Cueing the Clutch (tips on teaching manual transmission)

[IslandGirl_Becks]

Yesterday, I had my first experience teaching someone to drive stick. My bf's 15-yo sister has had her license for a little while and can control a vehicle fine. Unfortunately, she got stuck with me for a driving teacher in my VW Golf. I think of everything in terms of how it works mechanically. "Pushing in on the clutch pedal disengages the clutch plates, so the engine isn't connected to the wheels." "You gotta give it a little more torque from the engine to overcome the resistance in the wheels," "One side of the clutch is spinning, the other isn't." 

 

How did you learn to drive stick? Have any cues to share? Ways to simplify something that seems to complex the first time you try it?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I learned to drive stick by first learning to drive a tractor. (Grew up in the country in Texas).

[Sloth the Enduring]

I learned on a dirt bike as a kid. The skill was easy to transfer to a car.

I failed at teaching my wife to drive stick. My next car will be a mini-van with an automatic

[karinajean]

Learning to shift is really 2 parts - first, how to shift in general, which is mechanics and can be practiced from a stop - rolling the car back and forth and practicing the play between clutch and gas. Maybe not too much, it will wear on the car. The 2nd is WHEN to shift, which you can learn by shifting at engine RPMs (it tells when in the manual) and then learning to go by engine sound and feeling.

But mostly it's practice! It's harder to learn while you're staring down traffic, I had a super rough time with that. The parking lot practice was best for me. My mom had me read the manual and then let me practice a bunch. I got it! It took a little while and some confidence, but now it's all I will drive.

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[IslandGirl_Becks]

I learned to drive stick by first learning to drive a tractor. (Grew up in the country in Texas).

 

 

Not quite a tractor, but I learned in a 25-yo Subaru Impreza. First gear was so sticky that my passengers were in danger of whiplash. If you learn on something rough, you can drive anything!

[Sunmage]

I learned it by 2 hours Stop and Go when my father had a rental once. Here is what I did:

 

You don't need much technical explanation. Its just about reaching the bite point.

Start with an explanation of the "bite point".  Just slowly releasing the clutch. Again and again. Then start rolling back and forth.

 

Then its already time for gear shifting.  Press the clutch and Dry Shift lots of times. Then start with driving excercises.

 

Good luck!

[Raincloak]

well, congrats on agreeing to teach that kid a very useful skill.  I count learning to drive stickshift right up there in importance with learning to read, cook, and tie my shoes.  It's a skill I benefit from nearly every day.  Every time I get into my paid-for, gas efficient, uber-reliable car, I thank my parents for teaching me to drive manual.  It was not without sacrifice on their part, since it's hell on a car's clutch, which is not a cheap part to replace.  (Expect to replace about one clutch per teenager; our faithful Camry went through about three of them for multiple apprentice drivers.)  But it was worth it.

 

I think every teen ought to have a stickshift for his/her first car, because that way, you can't get the machine onto the road and put people in danger until you learn to get it in gear, which takes some effort.  Automatic cars are much too easy to drive, like automatic firearms.  Some things shouldn't be idiot proof because then idiots will use them.  Ahem.

 

I learned about the concept of varying gears as a kid with a bicycle.   It's definitely good to understand.  But I'm not great with technical stuff (to the dismay of my father, an engineer) so I don't really care how the clutch works: I just know what I need to do to make it work.  I dunno about clutch plates or torque.  I just know clutch pedal pressed or stick in neutral = no power going from engine to wheels.  Otherwise = car is in gear, if engine isn't spinning, car will stall.  Big gears = high speed and high power, little gears = low speed and low power.  If it's making funny noises or not performing normally, take it to the shop and let the grease monkeys look at it.

 

How did I learn?  Mostly practice.  One lesson involved sitting with the car off, putting in the clutch and shifting into each gear without looking, to get the feel of using the gearshift.  A couple times I definitely goofed while driving and shifted into 2nd gear when I meant to get into 4th, which caused the car to decelerate with a lurch and the engine to rev loudly, freaking out my dad.  I learned with practice.

 

Another lesson: being told to balance the gas and clutch on an uphill, just to the point where the car was going neither forward nor backward.  Not strictly necessary but a good way to get the feel of that "bite point" Summage mentioned.  You need to learn where the clutch engages and that's different on every car.  By the way, once the kid is comfortable getting the car in gear, you do need to go drive some hills so she can learn to manage those with gears.  I learned to drive in Seattle, which has a lot of very steep hills, so now I'm comfortable driving stick anywhere.  But if you live someplace flat, you might need to go find hills for practice.

 

 

(other useful things I learned: trailer trucks have freaking enormous blind spots.  In one memorable driver's ed episode, they had us sit in the cab of a large truck with five cop cars parked against its back and sides, lights flashing.  All the cop cars were completely invisible from the cab.  To this day I always give trucks plenty of room on the highway.  Please find some way to communicate this fact to your student.)

 

 

I also learned from my folks the benefits of buying a common, reliable, highly rated car (Consumer Reports is bathroom reading in my parents' house, no joke).  And of regular maintenance.  Our cars each lasted over a decade and I can count on one hand the total number of vehicle breakdowns we experienced.  I'll probably drive Toyotas the rest of my life, they have never let me down.

[ladymorella]

The rule at my house was we had to learn on a stick. My parents owned an automatic so I had to buy a car to learn. My first lesson was to drive a few feet then stop then drive a few feet. I did that for about 30 minutes or so on the side of a road on the weekend in a warehouse district so there was no traffic. No shifting at all. Second lesson was similar to start then driving around to get into second.

 

I think I originally thought of the clutch similarly to Raincloak. Clutch engaged meant the engine isn't connected to the wheels. The engine died if the cluch was engaged, but not moving. I really didn't need to know the details. Sunmages term bite point is useful. I was a bit surprised to learn that this "bite point" can be different on every car.

 

I also learned from my folks the benefits of buying a common, reliable, highly rated car (Consumer Reports is bathroom reading in my parents' house, no joke).  And of regular maintenance.  Our cars each lasted over a decade and I can count on one hand the total number of vehicle breakdowns we experienced.  I'll probably drive Toyotas the rest of my life, they have never let me down.

My Toyota Celica almost made it to 300k. The engine died from disappearing oil. I replaced it with a bad engine (unbeknownst to me at the time) which burned oil like crazy. I loved that car. Surprisingly I went back to Mazda for the Mazda 3 Hatchback. I didn't think I would leave Toyota, but the Matrix sucks.

 

 

(Expect to replace about one clutch per teenager; our faithful Camry went through about three of them for multiple apprentice drivers.) 

Maybe this explains why my Toyota Matrix despite being 7 years old when I bought it was on it's third clutch according to toyota.com. I thought the previous owner was just an idiot. I guess I wasn't that hard on the clutch when I learned. I didn't have to replace if to ears after, but the car was 15 years old, so that seemed normal.