angel gear” is unsafe. You never know when you might need to move in a hurry.
ok, he didnt say he was drag racing and skipping 4th, he said he is usually going fast enough not to warrant needing a shift to 4th, so instead he just goes to 5th. this isnt rocket science folks.
Considering GM put this feature to boost their numbers to meet CAFE requirements, i’m pretty sure its a safe bet to say its NOT HARMFUL. If you knew what you were talking about, then youd know this already. Obviously you dont, so i can understand why you wasted bandwidth and posted such a comment.
something clever, that’s your second snarky post. What gives? Relax already. We’re talking about gearboxes here.
Not being in America, I had never heard of GM’s SkipShift system, so I did what any self-respecting doper would do and googled it.
I found that it was indeed Detroit’s answer to strict Californian emissions laws, and therefore this:
makes no sense at all. It might not be harmful to the environment, but there is no basis whatsoever for saying it’s not harmful to your car. This is not to say that it necessarily is harmful to the car, but you can’t draw the conclusion that if Californian clean air laws require it, then it must be okay for your car. Heck, if Californian law required GM to put sand in the gearbox, and top up the engine with Jack Daniels, then that’s what would happen, as long as the Californian market remains open to the manufacturer.
The SkipShift system, from my googling, seems to be universally loathed.
Trust me, if you can get into 5th from 3rd without lugging your engine once in 5th, you took it up too far, you wasted RPM’s, this is unnecessary. This isn’t rocket science.
This just isn’t really true. In most any 5-speed, you can accelerate to a speed adequate for 5th gear without redlining in 3rd. You haven’t “taken it too far,” as “too far” in this context can really only mean going past redline. I have no idea what “wasting RPMs” would mean, but I presume you mean that you didn’t need to wind the engine up so high, and it’s better not to do so. But this isn’t true. The engine is explicitly designed to rev up to its redline without incurring any damage or inordinate wear. For most engines it’s actually a good thing to wind them up now and then. You’d probably use a little more gas accelerating this way than you would shifting earlier, but unless you’re constantly stopping and starting, which gear one chooses to cruise at has far more impact.
Little 4-bangers have 5-speed transmissions because they have narrow powerbands, and the tight gear spacing allows one to always be able to select a gear with a bit of available power. This does not mean that skipping any particular gear is harmful.
So if i was in 5th gear and the RPM’s dropped to about 2000/2500 in my Mum’s 1.4L Civic, and I put my foot to the floor to accelerate up instead of changing down to 4th to pick up the revs, would that harm the car in any way. My Dad says it is, I sometimes do that when the car’s low on petrol and I’m easing it to a petrol station to fill up. Only asking because Dad reeeeeally insists this is a “Bad Thing.”
