I learned how to drive a manual in my friends old pick-up truck. I got in a little bit of practice, and then I got my 5-Speed tC. Needless to say, there was a bit of a learning curve and the clutch took a little bit of a beating. I'm a quick learner, so it wasn't too bad at all.

Now I want to get a lightened flywheel and, while I'm in there, I want to upgrade the clutch to maybe a stage 1 or 2.

But my stock clutch is still good! Might as well use what I have, right?

I'm of the philosiphy that EVERYBODY should at least KNOW how to drive a manual even if you drive an automatic. $hit happans and you never know when you might need to drive a manual. So I want to teach my little sister and my girlfriend how to drive my car. I know...females are horrible at this sort of thing, but I'm replacing my clutch anyways, remember? So the wear and tear on the clutch is not an issue.

My question: how bad for the engine is it to stall the car? What componenets are likely to take a beating? Is this a good idea?

 

Don't know the answer to your question, but I'll say this:

You're a brave brave man to let your sister and girlfriend learn to drive stick on your car.

Brave, or very foolish.

 

i think your going to be surpised how easly the girls pick it up, females tend to be more cordinated then us...just explain how everything works before you put them in the drivers seat. explain why it stalls. its alot easier to do something if you understand how it works.

as for what could get messed up...if its bed enough im sure you could chip a gear or mess up the linkage.

 

hey I picked up pretty quick here. Give us girls a fighting chance. I'm still learning about cars, but coming around. Better learn now before all is replaced.

 

Every girl i know that has a Manual Tranny Rides their clutch. When i asked one of them why they ride the clutch she said " Wont it stall if i let it out to fast?" I told her no it wont stall, but you also don't want to do it to fast and it jerks on you.

I first learned on my Pick-Up, it was a 1985 Toyota Pick-Up. It only took me about 2 hours to get it down good enought that i didn't stall at every stop sign/stoplight. With my tC i have only stalled twice, both times from being distracted by checkin out girls in other cars.

 

I still haven't gotten a concrete answer to my question...

Is stalling while learning to drive manual bad for the engine in any way?

 

sorry I dont know either but I had to chime in on this part


and isnt that just the worst... doing it with friends in the car is bad enough.

 

the only think i can think of ....as of why it would be bad is ... sometimes depending how it stalls - the engine slams ....meaning you are putting unneeded amounts of pressure on the mounts ..... technically ..u do that enough you have the possiblity of one cracking.

 

i've been driving manual all my life, never had an auto. but i don't know how badly it (stalling) affects the engine,. i hope someone can answer this post... i know, repeated starting the engine is also bad.....

 

"Every girl i know that has a Manual Tranny Rides their clutch. When i asked one of them why they ride the clutch she said " Wont it stall if i let it out to fast?" I told her no it wont stall, but you also don't want to do it to fast and it jerks on you."

i took a girl friend of mine out last night..she had no idea how to drive stick..i explained it to her and she drove around for about 15min an didnt stall once...i was very impressed....is it just me or is a chick that can drive stick a turn on or what!

 

I taught my sister to drive manual transmission with my old Cavalier. She didn't stall once either. As long as you know how a manual transmission works, it is easy to teach someone how to drive.

And as far as stalling being bad on your engine...I think it is worse on your ego than it is on your engine.

 

stalling is bad only on the clutch, not the engine IIRC

 

i really wanted my girlfriend to learn how to drive stick, because i think it's kinda sexy, she'll understand some of the frustration i get in traffic, and if i ever have some medical problem, she can take over.
however she is stupid and she doesn't want to even try.

this girl from highschool that i'm friends with really loves cars, i taught her to drive 1st-3rd gear in a parking lot on a 95 ford aspire with a really bad slipping clutch. also the same car i learned on. she did ok on that car. a year later i had my tC, she wanted to try that...she really could do it well at all...she stalled alot and had jerky shifts. she kinda gave up the dream of learning stick shift now

 

Do give girls some credit. I got my MT tC on Feb 2nd, prior to which I had only driven manual maybe once or twice when I was like 17 (I'm almost 22 now). So being that I drove it home from the dealer (which was about an hour away) & only stalled twice (at the first two stop signs I came to) I think I picked it up pretty quickly. A week later (after I got over the nervousness of having my car in the city) I was using it for my daily commute to & from NYC during rush hour.

 

^^ , you gotta be good to drive in NYC.

 

Think about it for just a moment. You have the mass of 4 pistons and cranks moving up and down, the mass of a fly wheel and crank shaft spinning about 600-800 times a minute and you bring it to a sudden stop. Is this going to be good for the parts. I don't think so. Is it going to do damage that only an overhaul will fix. Not unless you just do it over and over. Any time you stall the engine it puts stress on the moving parts. The engine is designed with the knowledge that it will be stalled so that is factored in. I would not worry too much though. You problbly will do more damage to the clutch than to the engine teaching a few people how to drive a stick.

 

Again, I'll be replacing my flywheel with a lightweight one, and the beat up stock clutch with a stage 2.

 

Not necessarily bad, but the flywheel is just engaging too fast. Know you could start your car without even gassing?

Start car, put in 1st, slowly lift clutch, slowly lift clutch, left foot off clutch.

Let go to fast and your car should stall.

 

thanks for giving us gals some credit! my bf taught me how to drive on his car and i found driving stick pretty easy! ;]

 

The thing is girls are predominantly too lazy to bother or don't care enough to appreciate the manual transmission.

For some reason cars appeal more to guys so more guys are willing to learn how to really drive; aka, shift for himself.