Ok I've driven a stick before for work, I have to because am an Auto Tech and need to move cars around and test drive them. Ive never owned a stick and this car is TOTALLY different then anything Ive ever driven before. Also Ive never been taught how to drive a stick properly, so any advice, tips, tricks or anything will be helpful! All I know is push the clutch in and go, push it in also before u hit the brake. And after reading the clutch slippage sticky I will shift at about 3 grand. I have no idea what clutch slipping feels like but I dont want it!

Usually I shift from first to second to third to fifth also, by then im at 45MPH or around there. I hope these clutchs are pretty good as Im learning on it.

So please post basics with any info! I really want to be good to my clutch!

 

The SS/SC was the first car I learned to drive a stick on. Not the best choice considering they say don't learn on a new car and one with a touchy clutch. It just takes practice and more practice. The only part you really have to get down is starting on hills. Everything else is pretty easy.

 

Yeah Ive driven stick for about a year for work, but nothing ask often as this. I havent stalled yet its just "bad" shifts where the car sort of jerks a little, Ive had some really good shifts though. Im getting better at it I guess. I use to come to these forums in 04 before the car was released but I count afford one. Im so glad to be back!

 

Actually, it's not necessary to push the clutch in when you hit the brake. Only when changing gears. I did the same thing when I started driving a stick, and my wife made fun of me.

 

yah... don't skip gears. It's pretty hard to go from 3rd into 5th unless you try pretty hard.

 

I learned on mine, 45k miles and not a single clutch problem. Smoothness comes in time. Good way to get a feel for the engagement point in the clutch, just sit in a level parking lot, come to a complete stop, put the car in 1st. Foot off the brake and away from the gas. Ease out the clutch s-l-o-w-l-y until it's fully engaged and the car is rolling without ever touching the gas. Do this until you get a mental feel for where the clutch engages and you should be golden. That will help smooth out the shifts a lot and make you a lot more consistant.

I think he meant when you come to a stop. If you don't put the clutch in when you come to a stop, you're going to be really embarrased and/or end up in the back bumper of the person in front of you.

It's actually OK to skip gears here and there. 3rd to 5th is a very simple shift because 5th isn't that much different than the gearing for 4th. The only thing you need to do to avoid uneccesary wear is wind out 3rd a little higher in the RPMs so that you don't bog 5th. There are several ramps around where I live where it's easiest to go 2nd to 5th because you have to actually stop on the ramp and then cross an exit only lane, so there's actually a 2 or 3 lane jump involved. So the easiest thing is the floor 1st, take 2nd to redline to get up to speed and then drop it in 5th and it hits it perfectly.

The only thing you've got to make sure is that you're not bogging the motor and you really shouldn't do it on a regular basis, just when you've gotta accelerate hard and then cruise at a set speed.

 

Here's the way I taught my son to do it:
First, adjust the seat to where you want it. I like it where my left leg is almost fully extended when the clutch pedal is all the way to the floor.
2. Push in clutch, right foot on brake pedal pretty hard, start engine.
3. Start slowly easing out the clutch (R foot still on brake!) until you feel the car want to move and see and hear the engine rpm drop. Push the cluch back in to not stall the engine. You've found the point where the clutch is just starting to engage. Do same thing over again, a couple of times, but not too many or you'll overheat your clutch.

The absolute most important thing about learning to shift is to train your left leg to know exactly where the clutch starts to engage/release. That is what separates the pros from the squids. After a while you will learn to relax your leg to just before the clutch catches, that is control. Of the whole maybe 5" of pedal travel, there is only about 1-2 inches that matter. You want to learn to control that 1-2 inches, going in and coming back out.

Practice, practice, practice! It doesn't take too long to become a pro.

Other thoughts: You want to learn to let the clutch out as quickly as possible because when it is slipping it is generating heat and wearing the friction plates. No, I'm not saying to dump the clutch, I'm saying you will learn how fast you can let it out without wheelspin or stalling the engine. I remember that when I was learning I would rev the engine and take maybe 2-3 seconds of clutch slip to get the car moving without stalling, that is what you want to learn not to do.

Some guys practice by getting the car moving from a stop without touching the throttle! In other words, with the engine at idle. Doing that takes a high level of clutch control, but again, will heat your clutch if you slip it too long.

Another point: Now that you have to pick your gears yourself it is important to learn to not lug the engine. Lugging is when someone picks too high a gear for the conditions at the time. Let's say you are in traffic, taching 1000rpm, and you step hard on the gas. That shuddering you feel and clunking noise you hear is the engine trying to **** itself, don't do it! Downshift! Lugging is very damaging to your motor.
I am somewhat of an aggressive driver. I always like to keep the engine in its' powerband, so I am usually runnin about 2-2.5K rpm, usually 3rd gear in traffic. I'm just saying that some people want to get up into 5th ASAP (to save gas) but I don't hit 5th until I get over maybe 50mph, even when I'm just relaxed cruisin'.

