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Trouble with starting from stop on 6MT

dtran11

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Chicago
This is my second manual transmission car. I am having trouble getting a smooth start from stop on 1st gear. I find that I'll have to ride the clutch a lot to get it smooth. Do you guys pause at the bite point until the car moves before releasing more of the clutch pedal or do you do a see-saw with the clutch and gas. I find that seesaw dips the rpm too much. Pausing at bite point seems to be more smooth for me but I'm afraid of riding the clutch and prematurely wear it out. Thoughts?
 

jimlloyd40

Autocross Champion
Location
Phoenix
Car(s)
2018 SE DSG
If you have a friend who has a lot of experience with a manual have him drive it and give you an opinion. The way that you're doing it sounds like you will wear out the clutch faster.
 

dtran11

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Chicago
If you have a friend who has a lot of experience with a manual have him drive it and give you an opinion. The way that you're doing it sounds like you will wear out the clutch faster.
Unfortunately I don't have anyone to help me. Can you explain your best on how you do it?

Thanks
 

Strange Mud

Autocross Champion
Location
Small Town CT
Car(s)
Assorted
start by going to level parking lot with privacy. in neutral press clutch in a few times till you get used to the weird rpm change VW has (some call it fish nibble?). Nest 1st gear foot off gas and slowly release the clutch till you feel/hear it engage (rpm drop/car move) = engagement point, note where that point is with the clutch pedal do that 10 or so times till you have an idea of where it is. Then clutch in, 1st gear give it some gas (1000-1200 rpm) somewhat quickly release to the engagement point. Then 2nd half of clutch travel is where you take about a second to smoothly release the rest of it.

practice this a few times then add in giving it a bit of gas in the last part of clutch release.

old school trick is to practice getting car going w/o using any gas to learn the clutch release/engage points. I'll also suggest it is better to practice for a few minutes several times per day than one long stretch.

Mud
 

Golfs everyday

Autocross Newbie
Location
USA
OP - On my Golf-R I blip the throttle to about 2500 RPM initially to gain reference of the throttle, and re-blip 2000RPM (?) while engaging/slipping the clutch a tad longer than my other MT cars (RPM will dip to about 1500-1700rpm while I keep the throttle constant) and allow the drivetrain to gain momentum. On this car I usually rev to about 4000 RPM in 1st gear for normal-brisk acceleration as 1st gear is tall, 2nd gear comes pretty fast with a gentle engagement. As long as you don't apply additional throttle during the dip you won't prematurely wear out your clutch. It's when you slip and apply throttle 'riding the clutch' occurs and burns it out rather quickly... and you'll smell the burning too.

On my other cars with shorter gearing, I only rev 1st to 2.5k-3k RPM and 2nd gear comes even quicker. That is how I prefer my MT gearing, but I feel we're lucky to even have MT on our cars so I'm not complaining. GL with your MT driving. I guess I should also mention I've been driving nothing but MT cars for decades (well, besides the DSG MK7 GTI during my injury which I quickly sold after I was healed). I mean I own AT cars too, but those are cars my wife drives.
 

dtran11

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Chicago
start by going to level parking lot with privacy. in neutral press clutch in a few times till you get used to the weird rpm change VW has (some call it fish nibble?). Nest 1st gear foot off gas and slowly release the clutch till you feel/hear it engage (rpm drop/car move) = engagement point, note where that point is with the clutch pedal do that 10 or so times till you have an idea of where it is. Then clutch in, 1st gear give it some gas (1000-1200 rpm) somewhat quickly release to the engagement point. Then 2nd half of clutch travel is where you take about a second to smoothly release the rest of it.

practice this a few times then add in giving it a bit of gas in the last part of clutch release.

old school trick is to practice getting car going w/o using any gas to learn the clutch release/engage points. I'll also suggest it is better to practice for a few minutes several times per day than one long stretch.

Mud
This is what I've been doing. The 2nd half of the clutch travel is where I sometimes have trouble with the engine lugging. I find that if I pause the clutch here for a bit and give it some more gas so the car moves a bit more, it's smooth.

So to keep it short, the 2nd half is the hardest part for me "smoothly release the rest of it" as you stated.

Thanks
 

Boje

Go Kart Champion
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Car(s)
2018 Golf R
This might sound like an overly-simple suggestion, but as someone who's been driving manual cars my whole life, it took me a while to realize that my mk7 GTI wants more throttle than most cars (in my experience, at least) when pulling away from a stop in 1st once the clutch is engaged. I was getting lugging and/or vibrations and whatnot from a start before I realized that if I gave it some decent gas as soon as I felt the clutch engage, it's smooth. I've never had an issue since realizing that, and pull away smoothly every time (and I release the clutch as I normally would; I'm not slipping it for longer than I was before, or smelling it or anything like that). Also, all the standard shifter mods (there's a sticky thread on them) make everything more direct and easier to judge and are well worth doing.
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
Redline and drop the clutch. You'll be fine.
 

95b14

Go Kart Newbie
Location
845 NY
Take the helper spring on the clutch pedal out. You can’t feel the engagement point with that stupid thing on there. Takes a pair of pliers and 10 seconds worth of time.
 

PowerDemon

Autocross Champion
Location
Richmond, VA
Car(s)
Golf GTI, Camaro ZL1
Or just buy a DSG HAHAHA

On a more serious note Strange Mud that was a great write up. I agree on the getting started without using gas. That is a huge help for learning the pedal.
 

NopeR

Autocross Champion
Car(s)
18 Golf R
Compared to Japanese manual transmission, I found the gti to be quite unforgiving from a stop to get smooth.
 

dtran11

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Chicago
That's the official VWoA procedure for new GTI's with the stalling problem. Different situation. I'm kidding of course (maybe).

My suggestion: add an Ebay clutch stop. Dirt cheap and very helpful.
I just installed the stop from eBay and am loving it. Also removed the spring as suggested and clutch feels much better.
 

PowerDemon

Autocross Champion
Location
Richmond, VA
Car(s)
Golf GTI, Camaro ZL1
That's the official VWoA procedure for new GTI's with the stalling problem. Different situation. I'm kidding of course (maybe).

My suggestion: add an Ebay clutch stop. Dirt cheap and very helpful.

+1 on the clutch stop. One of the best mods for MT cars. Another great one is the clutch delay valve delete.
 
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