Skip a gear?
 

A question to those of you with a manual transmission.

Do you ever skip a gear?
Say you are easily shifting through the gears and get to about 50 mph in 4th, do you just skip 5th and go right to 6th?

Not really...

That would make the other gears jealous...

seriously, I only skip a gear during aggressive downshifts.

welll lets say i rev really high in 4th gear... and i just feel like cruising after. ill just match it to the 6th gear. i've never had any issues doing this.

I do it all the time. If I'm accelerating quickly up to ~45 mph I'll usually short shift 1st to 2nd... somtimes third... then I'll go straight into 5th.

If you are already at your desired cruising speed in, say, 3rd, gear, there's no reason to go 3-4-5 or 3-4-5-6... Just jump to the gear you want to be in.

Same thing for downshifting...

Sometimes, yes. I go 3rd to 5th, too. Also 1st to 3rd if just slowly accelerating from rest. Yet, for the most part, I do not skip gears when accelerating.

I do it all the time. If I feel like accelerating quickly on a 40mph street, I'll go 2nd to 4th when I hit 40 and cruise.

i just start in 6th, go through clutches pretty quick though









but really i will usually go from 3rd or 4th to 6th when entering highway. Never any issue, nor can I think of a reason for there to be one.

Well when I do this my transmission grinds really bad. One dealer says "Well yeah, because you're not supposed to do that". They are refusing to go any further with it.
I have called another dealer and explained what is happening and they agree with me that while it may not be the norm to skip it should not grind.

I have been driving manual transmission cars for 20 years and have never had a problem doing this.

I am out of town so a friend is going to pick up my car and bring it to the other dealer.

The service manager tried to tell me that the 370z transmission is a whole different animal because of the syncro-rev match. :icon14:

I hate it when brainless sales reps talk utter BS like this, just to either a) get you off the phone, b) relentlessly promote their product (even if it's for having/doing something that it actually doesn't) or c) grasp at any small thing to make it SEEM like they know what they're talking about when, in actuality, they haven't a clue.

I haven't got my 370 yet, but I really don't see why it should be a problem. I've skipped gears in all my cars so far, for similar reasons as mentioned above, and never had a problem.

On the other hand, I've had problems with a few of my cars with second gear just refusing to engage on a downshift. Even on relaxed downshifts - very slow speed, too fast for first but too slow for third (such as on approach to a traffic light that just changed from red to green), i try to shift down and it just won't go in. I have to lift and re-engage the clutch. Has anyone else ever had this? What's that about?

I do.

Paid for 6, Used em all.....:tup:

That's BS. If you are having an issue with the car grinding into 6th gear it's a bad synchro. There are a number of members here who have had their transmissions replaced under warranty because of this.

Sounds like a bunch o bs - honestly - why do you even tell them you skip gears? Just be like this bitch is grinding and you need to fix it...

:iagree:

When you say short shifting? do you mean power shifting? I think short shifting is referring to going up to a gear before you run out of steam in your current gear... Usually you wouldnt do it while driving quickly... maybe im confused...

The problem is that it doesn't do it unless you skip. I can feel that there is some resistance when you shift normal but they don't. They said that it shifts fine. I have been driving it since new and I can tell it's changed.
If it were second gear it would probably do it all the time but because it's 6th I'd have to be doing 130mph when shifting from 5th to 6th to get it to happen.
Besides, I didn't think it was such a big deal.

I still do occasionally, but driving an s2k breaks you of that habit really quickly. Their transmission can't handle skip shifting at all...

As long as you're in the appropriate speed/rpm range for the gear you end up in, it doesn't matter how you get there. I was pretty nervous about this when learning to drive stick, but really, it's absolutely fine.

I skip 4th or 5th gear a lot. I routinely hit 50-55 in 3rd gear whenever I enter any of the country highways around here, and then just go to 6th to cruise.

No, I mean short shifting.

I do it all the time... run it up to 5-6 grand and shift...

With the SynchroRev Match on, I skip gears all the time since I don't have to worry about matching revs manually. I just have to wait a little longer to engage the clutch when skipping gears, since this engine seems to take forever for the RPM's to drop......or maybe it takes forever cuz of the Synchro. Having never driven a manual before, I don't know. Is the rate at which the RPM drops on the Z typical for most sports cars?

