Hey all,
I just recently experienced such an exciting moment with my 8. I was able to shift a 40 min ride w/o using the clutch. I mean I used it when coming to a complete stop and starting off in 1st but other then that....no clutch and oh it was sooo smooth. I have shifted other sticks w/o using the clutch and they felt like crap. When I shift the 8 it feels like an automatic. I wouldn't recommend everyone doing this as to a person has to be very skilled in knowing when to shift or you will grind and misshift. I asked my father if this was bad for a car not using the clutch and he asked if I had been watching him drive, because he never used the clutch on any of his cars, trucks, or 18-wheeler(many moons ago). I just wanted to say that I have been nothing but impressed with my 8 so far (1600 miles) and it keeps on getting better! :D

 

Hey LoveMy8....LoveYour8!! Shifiting while not using the clucth is not good!! I understand you hear no grinding, however, you are doing damage, period. Use your clucth.

- Irish

 

As long as the rpm's match how can this be damaging the transmission?

 

Whats up Irish?
Well from what my father tells me, I shouldn't run into any problems. He says if I am doing it correctly, there should be no problems. I will keep you updated if I happened to run into anything or hear anything differently or out of the ordinary.

 

You do have to be skilled to do this properly and not cause any damage. Forceing is different then gliding. We will take my truc for example, puting in and out of gear with out the clutch is common for me, I do have nearly 170,000 miles on the tranny, my friend shifts the same way he currently has about 230,000 miles on his tranny. Although I don't do it a hole lot to mine, does his that way every shift. Doing this requires perfect RPM and speed matching, if it is "sliding" into gear with no force will not hurt one thing. Very, I mean VERY little force is nothing worse then shifting with the clutch. But doing in imporpertly or use to much force will eat of gears, and the sync's very quickly.

 

Thats what I've heard before. I can't actually do it but my best friends father did it without any faults. Seems to work just fine. But does it do any damage? Beats the hell out of me. He did it in my RX8 6 Speed when I first got it, now its at almost 10,000 miles and nothing has gone wrong. "Knock on Wood"!

 

i really had no idea the car was allowed to shift w/o having the clutch in? This is the first time i've ever heard of this. I would think that it wouldn't be able to move without the cluth in for the gears would just grind all the way. How exactly does this work?

 

Weel to start come out of 1st gear and drive to like 2500 rpms, dont touch the clutch now push slightly on the shift ****, you will feel resistence. Thats no good. See I'm a really good manual trans driver so I dont look at the rpms, I listen to the car, it tells you when it wants to shift, but anyway, when I did happen to glance, I glided the shifter into gear at 4100 rpms. Other cars its a bit lower bc of the rpm gauges are different. Well about 4100 rpms now put a little pressure of the shift **** and you will feel that resistence is no longer there anymore and this will allowed you to shift into the next gear. Make sure you give the car a little gas before you put the car into the next gear because if you let the rpms fall too much there will be resistence.......Downshifting is far more complicated to write here.....I dont recommend this for everyone. I have been doing this for 3 years with no problems....(98 Eclipse GST, 95 N/A Supra, and 98 Honda Prelude)----Got bored with all the car stated there! :D

 

The gearbox on the 8 is so great thanks to the synchros, but they will wear down. Word of advise...the clutch is there for a reason, and the pros use it for that same reason. Sure the car can do it, but those synchros won't last long.

 

It's good to see someone else has a clue out there...I thought I was one of the few who knew how to do it properly. I love doing it esp. in NJ's traffic on 287 at 5:30pm. No more cramped left foot from holding the clutch to creep and what not!

 

Its all about matching the correct engine rpm's with the current speed. Double clutching in kinda the same thing, matching tranny speed to for easier shifting, and matching engine speed for the correct gear and speed, sounds funny but it true.

Syncro wear also takes place with the clutch pushed in. The sycro's job is match speeds inside the tranny, and the friction plate. Either way syncro wear take place.

I always though it was a good idea to know how, just in case if my clutch decides to die, like when my friend's throw out bearing siezed.

 

Well, since the clutch in my older car has lasted 180,000 miles and still going strong, I don't see that using a clutch like it was designed is going to create any problems. :/

 

rev matching is key. it doesn't hurt the transmission if done correctly and it saves clutch life. you can only do this when you're normally driving, you cannot shift without the clutch when driving spirited. just drive like you would normally and when it's about time to shift just gently pull/push on the shifter until it slides in position. of course, this is easier said then done :D but you all know there really is no point in doing this b/c you'd have to be driving/shifting like an old lady.

 

Chevy - is the girl in your sig getting railed ?

 

PM him about that. stay on topic~!!

 

Weird...when my clutch in my Accord went, there's no way I could drive it any distance, even shifting as described (without the clutch). When I pushed on the gas it would just rev really high without accelerating. At first I could get a litte bit of acceleration, but over time I couldn't even make it up small hills.

 

I must confess, I got a kick out of that. I'm curious as well. Seriously though, I was told this years back, and I tried it in my old Mazda pick up. After a few grinds I started to master it. I was able to memorize the rpms without a tach by sound. However, I never quite mastered it, as I sometimes had trouble getting it into gear. I'm never gonna dare try it in any car because unless you can be consistent and have the skill, you can ultimately do serious damage. The key is to not force it, and just let it shift as if you were using clutch. It will not hurt anything if done to perfection, but if people on here try it, we might see a chain of blown trannies. Nice job in mastering the clutchless RX8

 

lol, my avatar, well she isn't getting railed, sry to disappoint some of you.

Well I guess it did leave out some important things about the clutch going out. In your case it sounded like the friction plate couldn't provide enough friction to connect the motor and engine or the pressure plate couldn't "push" the fiction plate enough, in the case even this wouldn't work. In the case I mentioned we couldn't release the engine from the tranny, in this case it would work, although no stopping till we got into the driveway was a must.

 

i end up shifting from time to time without the clutch because every once in a while my hand tends to move quicker then my left foot... it does shift alot smoother that way

 

yeah but why risk it? use the damn clutch.

 

Hey SDRacer87, its more of a showoff thing then anything. Also when I'm in traffic trying to get home and sitting in slow *** traffic, I don't cramp up my left foot from pushing in and easing out. Its convienent to know how to do this....Believe me.

 

LoveMy8, could you do a speed/rpm table showing your clutchless shift points. I wonder how you manage it in very slow traffic. I'd be interested to try it.

 

A buddy of mine used to do this with his S2000 all the time. When he was at the correct speed, he'd smoothly and gently apply pressure on the shifter and get it to engage the next gear. He referred to it as "power-shifting", though I dunno if it's commonly called that. I've never tried it... I meant to experiment with my WRX before trading it in, but it "slipped" my mind

I'd like to see the speed/RPM table hotspot asked for as well.

 

Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to shift without using the clutch. The would be like parking on a hill, so you don't have to use the starter.

I DO find it amusing that on more than one occasion, I've seen posts from individuals complaining about the wear of their tires or a blown clutch. These same folks some months earlier were bragging about how they could "chirp the tires" by popping the clutch or dropping it from 6th to 3rd doing 90 miles per hour.

I guess I would have thought that was cool when I was in high school too....

 

My dad taught me the basics of shifting without the clutch years ago. It was also one of the first things I tried with the 8, but admittedly I didn't spend much time with it because I encountered the shifting "resistance" that was mentioned earlier in the thread. I have since found that I can shift gears, but now knowing the 4100 RPM area, I might give it more tries. The tranny won't be damaged if you shift at the right points.