5 Bad Habits You Should Never Do with a Manual Transmission

5 Bad Habits You Should Never Do With a Manual Transmission
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We present you five bad habits you may all fall into while driving a manual transmission vehicle. A transmission auto shop revealed a bit of info just for you. Behind the scenes, there are a lot of things that are happening while you are operating a manual, that you may not be thinking about if you don't fully understand how they work. We hope that our list will save you from googling for transmission repair shop.
We all know that you love trucks, but what is a proper truck without a manual?
We are going to get into those bad habits and try to explain exactly why you don't want to do them!

1. Don't use the gear leaver as a hand-rest
You have to understand what's happening within the transmission.Using your gearshift as a hand-rest can cause premature wear of the trans-axle shift forks on a manual transmission. What's going on if you are having a static component (gear forks) pressing against a rotating element?

2. Do not hold your truck in gear while on a stop light!
Leaving your car into neutral when coming to a stop light will save you a lot of trouble. If the truck is in gear with the clutch pressed, premature wear of the throw bearings which are going to be pushing against the diaphragm spring will occur.

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3. Never use your clutch to hold yourself on a hill.
The Reason - You will be burning the friction material (ferodo) on the clutch disk. The clutch disc is relatively expensive and hard to replace depending on the model of the vehicle.

4. If you are in high gear and low RPM don't apply much throttle.
The engine has a huge gear disadvantage so flooring it will lug it. Lugging an engine is like hammering the engine parts with every single explosion in a cylinder, or you might need to find a transmission repair garage.
It racks on the rod bearing/journals, makes the pistons slap to the side of the cylinders carefully, and if it's done enough times, it could probably break the piston rings. It also creates a hammer effect all the way through the drive train. It's not okay for your gearbox or the clutch.
There are springs in the friction disk (of the clutch) which take up some of this hammering, but they will only take so much before they wear out as well. This causes premature wear all the way around. It's not like it will wear out tomorrow, but it will cause wear over time. If you want your truck to last a while, you don't want to be doing this.

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It's much better to drop a gear or even miss one, it's all OK if you can revmatch!!!

5. Don't rest your foot on the clutch when you are driving on the highway!
This one seems pretty obvious and straightforward. Resting your foot on the clutch pedal means your clutch is not fully engaged, so there can be a little slim. This means you are not. Pulling down full power which will lead to higher fuel consumption. You are wearing down your clutch, and again you are also wearing your throw bearing.

One extra we learned from a transmission mechanic - it's not a good practice to switch from high gear to low gear without evening out the RPM, if you only rely on the clutch to match the engine rpm with the speed of the truck, it will surely wear out much earlier. So remember, it doesn't matter what your drive, small hatchbacks , midsize sedans or even a luxury SUVs, a proper usage of the gearbox will ensure it's longevity!

I do 1 and 4. If the engine don't feel like it's lugging I don't downshift. Habit, lol. The extra one I do also because this car I previously owned had a hard time downshifting. Double clutching helped.