The next tip is how to deal with stopping on hills. Everyone screws this up when they are learning, so relax. Remember at the beginning of this post when I said to practice letting out the clutch with your foot on the brake? This is where that technique is used, it just takes a little coordination. Ease the clutch out (stopped, foot on brake) until just before it will start to grab. Then, R foot over to gas, L foot letting out clutch, both at the same time. Obviously, when you do it right you won't coast backward at all.
Sometimes when I'm on an especially bad hill or with an ******* behind me right on my bumper I just slip the clutch to hold me on the hill, but again you don't want to do that any longer than you have to. If I'll be stopped more than maybe 20sec I use the brakes. Another tip: When I'm stopped on a bad hill with a car behind me sometimes I take my foot off the brake for maybe a half second. That lets the driver behind me see my car coast backwards a little as my brake lights go out. The idea is to let them know that I may need a little room before they mash their throttle. Must work cause I've never been hit after stopping on many bad hills.

Finally, speed shifting. Again you are wanting to control that 1-2 inches of pedal that matter. The whole idea is to not push down the clutch any more than you have to, and get off it again ASAP. Just lightly touch the pedal as the rpms go up, then just punch the clutch. Punch it like you are boxing it with your foot. You want the pedal to only move a couple of inches and snap back up. Obviously your right hand better be in perfect sync or you'll blow the shift.
I learned to do this in my '68 4-speed camaro and with that car I could push the shifter pretty hard without it popping out of gear, that is called preloading the shifter. In other words, preloading is where you are already pushing the shifter toward the next gear before you are ready to shift. Then as soon as the clutch is in far enough the shifter just slams the next gear in a millisecond.
After explaining all that I must say that I've never tried to preload the shifter in my Cobalt. I really don't know how it would work because it is not a bulletproof shifter bolted right to the side of the tranny like it was in my camaro.

Didn't mean to write a book here, but well, there it is. The more I thought about it the more things I wanted to add. Hope it helps you guys and girls.

Randy
'05 Yellow SS/SC

 

if it makes you feel any better , i learned on a stick , put 14,000 on it , modded it pretty hard , and now there selling my car Certified , so the clutch must be able to hold its own

 

Awesome advice guys...I started driving stick 6/25/07 when I bought my car...I don't do bad at all, I've practiced alot...put about 3k miles on my car...I just started to learn how to launch, other than that, practice makes perfect!

 

Very nice post plus rep for helping people out. The only thing that I could think to add is that on bad hills you could pull up the e-brake a bit to stop you from rolling and once you get the clutch to start engaging just let the e-brake down and off you go.

 

AWESOME help guys! I've been driving a stick for a few years now, and I still have rocky starts/shifts here and there. I'll be trying some of these to get a better feel for my clutch. Thank you, thank you!

 

To the OP, I drive mine pretty much the same way, 24k miles in just over a year, and no problems. Relearned on this car too.

Also, one note about seating position, from what I have heard when you are sitting your arm fully extended should have the bottom of your wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel.

 

Thanks for the support guys. And yeah, Blackls, using the parking brake on a hill is a great idea! I didn't think of that cause some of my cars/trucks have had the stupid parking brake pedal down next to the clutch.

Just to give you a little backround: I'm almost 56 yrs old so I've been driving for almost 40 years! I am a sports car nut and have owned more 4 and 5 speed cars than anything else. My first car was a '66 Chevy Corvair Corsa with 4 speed and my dad gave me 5 minutes of instruction so I had to learn on my own too.
I have never liked an automatic tranny and have owned only 3, all in beater work cars. The automatics back when I was young were unreliable, inefficient, soft and expensive. That was in the day of the SS350, 396, 427, 454 and if you had an SS or Corvette with an auto you were a girly-man.

Automatics are way better today than they were then but still cost more, are heavier and still less reliable than a manual.

BTW, I've never blown a clutch (but replaced some), never blown a gear or tranny, never blown an engine (though I almost blew the 327 in my '68 Camaro a few times while learning to launch and speed shift).

One more point: most of you guys won't keep your cars long enough to have to replace the brake pads, but back when brake shoes wore out at less than 20K miles they would last twice as long if you had a manual tranny, just by using engine braking.

Randy
'05 Yellow SS/SC

Hi EtyrnuSS, I agree with your seating position, but to me getting the clutch pedal where I want it is more important than where my arms are on the wheel. Since these cars don't have telescoping steering columns you have to kind of pick what is more important to you.

