I know you are supposed to leave your car in gear when on a hill...

I know you are supposed to leave your car in gear when on a hill, but is there a reason you are supposed to leave it in 1st and not a higher gear? Wouldn't it be more difficult for your car to roll in 5th gear than in 1st?

no, because the gears are going the other way. same reason lower gears slow you down faster

He is right.The lower gears have more torque to keep your car from rolling backwards. The higher gearing will hold your car, but not as strong

wtf i always put my car in 3rd?!!?!

it doesn't matter

A possibly related question: is there merit to the idea of leaving your car in gear WITHOUT the handbrake pulled?

My father used to preach that, saying that the handbrake might get stuck otherwise (I think that's what he said, was years ago so I don't remember it that clearly).

I think the hand brake can get looser after use so maybe it is better to just leave it in gear. Although I've never had a problem.

You aren't going to wear out a mechanical parking brake, but those line lock type parking brakes they used on some old cars can get stuck if too much pressure builds up behind it, then you have to crack a rear bleeder to get the pedal to come back. Unless your dad drove a 356 Speedster or something like that chances are he was just repeating an old wives tale.

>looser after use

That reminds me: in my car I'm actually able to go without issue when I have the handbrake pulled only one or two notches (but the brake light is visible anyway). Should I be worried?

>Unless your dad drove a 356 Speedster or something like that chances are he was just repeating an old wives tale.

Yeah he told that when we had cars from the early to late 90s, so I guess that didn't apply there.

Do you undesratnd what a disc brake is?

Just vaguely, why? Are you implying that this handbrake behavior is normal? Like the calipers are barely holding on to the discs so I should still be moving all right?

The best choice is 2nd obviously

Same principle as brake pedal, the more clicks the more its biting onto the rear drum. 1 or 2 clicks it might not even be making contact yet, allowing you to drive normally

>it might not even make contact yet

I'm thinking that's just bad design then.

Its called leverage.

Your engine has much less leverage in the higher gears.

What happens if you're on a hill and you just use the parking brake?

Most disc brakes have drum style brake shoes on the inside of the rear discs, for just the hand brake.

You're retarded, the amount of tension is what matters not the number of clicks, you pull the handbrake/parking break until its tight.

In some cars that could be as little as a few notches, in older cars that may need adjustment that could be almost to the top of the lever's range.

It stays exactly where it is with no issues whatsoever.

So then why is everybody arguing about which gear to use on a hill? Is it autism?

It can freeze in place in winter, that's about it.

lmao when i had my dl test in poland it was manditory that before we leave the car we had to put it in 1st and pull the handbrake

Not him, but it's an additional thing keeping the car in place in case the handbrake fails.

If your car is AWD, all of the tires are keeping the car in place, not only the rear wheels (I believe).

I almost believed you until I realised you didn't mention anything about the vodka

Because everybody here has a $3k Civic where any system including the parking brake could fail at any time, so you need redundent safeties to keep your car from rolling.

dl stands for "drinking license"

Most (cheap) cars have rear drum brakes and the handbrake only uses those. Drum brakes are great because they have a mechanism which automatically repositions the shoes when they wear down, so they always brake like new (same pedal feel). They brake just as well as disc brakes and they last a long time, but they fade quicker. That's okay though, most people aren't racing drivers.

Perhaps the reason a handbrake needs more clicks to work is because the shoes have worn down and the repositioning mechanism has nothing to do with the steel cable (its lenght stays the same after all). Maybe it's just a safety feature so you don't accidentally leave the bankbrake on because your short little arms didn't put the lever down all the way.

>A possibly related question: is there merit to the idea of leaving your car in gear WITHOUT the handbrake pulled?
My ex used to do this all the time, even on some sketchy hills.

I personally pull the brake even on my autotragics.

Unrelated but if you need to stop right the fuck now drums can't be beat. (get it lmao?)

Not only are first and reverse the best leveraged gears, but I recently thought about it and realized... Your first and reverse synchros matter the least, so if your car got bumped, it wouldn't be a big deal if they were destroyed. However, if you leave your car in 2nd, say hello to a new transmission.

Get on my level, guis:
>leaves car in gear
>pull handbrake
>turn wheels towards the curb
>use wheel chocks

What?

Carlos?

>(its length stays the same after all)
I disagree

>>(its length stays the same after all)
>I disagree

Some people are showers, others are growers

Its time to stop posting and look up how transmissions works, user

No it won't, go out right now and try it. You'll feel the compression strokes, if you find the right hill you'll move 3 feet, stop, move 3 feet again, stop over and over.

