SilverSchwinn

Just wondering if it's me, the car or something else, but I feel like I can't make a smooth transition from 1st to 2nd, unless I shift really really slowly. My last manual car was a '95 saturn that I haven't had since summer '03, so it's not much of a reference point (don't remember anyway, except that it sucked). Driven other A4's before, but I guess I wasn't paying attention.

Is it the clutch starting to go? Is it the diff/quattro? Or am I crazy?

GDawgA4

letting up on the clutch to try and get a smoother transition. Or you could let the RPM drop to the right place to get it to be smooth --> slowly let out the clutch.

It took me a while to get it smooth, now I can do it 90% of the time.

SilverSchwinn

So it's not just me...have to try that out later. Past 3rd it's smooth as can be...

GDawgA4

yeah, it takes a bit of getting use to. Once you get it down, you can make it smooth almost always.

All Wheel Driver

I've always felt the clutch is a little funky on these cars. The feel is not as clean as many others I've driven.
Anyway, it can be driven smoothly, it just takes getting the feel right.

If you're driving gently, try no gas at the shift, and then smooth throttle after.

If you're hammering it, it's hard to get a smooth shift, basically just have to pop the clutch and then floor it again.

Tgr_Clw

That's normal. You have to get used to it.

SilverSchwinn

If you didn't drive it hard it didn't feel right. Had to really rev it and make quick shifts or it drove like crap. God I miss that car!

SilverSchwinn

I'll try

SilverSchwinn

Just wondering how you've adapted shifting technique since then?

I've never really thought much about getting it going in first...usually a sort of subconcious mix of clutch and gas. I have heard that it's bad to mash on the gas immediately with 4WD or AWD as you need to let it get rolling every so slightly (I forget why, but bad for the AWD/diffs maybe?)

I generally don't blip before ds unless it's into a corner or something and I want accelerate hard out of it. Usually just slowly let the clutch out as the gears mesh up. Is that bad? Pretty much how I've always driven a stick (be it in a car or the big box trucks I used to drive at work). I like to slow the car with the tranny as much as I can before hitting the brakes.

Also something I've always wondered about...when coming to a stop, do you work through all the gears or just brake and shift into neutral after its slowed some? I remember hearing some argument about the shifting wearing the clutch more and clutches are generally more expensive to replace than brakes, so you should just brake, but not sure how much stock I put in that...

GDawgA4

If I'm inching in traffic and do shift to second, I slowly let off the clutch after shifting to second gear. Its smooth because its really low speeds.

If I'm going from a stoplight/stop sign/etc, I'll blip the throttle just a tad to smooth the 1 to 2 shift. Don't give it too much gas otherwise you're slipping the clutch. Just a little to raise the RPMs as the clutch is coming up. Kind of like starting the car off the line.

If you want a speed start, you need to slip the clutch a little, but DON'T dump it.

Letting the clutch out slowly should be fine, as long as you don't just let it out. Slowing down the car with the tranny puts more wear on it and the clutch. Brakes are much cheaper to replace than a clutch or tranny. Most likely it'll wear out the clutch before the tranny.

Unless I know that the slowed traffic will start moving again by the time I get there, I'll just cover my brake till I get there and either downshift to the appropriate gear if we're moving again or just neutral when stopped. If I know that traffic is going to get moving by the time I get there, I'll downshift to the appropriate gear so when I do get there, I can get moving again with the flow of traffic.

hope this helps let me know if you have any more questions.