35i Skipping gears on purpose

benv6 · Post by **benv6** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:51 pm

Hi All,

I have a manual gearbox and my driving is generally a bit spirited, at times I skip gears like going from 1st to 3rd or from 4th to 6th.

I find that the car copes very well when skipping gears and I don't feel like I am making it work hard, so my question is if this may cause any damage in the future or if it is OK as long as it is done within reason ?

Buckz · Post by **Buckz** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:14 pm

there's no point to go up/down the gears in the correct order

I often go 1st - 3rd

or 4th - 1st etc..

I can't think of any reason why that would be bad.

SteveSmith · Post by **SteveSmith** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:17 pm

It'll be absolutely fine.

buzyg · Post by **buzyg** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:25 pm

I certainly do that a lot when pootling around. When pushing on though, I tend to use all the gears.

Buckz · Post by **Buckz** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:28 pm

as long as you don't go 70mph from 6th to 2nd

Busterboo · Post by **Busterboo** » Tue Jan 17, 2017 7:40 pm

Once damaged a piston in a flat-four Alfa Romeo. 3,000 revs in 5th into a roundabout, snick into 3rd, flick of the wheel and 6,000 revs out. Impressive when it works, but not when you get your revs wrong.

bob4333 · Post by **bob4333** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 1:43 pm

I've always used the ratios as the traffic demands. Never given it a thought until just reading this post.

The 35i gearbox seems to self centre on 3rd when dropping out of 6th, so if conditions are right just do it.

freemadw · Post by **freemadw** » Wed Jan 18, 2017 8:28 pm

Absolutely no problem with skipping gears, one of the nice things about driving a manual.

This guy, who has some very good videos on YouTube covers matching revs when changing up/down.
His other videos are very good too, ex Police driving instructor.

Cheers, Dave

bob4333 · Post by **bob4333** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:46 am

Some useful stuff in there that we all take for granted after a while. 12 minute vid could have been 3 mins though.

Alternative gear changing experience here with Ken Block's 650 BHP Ford Fiesta in Dubai:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30MlQ0o-9l8

He seems to be getting the hang of it.............

Z4Rick · Post by **Z4Rick** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:37 pm

bob4333 wrote:Some useful stuff in there that we all take for granted after a while. 12 minute vid could have been 3 mins though.

Alternative gear changing experience here with Ken Block's 650 BHP Ford Fiesta in Dubai:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30MlQ0o-9l8

He seems to be getting the hang of it.............

This thread has me wishing my DVT could do this stuff.....

flybobbie · Post by **flybobbie** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:29 pm

Something that came up on a driver awareness course I was on, one of only two things I found useful, other than not to do 37 in 30 on my bike, was that that to match gears to speed on the basis that cars torque range general starts at 2500 revs. So 1st to 10mph then be 2nd from 20 and 3rd from 30 and so fourth. So that you are always are at the start of the torque range. Also any deceleration above about 1800 revs the fuel cuts.
Would be nicer though if the box had a smoother change though.

85genius · Post by **85genius** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:59 pm

The only time I had a problem doing it was in my old V6 Jag.....

When I came to sell it I took a guy out on a test drive me driving and after watching me drive it for a while he was convinced there must be a problem with 2nd gear as I always skipped it.... It was probably the best condition of all the gears as it was never used, had to let him drive it even though he want insured to be able to sell the bloody car

SpiketheBike · Post by **SpiketheBike** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:10 pm

I must admit I often wonder what 3rd and 4th gear are for! My 23i runs beautifully in 5th at 30mph. Snick from 2nd to 5th. No worries.
PS: I only do it on the way up the box!

stuartinzg · Post by **stuartinzg** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:20 am

I skip gears in every car. I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside that I'm saving wear on the synchromesh in the gearbox

As long as you aren't labouring the engine after changing, or overrevving, you'll be fine. It is a bit annoying that 99% of the time the DCT is acting as a sequential box, I think the only time you can get it to "jump" gears is with kickdown. Otherwise, it's 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 which is a lot of changes between roundabouts. If it was a manual I would go from 1,2,4,6,4,2 (maybe 1).

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