Like I said before, I like it where my left leg is almost fully extended when the clutch is at the floor. If I get any closer than that my leg sometimes cramps up when I am sitting in traffic for a while. It just isn't comfortable for me to move closer. If your leg is almost extended, your knee is almost locked and your bones are helping hold in the clutch instead of just your leg muscles. I've owned some cars with really heavy (non-hydraulic) clutches and my left leg would be worn out after driving in traffic for an hour!

Again, just my opinion, just the way I like it, your results may differ.

But that said, I do wish I was sitting closer to the wheel. I feel like my arms are stretched out more than I like, so with these cars ya gotta just decide what is most important to you.

Randy
'05 Yellow SS/SC

 

I started my seating position close to the wheel. I read somewhere that your arms should form a 90 degree angle while sitting upright and grasping the wheel. I also read that your leg should be almost fully extended when pushing the clutch pedal to the floor. Well, you can't have it both ways in the Cobalt. I moved my seat back so my leg extends more, but also my arms are more extended and form less of an angle.

I feel like the seat in the Cobalt is too high. I used the lever to lower the seat as low as it will go, but I am not satisfied. Sitting in a Cobalt does not feel like a sports car, it feels like a kitchen chair. That's what we get for buying a car with a badass engine, turbo, and transmission put in an econobox. Don't take that the wrong way, I love my Cobalt SS and it is a great car. I am pointing out one of the weaknesses of the car. It seems to me in sports cars the driver should sit low, with butt close to the floor so your legs are more horizontal towards the pedals.

 

I have been driving a manual on and off since i was 13 years old!

 

Don't skip gears.

Clutch slipping is exactly how it sounds it's when your clutch isn't fully gripping to the flywheel. You can tell that your clutch is slipping by hearing the engine rev like it's neutral while you're still in gear and it's often accompanied by the smell of the clutch itself burning.

My car is my first stick and I've put 16K on it with no problems at all.

That's good you're staying in 5th going at least 45 MPH.

I also feel the same. The way I have my driving position set is a compromise between the 2.

I wish the seat could go a bit lower myself, but whatever. I seem to shift very well with the way I have it now.

 

No clue where you guys picked up this sack of bullshit, but skipping gears, 1st-3rd-5th, or whatever the case may be; I've gone 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th. Either way, there is absolutely no problem with this, unless you are going too slow for the gear you're skipping up to, aka, bogging the motor out.

On the topic of how close people sit to the wheel, my seat is damn close. I hate having my seat so far back that my leg is fully extended when the clutch is depressed. I've tried it and it drives me nuts.

 

It's a personal thing for me. I like to shift gears in order.

I hate sitting too far back my self. When I sit a bit closer, my foot work improves a lot while shifting. I wish I could the steering wheel a bit closer to me though. Without having to move the seat up too much.

 

this is your first post and you signed up in 07???

 

Thread is from 07....

Your post just made me realize that.

 

sounds exactly like how my dad taught me, good advice here

you guys haven't seen hard to learn until you've driven a column shift truck

 

haha oh man!
that his first and only post haha

 

seems to be alot of good advice here so i have a quick question. What is it that causes your car to jerk upshifting like it would downshifting without rev matching?

All my shifts are ok (except at WOT, It gets jerky when I shift quickly) but always going into second its really bad.

If I shift around 2k a little slow its ok, but like I said its slow, and I see alot of people come up quick on my rear end because they are still accelerating and I havn't in a couple seconds in 1st. If i take it to 3k, it will still drop to about 1.8k rpms (shifting like I would 2-3, 3-4, 4-5) and be very jerky like a downshift. I can give it a little gas before going off the clutch fully and its smoother...but obviously bad.

Friend told me to take it to 4k. I did and it drops to about 2k (this isn't while shifting, this is after I released the clutch) and still jerky like you would see in a downshift. I was told to let it out a little slower, but doing so doesn't seem to be helping. They didn't think it was a clutch problem.

Any ideas? Like I said its only second that really gives me this problem, but at WOT, I get a little jerky also.

 

Same idea applies to upshifts as downshifts, you want the engine turning at the right rpms when you get off the clutch. If you get used to shifting around the same rpms all the time, you will develop a feel for the timing required to make nice smooth shifts. I suspect you are letting the revs drop too low before you get off the clutch, might need to give a little bit of throttle to match the speeds up. Speed shifts at wot are not going to be buttery smooth no matter what

I expect the reason you notice it more on the 1-2 shift is because the gearing is quite short and reults in more engine braking than it would in 4th or 5th.

 

if you switch too fast from 1st to second the difference in rpms just causes u too feel the jerk only way to stop this is to let the rpms fall for an extra second and then let up