A5 Manual Transmission Newb - Questions!

[plydon]

Hey guys,

So I've owned my 2.0T A5 for about 6 months (about a year total experience driving manual) and I'm having a really hard time adjusting to this one, it seems surprisingly difficult compared to lots of other manual cars I've driven (everything from a 2006 Mini to a 2012 Z4), particularly getting into 1st. Has anyone else had a steeper learning curve with this? I've searched the forums and haven't turned up much. Here are a few of the things I'm noticing, any advice or tips on what to do differently would be great...

-Getting into 1st. It seems that no matter how much or how little gas I give it, getting 1st gear fully engaged is really uncomfortable. It shutters quite a bit and I'm afraid of burning out my clutch (although I don't smell anything, ever)

-Going from 1st to 2nd. Let's say I'm trying to accelerate quickly. I get the car fully into 1st (clutch out) and get to about 9 or 10 mph (2750 rpms?) and press the clutch in to shift to 2nd. The instant I press the clutch, it sounds like a bag of plastic bottles falling out from underneath my car. Almost every time. Next, shifter into 2nd, clutch out, and the whole car jerks. My car must look like I have hydraulics to passersby. The rest of the gears are pretty smooth, sometimes I can't even feel a shift at all. I can typically mitigate the 2nd gear clunk by letting out the clutch verrrrry slowly, but then I've got cars behind me wondering why I'm going 15mph halfway down the street from a red light. My last car was a 2.0T A4 (auto) and I used to leave the people behind me in my dust. Now I feel like I'm crawling just so I can get through 1st and 2nd smoothly.

I guess my main question is.. any special tricks for getting into 1st smoothly? And secondly, what's the best way to accelerate quickly without giving my passengers whiplash?


Please try to resist the urge to just call me a horrible driver. I'm still quite new to manuals and just hoping to get some insight on what I could be doing wrong.


Oh, and a much less important side note. When going through a parking lot, let's say I want to go 8 or 9mph. 1st gear seems to hate that and lurches me forward every time I let off the gas. 2nd gear hates it too, but to the tone of a gurgling choking engine. What do people do to keep their engine happy? I don't want to crawl through a huge parking lot at 5mph with people waiting behind me. But I don't want to go 15mph and run people over. Auto to manual is turning out to be quite the tough adjustment.

[Sgibb16]

I'm surprised to hear anyone say this, Audi & VW's have been some the easiest/smoothest manual cars I've ever driven, certainly no problem getting it into first.

Jerkiness in 1st gear when you let off the gas is common in manual transmissions. I find my car drives in 2nd fine at anything over 8 mph.

As far as shifting 1st to 2nd only thing I can recommend is staying on the clutch a little longer and letting the rpms settle something before engaging into 2nd.

Is this a new car or did you buy it used? Really dont know what to say about the plastic bottle sound?

[plydon]

I'm surprised to hear anyone say this, Audi & VW's have been some the easiest/smoothest manual cars I've ever driven, certainly no problem getting it into first.

Jerkiness in 1st gear when you let off the gas is common in manual transmissions. I find my car drives in 2nd fine at anything over 8 mph.

As far as shifting 1st to 2nd only thing I can recommend is staying on the clutch a little longer and letting the rpms settle something before engaging into 2nd.

Is this a new car or did you buy it used? Really dont know what to say about the plastic bottle sound?

Thanks for the reply. It's CPO from the dealership nearby, only 25k miles on it so I'd be shocked if there were a serious transmission issue unless the driver before me really beat on it. If I really try and think about it with each shift, I can make it feel like an automatic but the issue is I can only do so VERY slowly. I'm ok with a little less smoothness for better acceleration, but it seems like I'm beating up the transmission just to gain some speed. Not a major issue I guess.

[joelp8835]

I'm in the same shoes..had the car for about 6 months and I hate the jerky 1 to 2nd gear. I've found shifting at or after 3000rpm is a lot smoother.

[NYSpeedRacer]

I have about 23k on mine and been ok k04 for about 20k with no issues with any of the gears. If it was used, it maybe the previous owner. Especially, if it was a city car.


Sent from my

[noshadow]

Assuming nothing is technically wrong with the car:

1. Shuttering, this is probably because you're not giving it enough gas when you're fully engaged. Keep your RPM above 1500 by either giving it more clutch or more gas. Once you fully engage the clutch (let off the clutch completely), if your RPMs start to drop because you're not giving enough gas, you'll experience engine brake... which at low speeds and low RPM's will shutter like crazy. Just keep giving more gas to smooth it out towards second.
2. When you shift to second, are you giving the car gas while lifting off the clutch pedal? So fully disengage clutch (clutch all the way down), gas pedal up, shift to second, push gas down get RPM to 1500 (for example), and then let up on clutch while continuing to give it more gas. In second gear, you do need to feather the clutch up a bit with gas, rather than just dumping the clutch immediately.

