surprised no one commented on this. Never knew it worked, but tried and it did! Makes sense since car idles around 1K. So what's the verdict, okay for transmission? better? worse than using clutch?

 

It's only worse than using the clutch if the transmission is being heavily loaded when you do it (such as, if you're on the gas...).

 

Shifting into neutral without the clutch isn't the hard part. Shifting into gear without the clutch, well...

 

I've noticed a few people have mentioned going into neutral between gears as they upshift or downshift. I don't understand this--you don't go immediately from one gear to another? Why the pause into neutral? I can understand double-clutching if necessary, but why do this when upshifting?

 

It's not done on an upshift, unless you're REALLY old fashioned and don't want to use the synchros at all

 

That's just it--I've seen people talk (on this thread and others) about doing it on the UPshift. Seems like a PITA to me. Also, don't you actually risk damage if you don't do it right?

 

I like the way you think

 

This is very true, even I have the habit of putting my hand on the shifter while drive. I think it was a habit I picked up driving atuomatic.

I once disengaged the shifter from 5th gear into neutral w/o clutch when I hit a pothole on the road.

 

A little off topic, but is it bad on the clutch to have your foot partially on the brake and blip the trottle while down shifting? I do this to match revs while down shifting going into the light. I often find myself doing this. Any premature clutch wear? Fyi I've only been driving a manual car for a year now, but I've been on motorcycles all my life.

 

With the clutch down? That's just a single clutch heel-toe, which is perfectly acceptable. It causes wear on the clutch if you don't blip, and make the clutch do the work in matching RPMs... though I know a few people who do non-revmatched downshifts. I've been driving standard for about 4 months, and I haven't gotten to the point where my downshifts are consistently properly rev-matched (heck, sometimes my upshifts are still off by 100-200 RPM).

 

Actually, as a young kid, my Dad had MGs with 5 spds. I always enjoyed "wiggling that stick thing" around and was absolutely captivated by shifting. Guess that's why I'm such a diehard manual guy now. No wear and tear really, plus, it's a good way to check to see if your in neutral.

 

My habit is that along with moving the shift **** back and forth, before I shift into first I put the transmission in 2nd then 1st. An old habit, never dies.

 

two things:

1) I've been keeping the car in gear (one foot on clutch the other on the brake) for the past 22 years of driving. My last car had 200K miles on it (all from me) ...never had one issue w/ the clutch. In fact I've never had an issue w/ any clutch on any car.

2) Shifting and pausing in nuetral is a good idea, w/ some cars like my 930 Porsche it's completely necesary ...in fact you have to rev the engine a bit to sync the gears when shifting down. -otherwise you'll grind the transimission gears every time you shift (that's very bad).

 

I do this too simply because if you're careless with the MINI you can find the reverse gate instead of first gear, also, from anything but a dead stop or snail's pace, I can go from second gear with no problems and prefer to avoid the extra shift.
It's probably very little wear if any sitting with a foot on the clutch, I prefer to leave the car out of gear and foot off the clutch simply because if something were to happen (accident, leg cramp,sudden fire, whatever) my foot coming off the clutch couldn't cause the car to lurch forward. It's more out of paranoia I guess.

My old Plymouth was like that as the synchros got really bad, now I blip the throttle every downshift. It's pretty gratifying doing a proper rev match and nice to know I'm putting just a little less wear and tear on my car.

 

If at all possible, keep the clutch engaged (pedal OUT, not IN) when you are at a red light. You will have much less trouble with your throw-out bearing in the long run. As someone mentioned a while ago, it's only a $10 part, but it's hell to get to it! Oh, and if the MINI uses a system like my Cobalt SS (which I'm replacing with an R56 soon), the throw-out bearing is a part of the clutch slave cylinder, which is, in turn, around $200 plus labour. Food for thought.

Also, someone mentioned that they coast down hills in neutral. Very poor form, my friend. Coasting down a hill in neutral will, technically, not do any harm to the vehicle (unless you've got the clutch disengaged {pedal in}), but you'll actually be using MORE fuel than if you kept it in gear. When you keep your vehicle in gear while going down hills, you will have engine-assisted braking, so you don't careen out of control; plus, your fuel injectors will actually shut down, using zero fuel, and you will be making infinite miles per gallon. Consequently, better mileage overall. However, an engine left in neutral must still continue injecting fuel to stay running. So, keep it in gear, let off the go-fast pedal, and you'll be saving yourself some money!

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents....

 

I apologize for bringing back up a 2 years old thread, but I wanted to clarify this. Are you saying when DOWNshifting, to put the gear in neutral and clutch out for a moment before going down to the next gear?

I'm an experienced shift driver, but due to my recent situation with having to replace the clutch after 40K miles, even though I've driven previous cars without needing to replace clutch (including one car that went 110K and 10 years on original clutch), I'm trying to understand better how to shift with MINI so I won't run into the same situation again.