Gear Crunching / Low to High Gears

[rushy_23]

Hi guys,

After advice / knowledge / criticism:

Bit of backstory, most of my cars I've had a (bad?) habit of accelerating in first and second gear and then jumping to fifth gear. Not revving high into the rev range, were talking shifting when in second at about 3500 rpm straight into fifth to potter along.

Reason I adopted this method is to ignore pointless gear changes (3th & 4th). It being a clear road with no traffic behind me, I can go at my own pace to get about with minimal effort. Hoping that makes sense?

Well anyhow. I continued this tradition in the EK9, I sometimes shift at say 4k RPM in second straight to 5th gear (not sure what the revs drop to, its a very short ratio gearbox), but I get a little crunch most times.

I am told this is not normal, but then Im wondering if its what I am doing that always been the issue?

Another bloke said that Im not rev matching, thats why its crunching? I see the logic, but Im not so sure its that. My thoughts on this were that the revs are going from quite high in second gear to extremely low revs in fifth, but then if this is the case why did I never get this in my old cars?

Any ideas?

[MartinObviously]

Hi guys,

After advice / knowledge / criticism:

Bit of backstory, most of my cars I've had a (bad?) habit of accelerating in first and second gear and then jumping to fifth gear. Not revving high into the rev range, were talking shifting when in second at about 3500 rpm straight into fifth to potter along.

Reason I adopted this method is to ignore pointless gear changes (3th & 4th). It being a clear road with no traffic behind me, I can go at my own pace to get about with minimal effort. Hoping that makes sense?

Well anyhow. I continued this tradition in the EK9, I sometimes shift at say 4k RPM in second straight to 5th gear (not sure what the revs drop to, its a very short ratio gearbox), but I get a little crunch most times.

I am told this is not normal, but then Im wondering if its what I am doing that always been the issue?

Another bloke said that Im not rev matching, thats why its crunching? I see the logic, but Im not so sure its that. My thoughts on this were that the revs are going from quite high in second gear to extremely low revs in fifth, but then if this is the case why did I never get this in my old cars?

Any ideas?

There's no need to rev match, you're not driving an old DAF.


It's the huge jump in revs, the synchros can't keep up. they're only really designed to cope with a few hundred rpm a difference. going from 2nd straight into 5th is a bad habit and it's stressful on the engine due the the low rpms involved going slow speeds in a high gear. Always go through the gears. If you're going to be lazy, buy an auto.

Not all cars will crunch, it could simply be that the gearboxes in previous cars were less worn.

For a smaller petrol (I mean not a big 4.0 lazy v8), driving is optimum with most engines driving between 1800 and 2500 rpm. Below that the engine won't be operating efficiently.

You'll be far more forgiving on the car if you go through the gears changing up at 3000 in first, then 2500 in every other gear. You'll notice it better on fuel too.

[MartinObviously]

Don't forget 5th gear is technically an "overdrive" gear. It's only for driving at steady speeds generally speaking over 40mph.

[rushy_23]

Thanks for the reply, what you said makes perfect sense.

I thought I was being resourceful rather than lazy. Definitely time to change my ways.

[Jizanthapus]

If you're going to be lazy, buy an auto.


This. Surely it can't be fun to drive going from 2nd to 5th everytime?

[rushy_23]

This. Surely it can't be fun to drive going from 2nd to 5th everytime?

Or as fun as making the most pointless post I've read on the forum today.

If you read my post, it had nothing to do with being lazy, I actually was told by somebody a long time ago to do this to avoid wearing out all your gears. Never questioned it until now.

[MartinObviously]

Or as fun as making the most pointless post I've read on the forum today.

If you read my post, it had nothing to do with being lazy, I actually was told by somebody a long time ago to do this to avoid wearing out all your gears. Never questioned it until now.

Your gearbox will never wear out using it normally :) It's usually myth, people mistreating gearboxes break them. Ramming them into gear, changing really fast and racing off the lights etc

We've moved on since the 1950's :P heheeh

Saying that, my dad learned to drive in a morris 1000 (instructors car) and he tells me it had over 180,000 miles on the original gearbox!!

[welshpug]

more likely to wear the engine out driving like that, and use much more fuel.

[rushy_23]

Im usually pretty wise not to follow other peoples nonsense, this was a habit I picked up years ago. In a way its a good think the Civic 'doesnt like it' as its what prompted me to ask.

I was afraid to ask on EK9.org, as I suspected I was at fault. :boxing:

Cheers guys.

[welshpug]

most likely just needs the oil changing In the box.

[rushy_23]

Its due a full service since I had it, so will get the box looked at too. Clutch / bite is very low, so something else that needs investigating.

Whilst the car feels fantastic, not quite sure I'm happy with it enough to take it onto some proper tarmac just yet.