I tend to rev up high then once I get up to the speed I want, I skip into the proper gear. This means when i am in 4th, i end up hitting 6th and skip 5th.

I skip 5th a lot

I skip it often on the way down. If I'm cruising on the highway and traffic slows enough, I might pop 'er into 4th from 6th and gun it to pass.

Oh I always skip downshifting. I was talking bout upshifting

.... wait... so i'm supposed to shift OUT of first? WTF

I should email this thread to those knuckleheads.

:iagree: Yep, exactly!

not really. it depends. the z has a fairly heavy flywheel. in addition, the electronic throttle is a bit sluggish and slow to respond. i'd say compared to other cars i've driven the z engine takes a bit longer to rev down than normal.

i rarely do but thats just me

My friend went to get my car and bring it to the other dealer today. The service manager told him that after he and I had talked yesterday he took another Z that was on the lot for a drive and said that he now feels a big difference in the way the two cars shift. He started a file to either get the transmission swapped or the syncros replaced.
My friend was unable to get in touch with me to ask if I wanted to leave the car at the first dealer so he just took the car to the other one for me.
I am glad that the service manager went a little further to investigate but I do not feel comfortable with them doing the work.
When my friend was leaving the manager said "I still say that you shouldn't skip gears with this car".
Well see what the other dealer says. I have no problem adjusting my driving style if this is a problem to these cars.

yeah i do it all the time...1st to 6th..haha.

better than me, didnt know u had to shift into first in the first place. no wonder the car didnt really move anywhere.

I do not skip gears shifting up...just me...nothing is wrong with skipping on upshifts as long as you do not bog the car excessively. I skip quite often on downshifts, and I usually shift into neutral from second or third gear when slowing to a stop at traffic signals/stop signs...I just coast in at neutral to a stop, then shift into first when I start moving again. In heavy traffic (all the time in Houston) it is easier to coast to a stop in neutral rather than wear your leg out downshifting.

i go 1-2-4-6 if i am just cruising, if i am on the highwy i downshift to 4th if needed, and skip 5th, and if for some reason im doing a full row, then i will use every gear.

With the kind of roads / lights / traffic around here, I often go from 1st - 3rd - 6th. As long as the RPM's are where they need to be, it's perfectly fine for the transmission. I'm glad they're going to fix it for you. Something is definitely wrong (if you haven't figured that out from all the posts).

Well the second dealer is saying that there is nothing wrong with my car. Now the first dealer is going back on their word and will not repair the transmission because the service manager believes that I am abusing the transmission. :shakes head:
He said "If I put another transmission in this car and you keep shifting the way you do, you'll be back here in another 6000 miles." :icon14:
Who started this wives tale at Nissan that you cannot skip a gear?
Got a call into NNA and a third dealer in town.
As of yet there has been no file started on my car.

Third dealer agrees with me that there is a problem and that skipping a gear probably didn't cause it. It is now grinding 5th to 6th and is difficult to get into 3rd as well.
New transmission has been ordered and will be installed, hopefully, by Friday. :D

It really sucks that I had to go through all of this trouble just to get a warranty issue fixed. Out of four Nissan dealers that I have dealt with I have only gotten good customer service from the last one. The service manager has kept me in the loop the entire time and they have treated me with respect. Unlike the last three. 25% Satisfaction with Nissan dealers so far.

I also have to say that I am so thankful for good friends. I have been out of town during this whole ordeal and a few friends have been awesome. They have been shuttling my car from dealer to dealer for me. I think I owe them a dinner. :tup:

I had this exact issue. I took the car in and told them that. They responded with the same nonsense about not skipping gears. I hit them with "I've got a degree in mechanical engineering, I know what the hell I'm talking about" card. They took it for a drive and a week later I had a new transmission installed.

As for skipping them now, I still do. Sometimes I'll take off in 2nd, go to 4th, then to 6th, usually when I'm feeling real lazy.

This trans is a finess type it has to warm up and at certain RPMs it might clunk a little or grind a bit you just have to work around it like first thing in the morning I shift from 1st to 3rd and its smooth. You have to shift slowly unless your really getting on it. The a T56 six speed in my 97 WS6 T/A shifts better and the gate travel is less. This is one of the reasons of how they keep the price down on the car. I would of outsourced the transmission to Honda.:iagree: