Driving with manual transmission questions

Sounds like you guys figured it out, but brake and clutch are totally independent systems so you can do either/or as you please. I don't recommend downshifting and slowly letting out the clutch - that's not engine braking, it's just rapidly wearing the clutch. I do recommend revmatching while downshifting and then allowing the engine to slow you down while braking, which will reduce wear on your brakes without creating excess wear on your clutch.

This is what I was taught. Always ready to accelerate if you have to, and if you're hit and your feet come off the pedals you won't continue rolling until you hit something else. There are a lot of reasons to leave it in gear, and the only reasons not to are leg fatigue and a bearing.

I don't recommend coasting, one for the reason given above, and two because you're not saving fuel. DFCO - as long as you're off the gas for a couple seconds and above 1500 RPMs, your fuel injectors are cutting off. If you have no reason to slow down, just throw it into the highest gear you can while staying above 1500 RPMs.

33, owned 8 cars, 5 of which have been manuals, and have driven dozens of manuals in various settings.

I believe someone else mentioned engine load but I think they had it backwards - your engine's most efficient when the load is the highest, which is at lower RPMs. Think bicycle gears. If you're in the lowest gear riding really fast, you aren't working very hard but you're spending a lot of energy to maintain speed. Contrast that with the highest gear at low speeds - it's really difficult to move the pedal, but you're not really using a lot of energy to do it. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, get into higher gears earlier - so long as you're not lugging the engine.

 

Cool girl? I identify more as a room temperature potato who wanted a truck with a mt. We might have to keep looking.

Oh nooooooooo

Thanks! Been trying to run it up around there. Getting smoother day after day.

 

Mine feels high too. 45k miles

 

uh oh, she identifies as a potato

 

A humble potato?

 

Potato, eh? Do not worry - You fit right in here! (Despite avatars, trucks modded sufficiently to survive a zombie attack, and keyboard bluster; I'd bet most of us here look like the odd potato!

 

the engine load is ratio of mass air flow. It has somewhat to do with what rpm you’re at, but mostly about how far the throttle body is open. If you’re shifting too early, to accelerate you’ll have to hit the gas harder in a given higher gear than lower, hence it will read a higher engine load.

 

Perform a VE test in different gears and you can watch the correlation of engine load to efficiency. Lugging a compression ignition engine can sometimes even lead to worse things besides crappy gas mileage, such as overheating of injectors.

 

Guess I needed to add a little more sarcasm or a sarcasm emoji

 

The catch point on my truck is a little on the high side too but nowhere near as bad as my old 2015 Tacoma, that one didn't catch till the absolute very top.

 

Sheesh I still just broke mines in. I just wanted to see if it was normal to catch high being new

 

SAE 75W-90 GL-4

I filled mine with Motorcraft XT-M5-QS which meets the Toyota specifications. Rock Auto had the best price.

I had no issues with the factory fill but do feel the new oil made the transmission shift a bit nicer.

https://www.motorcraft.com/us/en_us...ull-synthetic-manual-transmission-fluids.html

 

Wanting a truck with a manual transmission fully qualifies you as a cool girl.

 

Allow me to preface with this: I am oversimplifying and making generalizations. There are simply too many variables to be able to say, "shift at x RPM for the best fuel economy."

Sure, but throttle being open doesn't equate to more fuel consumption. A WOT doesn't pull in as much air at 2000 RPMs as it does at 4000 RPMs, and if you're not pulling as much air, the injectors aren't sending as much fuel. This is both exaggerated and proven by Turbos. At 2000 RPMs with WOT in my Supra, the turbo is still spooling up - I'm no longer at a vacuum, but I'm only getting a couple pounds of boost or so. WOT at 4000 RPMs, the turbo is completely spooled and it's bringing in ~25 lbs of boost. That's because the engine is producing a lot more exhaust at higher RPM, which it can only do if it's using a lot more fuel.

100% agree, and I do not advocate for shifting into a situation where you're lugging the engine. My general advice is keep your truck in a higher gear. If you find yourself losing speed going up a hill or you need to accelerate and hammering it doesn't produce the results you want, downshift.

 

For sure. I think there are way too many variables such as engine type (diesel, NA, turbo), weather (altitude, temperature, dewpoint), road type (gravel, smooth, hill climb/descent), vehicle weight (towing a trailer, loaded up to max GVWR, etc). Again the best thing I've found is to get to know the feel of your vehicle, you'll know when it's in the wrong gear for your scenario. From what I've seen in my experience, given a same set of conditions, engine load will be higher if you are trying to accelerate at the same rate in a numerically higher gear. If you are in too high of a numerically numbered gear, the throttle flies open and injectors fire, engine is "lugging" to get you up to speed due to being in the wrong gear.

 

nice. i've had some manual cars in the past that spec'd GL-4 or GL-5 and they would come factory filled with GL-5 and it would shift like crap...too slippery. Put some redline gl-4 in and shifted like a dream.

 

Did you remove the accumulator yet ? You said the new one feels slower to react ?

 

Lol that's only been mentioned about 12 times in this thread

 

Sorry didn't take time to read the 9,000 post. MY BAD >>> DON"T BE MAD AT ME

 

You didn't read all 9217 posts? For Shame..... It's almost like you have a life or something