I feel like you're already doing all of that. Do you know anyone else who drives manual? Have them give it a go, then you'll know if it's you or if it's the car.

[noshadow]

Oh, and a much less important side note. When going through a parking lot, let's say I want to go 8 or 9mph. 1st gear seems to hate that and lurches me forward every time I let off the gas. 2nd gear hates it too, but to the tone of a gurgling choking engine. What do people do to keep their engine happy? I don't want to crawl through a huge parking lot at 5mph with people waiting behind me. But I don't want to go 15mph and run people over. Auto to manual is turning out to be quite the tough adjustment.

on second thought, this sounds like you're engine braking. it's incredibly hard to just "cruise" in first gear. If you're at all in first gear and let up on the gas, you'll start engine braking immediately hard. This results in ridiculous lurching. Lurching is a result of not enough gas or not enough clutch. I'm pretty good at driving with just enough gas (there's a balance point, a fine one in 1st though) so it's barely engine braking, but not lurching. It's much easier to do this in higher gears because the ratios allow for a lot fatter sweet spot in the balance.

Try keeping your RPM from bouncing, keep it high, don't worry about the clutch burning out too much. Just don't ride it for like 10 - 15 minutes non-stop ;)

And again... maybe you're doing this all right and there's some problems with your clutch. Without driving the car, it'd be hard to know for sure.

[man03999]

Assuming nothing is technically wrong with the car:

1. Shuttering, this is probably because you're not giving it enough gas when you're fully engaged. Keep your RPM above 1500 by either giving it more clutch or more gas. Once you fully engage the clutch (let off the clutch completely), if your RPMs start to drop because you're not giving enough gas, you'll experience engine brake... which at low speeds and low RPM's will shutter like crazy. Just keep giving more gas to smooth it out towards second.
2. When you shift to second, are you giving the car gas while lifting off the clutch pedal? So fully disengage clutch (clutch all the way down), gas pedal up, shift to second, push gas down get RPM to 1500 (for example), and then let up on clutch while continuing to give it more gas. In second gear, you do need to feather the clutch up a bit with gas, rather than just dumping the clutch immediately.

I feel like you're already doing all of that. Do you know anyone else who drives manual? Have them give it a go, then you'll know if it's you or if it's the car.

+1 let someone with more experience drive it. They should be able to tell if there's something wrong with the car.

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[ians]

+1 let someone with more experience drive it. They should be able to tell if there's something wrong with the car.

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agree, my S5 even has a better MT than my TSX and is very close to S2K, bimmer MT is like light year behind! It just took me a few days to get used to the slightly higher engagement point.

[13S4]

I think most of the others covered it, but another thing is you really shouldn't shift into first unless you're completely stopped. The best way to get used to the actual friction point is just feather the clutch in and out very slowly without any gas. The car should roll out on it's own and start moving if you are on a flat surface. I've found in Audi's that the friction point is very pronounced and really easy to drive once you get the hang of it.

[Wilbur]

I think most of the others covered it, but another thing is you really shouldn't shift into first unless you're completely stopped. The best way to get used to the actual friction point is just feather the clutch in and out very slowly without any gas. The car should roll out on it's own and start moving if you are on a flat surface. I've found in Audi's that the friction point is very pronounced and really easy to drive once you get the hang of it.

Why not?

[FaceSmA5h]

The best way to get used to the actual friction point is just feather the clutch in and out very slowly without any gas. The car should roll out on it's own and start moving if you are on a flat surface. I've found in Audi's that the friction point is very pronounced and really easy to drive once you get the hang of it.

^^13S4 beat me to this comment. Well said. I did this with my 04 Accord 6 Speed, My '10 S5 6speed, and my current '14 A5 Speed. Every manual car has it's sweet spot. Trying finding that "sweet spot" before releasing your clutch. It takes practice but you'll get the hang of it. Good luck!

[plydon]

Thanks so much for the input guys, I'll definitely have a friend drive it and get some outside thoughts! If it turns out there's something wrong I'll post an update.

[ians]

I think most of the others covered it, but another thing is you really shouldn't shift into first unless you're completely stopped. The best way to get used to the actual friction point is just feather the clutch in and out very slowly without any gas. The car should roll out on it's own and start moving if you are on a flat surface. I've found in Audi's that the friction point is very pronounced and really easy to drive once you get the hang of it.

I won't shift to 1st gear unless the car is completely stop.