n7

I'm getting ready to teach my wife to drive stick. Last time i tried to teach her to drive stick about 5 years ago she rolled my lowered honda over an island in the apts. we were living at...i don't want her to mess up the xb. like messing up the gears or something. anybody have any insight on how to teach her to drive it without endangering my box?

farberio

Teach her to start the car without using the gas first. That will gaurentee a slow start. Then you can move to shifting, then with gas.

Brent_23M

^^^^ I was gonna suggest the same thing, you can get all the way to third gear in our cars just feathering the clutch, good luck bro!

Max

Watch and learn. Have her pay lots of attention to what you are doing before putting her behind the wheel.

Metro273

Sorry but don't teach her in a new car, especially our cars that are known to have clutch problems...

moonray

Good luck bro -- I wanted to teach mine to drive a stick, but she refuses that
notion. I now have to purchase another car with a auto just so she can have a
car to drive when I have to take the other in for service.

Brent_23M

news to me, you sure you learned? j/k bro, but seriously i dont know of one of my customers having clutch problems, i think ive sold about 130 scions. toyota clutches are known for their longevity, **** i had a 1991 tercel with 300K+ and on the original clutch

jct

buy a crappy 4 spd truck and or car thats how i learned how to drive a 4 spd and i even power shifted in that truck too hahaha

d0tSpLiT

Most dangerous method but works great with motorcycles:


Lift the vehicle and make her spin the tires

no j/k


When my brother taught me he was like " move the clutch slowly, then when you feel the transmission grab and the car is about to die, add gas slowly and let go of the clutch, that should start to move it." It did work but with tons of practice. For shifting..... i couldnt tell you, its someting you need to learn with each individual car.

Magnus213

iTrader: (1)

Since I just learned / have been learning for the first time, I'll throw out what I think would help. Before anything, explain what she's doing exactly when she pushes in and lets out the clutch, etc. Actually having an idea of what she's doing in regard to actual mechanical input could help her better understand what to expect or at least what it means when she just moves her feet around. Second, expect her to stall- she's probably nervous enough about it, so try not to show irritation when she messes up. My buddy sat in the back and said "YOU SUCK!" every time I didn't get it going smoothly. Third, make sure you're in an empty lot in the middle of nowhere, especially if she managed to find something to run over the first time.

Best of luck...

planb1215

I remember my drivers ed class also offered a course on how to drive a stick. It was funny my dad, who's a crazy foreigner, tried to teach me and i just got fraustrated, so i went online and looked up how to drive a stick and five minutes later i could do it, that was like 7 years ago. My gf always wants to drive the Tc but i always say no cause i don't want her learning in my baby.

OldYeller

I do not have the patience to teach my daughter to drive a stick. She feels I am "yelling" at her. Is there someone else who could teach your wife--that might relieve the tension.

n7

yeah i guess i got a little frusterated with her last time i tried teaching her. i was kind of hoping i could find somebody else to teach her but i kind of need to teach her soon. we're driving up to utah next weekend. i was thinking that i would try teaching her on the open road on the way up there. she was doing pretty good towards the end on the honda so hopefully it'll start to come back to her.

thanks for everybody's responses. i'll let everyone know how it goes

amanda776

Anyone wanna volunteer to teach me? I've been wanting to learn for years now but I can't find anyone who will teach me.

ISmokeGuys

I remember when my b/f taught me in his old corolla. I'm not a very patient girl, so I got frustrated really easy and tried giving it up PLENTY of times. I just watched him for a few days and since I'm more of a hands on person I kinda just kept practicing. The only thing that I had real problems with where the hills around here, but have that down pat now. I was taught in about 3-4 days before I went and bought my 5spd old tC. I wouldn't go back to auto for anything now.

THansenite

Teach her the basics of how a clutch works. That is how I learned. If you can explain to her how a clutch seperates the motor from the tires and how the friction of the plates transfers power to the wheels, it should be easier for her to understand how to use the pedal.

J_Bomb

Tell her:

"The key to shifting is: The faster you pull out the clutch the more gas you have to give it. So when we are starting off the opposite is true. When pulling out the clutch slowly, give it only a little gas. 1500-2000 RPM. "

"When changing gears, let off the gas before you disengage the clutch and tap the gas before you engage."

She will learn in no time with these instructions. When I got these instructions about 10 years ago, I learned in a day.

SSM_tC

Find a car that you don't care about that has a manual transmission. Some of the really small local rent-a-car companies may have one. Or Hertz may have some, but they are usually in their premium lines like the Audis and Mustangs.

At that point, you won't care how much she beats up on the car and there's no stress between the two of you and you can better focus on what she is doing while driving as opposed to the damage to your precious xB.

Find a large, open parking lot with LOTS of speed bumps (usually High School parking lots or DMV parking lots). - Most DMV parking lots even have parallel parking test areas for you to practice in.

Once she gets comfortable with driving in the flat areas of the parking lot, have her stop the car right in front of a speed bump and have her crawl over it slowly without rolling back and not just run over it. This will teach her to control her balance. She will most likely die out a few times, but who cares, lol, not your transmission. Once she gets the hang of it, uphill grades won't be a problem.

That's how I taught my wife, and she learned after three sessions.

MTcX

when i tried teaching an ex to drive a clutch she almost put my car into a canal when she was turning and decided it would be a good manuever to let go of the steering wheel in MID TURN to be able to shift into second and head straight for the canal

etli

Don't tell here what's going on with the mechanics of the car. Although she may or may not understand what is happening, it isn't relevant to making the car go. Just have her focus on what she has to do to get the car to go.

She needs to learn - "Left Foot Control".

When I started out, the clutch release was trickiest. My roommate who taught me basically had me practice clutch release a whole bunch of times with the engine off to get a feel for left foot control. Slower and smoother is better.

After that we turned the engine on and I practiced moving the car using only the clutch and NO GAS. My roomate just told me, if I felt I was getting out of control, push down the clutch and THEN the brakes.

The last step was to move using the clutch and gas; lifting the clutch and then pressing the gas.