To all the manual transmission owners here, when do you usually change gears when you are driving in an every day situation? I usually change around 2000-2500 rpm but I am not sure if that is too low or just right.

 

It's a four banger, so I like to keep it 2,000 plus. If you have a turbo don't step on the gas until you are above 2,000 rpm or more. It will create to much lag. That creates most of your turbo charged car engine failures.

 

define normal.. I frankly never look at the tach, but i'm sure its over 2k after the shift.

You are not doing you motor any favor to lug it at low rpm. (turbo or not)

 

+1 on 'don't lug the engine'.
There's no rule of thumb on when to shift. It's all situational. I've been mashing clutch pedals for near 60 years and there isn't anything to be said except listen to the machine. It will tell you more than any lights or gauges.
One thing that will help speed along the learning curve is to become acquainted with the power and torque curves of each gear.

 

I usually change around 3000-3500. The guys at mini of St. Louis told me that "normal" driving doesn't help with the carbon build up on the turbo engines so I drive some what enthusiastically

 

"Enthusiastically". That's the key. MINIs should ALWAYS be driven enthusiastically. If that's not possible maybe a Prius is more appropriate.

 

I recently passed the 1,200 miles mark on my F56 and really started to enjoy my MINI. I would say in normal driving I change gears around 3,000-3,500, anything below that and there is no performance and it actually seems to bog down a bit. Obviously a bit higher when a good song comes on the radio!

 

ok, i took a drive and actually paid attention to the meter. Driving as sedately as i can stand it I'm shifting around 3k. My engine essentially never goes below 2000. (I mean even tooling around a parking lot I'm in 1st gear @ ~2500 rpm. )

 

I shift between 3000-3500, unless I'm having fun on a straight-away, then I shift at like 5000. 99% of the roads here in Iowa are straight-aways, but I usually don't open my car up too much because I don't wanna get a ticket.

 

Once you bounce against the rev limiter.

 

ya know .... in the olden days, cars with a manual shift didn't come with a tach ... and this INCLUDES the Mini .....

If you want to become a 'driver' (IMO) you need to learn to listen to the motor as mentioned by some others ......

bounce against the rev limiter not withstanding you'll do better learning what a LUG sounds like ... and an over-rev ......

Sadly, few learn manual shifting from the beginning anymore. ANY????

But I taught my kids on stick ..... and later they both bought 'stick' cars. Daughter almost failed her first driving test until they asked what was wrong .... "where's the clutch? I keep reaching for the clutch." She had to take the test in a car THEY provided.

SOUND ..... takes time to learn .... but I trust you can learn it ....

OTOH .... MINI does NOT like low rev's. If I was recommending ..... for a beginner who does not know how to properly slip the clutch .... keep your shifts over 2000 ... less and you will LUG ... WELL over 2000 .....

I like to keep my MINIs over 2500 unless in a 'cruise' mode .....
(p.s. .... over many manual shift cars I have never needed to replace a clutch ( got rid of cars with 100,000 plus many times ... and on original clutch ..... the one in my 79 is 15 years old .... just heading off the comments)

 

Actually you can even estimate the engine revs and if you are stretching a gear too long or not long enough by just how the car feels and responds to the throttle.

Also, older vtec Hondas are amazing when it comes to learning how to squeeze the most out of your engine at high rpms.

 

3500 to 3800 ish in normal daily driving. Rarely use 6th only when truly just cruising on long high way runs. I tend to stay in 4th and 5 th. 4th is my favorite

Disclaimer. Location is on Long Island in NY. peak hrs everything measured in time not miles. Work is 14 miles away and its 3 highways and 30 minutes and I still get 28 mpg at an average speed of 30 mph in sport mode on 93 octane

Enthusiastic driving allows me to stretch her legs. Power band ends really a little over 5000 rpm so really no sense stretching past.

I read the first post and tried shifting at 2000 2500. That would put me in 3rd and maybe 4th by the end of a long block???? That's a crazy amount of shifting.

The manual gear box is there to allow the driver to pick the most optimum gear for the situation and stay there until the situation changes and or the engine requires it. The act of shifting is not a race to 6th gear to say you got there and then work your way back down or start all over again in 50 yards.

The prior post about hearing the engine / drivetrain is dead on. Tach and speedos aren't really needed when you have tuned your ear to what is occurring under the hood. And it happens very subconsciously.

Lugging theses engines is no Bueno. They need to stretch. That doesn't mean tear their lungs out either they just need to unwind. If you take care of them all will be just fine !

 

My MINI is my daily driver and I shift around 2500 to 2800 RPM.

 

Normal driving: 3-3.5k

Spirited driving: around 4k

Different question: I remember in the Gen1 forums years ago someone determined the optimum engine speed efficiency-wise (mpg) was 3k. Anyone know what that number is for Gen2?

 

+1

+1

 

I probably shift around 3500 most of the time.
Cold winter mornings I might let it lug a bit just to get everything up to temp. It's 3 miles from the house to the highway, so I take it easy in those three miles.
Dealing with "skids" in traffic, I'll keep it a gear low and be closer to 4K just to keep the turbo in the band to jump.
I don't do the stop light, to stop light, BS. It's the wrong car for that.

Like Capt_bj, I've been driving a manual tranny my whole driving life, 40+ years. Listen to the engine, and be prepared for the situation.
Never replaced a clutch in any car I've owned either, and three of them have been over 300K.

 

I try to upshift at 3k when the engine is still warming up, downshift before the rpm dips below 2k. Other than that it's all feel. How much throttle and when to shift comes with experience, the next gear should fall right in. Heavy on the gas at 4500 + when pulling hard, downshift below 3k. The motor has enough torque to lazily stay in 2k when just cruising in any gear.

 

I typically shift between 2,500k-3,000k. I would say normally 3,000k though. Like other have said you will eventually learn by sound. I rarely look at the tach except sometimes when I've been coasting and i need to get the revs up to putt it in gear and the only reason i do that is because i know what speed is what RPM roughly. Don't overthink it.

 

Whoever determined that was working from incorrect data or was using an incorrect method. (They were probably using the BSCF curve for full-throttle operation; cruising at full throttle isn't something we can usually do.) For most cars, the most fuel-efficient engine RPM for steady-state cruise is "as low as you can stand it".

I do not believe that 2000 RPM is "lugging" the motor in a MINI, or just about anything else bar a high-RPM race engine. You can drive around in top gear with the revs at 2000 all day long, but you probably don't want to. I think that's something like 50 MPH? On most roads, 50 MPH isn't a great option. City streets will be slower, freeways will move faster, and speed is kind of fun on its own...

If you truly are interested in driving for efficiency, check out http://www.cleanmpg.com/community/index.php . If not, then just motor on!

 

LOL - if I recall correctly it was nothing that involved. I think someone got on a flat highway, brought up the live mpg gauge, and determined which rpm resulted in the highest mpg. Crude, but it was only to determine a general guideline.