I can't be the only one autistic enough to leave it in 1st AND pull the hand brake.

I let it 'lean' on the gear first and then i pull the brake

Same reason you don't leave a car in gear when it's being towed on a flat bed

no but seriously i accidentally slammed the brakes in my car with 4 wheel drums and it stopped on a dime.

>having the best way to keep the car in place
>autistic

pick one

ITT: Americans arguing about things they have no idea about

You

>when the gf stops the car on a hill and puts it in park

>then walks away

Theres a difference between towing in gear and your car getting bumped a few inches. Anyway it has no relevance to your synchros.

You're stupid, take a look and think it through.

Prematurely posted.

You got 3 people who know what they are taking about and the rest are all saying

>My daddy said xyz when I was four and I am sure I understood it fully

>gf

none of us can relate to this

Any kind of brakes should stop with enough force to lock the tires. The limiting factor for a panic stop is tire traction, not brakes.

...sorry.

what are all those tools for

I don't think ABS would have let me stop as quickly as i did. I definitely locked the brakes.

>The limiting factor for a panic stop (at low speed) is tire traction, not brakes
ftfy

>I let it 'lean' on the gear first and then i pull the brake

I was taught that you should do it the other way around.

Cable's stretch over time, they're not made of carbon nano tubes.

Hand brake shoes shouldn't wear on disc brakes unless you've takumi'ed it too much.

Even with drum brakes they're typically a separate mechanism.

If you just slammed, and the tires didn't skid, you probably braked on the limit. Effectively braking normally don't involve slamming the brakes.

i just use the parking brake unless it's a steeper incline

new to driving stick and this seemed like an ok place to ask instead of making a new thread

1. why is it considered bad to switch gears while turning? i feel like my rpm's get too high in first if i turn while accelerating from neutral

2. what's the most efficient way to come to a stop or slow down for an off ramp if i'm in 5th or 6th? should i downshift every gear or is it ok if for example i'm in 6th gear, i break til about 20-35mph for the ramp, then i shift to 2nd or 3rd? will my car stall if i'm going too slow in the higher gears?

>1. why is it considered bad to switch gears while turning? i feel like my rpm's get too high in first if i turn while accelerating from neutral
This is a racing thing, not a manual thing.
You will upset your cars balance at the edge of grip and that can put you in a wall. Being a normie shift all you want while turning.

>2. what's the most efficient way to come to a stop or slow down for an off ramp if i'm in 5th or 6th? should i downshift every gear or is it ok if for example i'm in 6th gear, i break til about 20-35mph for the ramp, then i shift to 2nd or 3rd? will my car stall if i'm going too slow in the higher gears?
If you know you're coming to a stop you can just leave it in high gear until your revs are ~1500 then shift into neutral. If you are at all interested in actually learning to drive manual just heel toe to at least third, and you'll actually be prepared to go if the light changed or if you're just merging to a right turn off the highway.

for the handbrake comments:

>be at Nürburgring
>drive two laps
>park car backwards at the outer, slightly banked, places at the first parking area
>engine running because cooling
>pull handbrake
>get out to check tire pressure
>valve moving
>uh?
>tire rotating
>what?
>car rolling
>shit!
>jump in and fasten handbrake further
>put some tool in front of the tire

Yeah, cables will stretch when hot.

thanks for your help. i'm planning on learning how to heel toe and rev match but i want to be able to get around comfortably without it first. not trying to get overwhelmed.

still not sure what the best way to slow down without coming to a complete stop without heel toeing is though

I find it fucking incredible that these questions pop up at the same time I experience something earlier in the day that makes me wonder the same thing. I left my car in 5th gear for the first time instead of 1st and was curious about the same exact thing.

Just learn to rematch downshift without braking first.
Be on the highway in 5th clutch in mash the throttle for a split second and shift into 4th.
Once you get an idea of the rev difference between those two gears and the time to be on the throttle you can work that into lower speed rev match downshifts, and once you're proficient at that you can throw in braking while rev matching, or double clutching, or both.
It's really all about muscle memory and intuition. Knowing the exact differences between your gears won't help you, you can really only learn by doing. If you don't plan on owning anything with a finicky transmission you might not even bother learning to double clutch, people who double clutch in their plastic new shit heaps are pretty cringy actually.