Four things you should NEVER do with your manual car – ‘moneyshifting’ will ‘send engine to the grave’

A DRIVING expert has revealed seven things you should never do in a manual car – including why “money shifting” can “send your engine to the grave”.

The motoring whizz from Ideal Media warned of “huge repair bills” as a result of some common mistakes.

YouTubeA car expert shared four major mistakes you can make when driving a manual motor[/caption]

GettyThey could lead to ‘huge’ repair bills[/caption]

Lugging the engine

This is the practice of driving at low revs in high gear, causing a jolting or “lugging” motion.

Doing this repeatedly can cause severe wear and tear to your transmission.

Given that replacements can stretch into thousands of pounds, it’s certainly a dangerous practice for your bank balance.

Instead, try shifting down and sitting at medium revs when cruising along at speed.

Each gear has its own ratio and which one is the right option depends on the speed you want to go and the incline of the road.

If the car starts to over-rev, you can always shift back up to find a comfortable ratio again.

The best way to do it is Goldilocks driving, where the revs aren’t too low but aren’t too high either.

Dropping the clutch

One of the most basic practices learners are taught is to find the biting point of the clutch and release it gently while lightly pressing the accelerator to move off.

For more experienced drivers, this motion is almost second nature when riding in a manual.

However, it’s easy to become complacent and let the clutch pedal out in one motion, especially when trying to change gear quickly.

This is known as dropping or dumping the clutch and is particularly problematic at low speeds.

When you’re setting off, dropping the clutch can cause you to stall and violently lurch forward.

It’s less of a problem when done at higher speeds but is still unsafe and can lead to burnouts and skids.

Holding on a hill

Learners almost universally dread hill starts so it may be tempting to hold your motor in gear when you’re stopped on an incline, rather than popping it into neutral.

This puts a large amount of strain on the clutch and causes excessive wear and tear.

As with most elements of the gear system, the clutch is not cheap to replace, so you could leave yourself out of pocket.

Instead, use the brake to hold yourself still on a hill or even engage the handbrake/parking brake if you’re worried about rolling back.

Money shifting

Money shifting is a common manual mistake where a driver tries to shift up a gear but accidentally shifts down by mishandling the gear stick.

For example, the motion to shift from third to fourth gear involves pulling the stick down through neutral.

In the process of doing this, it is possible to slip the stick slightly to the left, slotting into second gear instead of fourth.

If you then release the clutch as normal, this will spike the revs and potentially cause some serious damage.

The practice is called money shifting because it usually leads to a hefty repair bill.

The expert joked: “If you release the clutch the engine’s RPMs are going to shoot to the Moon.

“And there’s a good chance you’ll send the engine to the grave.”

To protect against this, he advised turning your hand over so your palm faces the passenger side door as you shift with your thumb pointing down.

This makes it hard to unintentionally push the stick across onto a lower gear ratio.