I have had my Fit for a month and I can't for the life of me get a consistent and smooth 1-2 shift. If anyone has found the sweet spot for revs/technique and could give me some tips I would greatly appreciate it!

 

I hold it in first for about 300-500 RPM more than I would for most any other car, then it's all about timing with throttle application on the way back out with the clutch. Just a hair of slip letting it out, let the engine catch up with the torque load.

 

What RPM do you shift at?

 

I believe that it takes time to understand how your car acts and sometimes that can be months. For my car, 2010 Sport, I usually shift between 2,700-3,000RPM for all of the gears if I am accelerating fairly quickly. If I drive like a Grandma, around 2,000RPM is smooth.

 

^^^ That's exactly right. Give it some time...every manual tranny and shifter is different.
Practice makes perfect.

 

I currently shift around 3000 rpm, but I will give 2000 rpm a try.

 

For regular driving, i probably shift around 4k, if im having fun with it, its redline every gear. (i dont think ive ever made it in 5th though...) Personally, I think it shifts better at the higher range, its pretty laggy and clunky lower down.

Getting smooth with manual is all about getting a feel for everything. Keep practicing. Feel and listen to the feedback you are getting from the engine and transmission.

Get a feel for the exact point on releasing the pedal where the clutch engages. A good way to do this is sit idling in first gear on a flat surface, and slowly let out the clutch without touching the gas. When the clutch starts to grab you will feel it, and you will hear the engine respond. If you are very smooth with it, you can let it out all the way and the car will crawl forward. Let it out too fast, and youll get the old buck and stall Eventually with enough practice, you will build muscle memory of this point, and it will feel very automatic.

Keep with it, and eventually you wont even have to think about it, it will just happen

 

I shift at like 2200-2500. No need to rev it out.

 

Edit: just noticed this was in the Mk2 forum, so this might not apply fully

There is if you want it to move at all

I don't think that's actually possible, at least with the L13A. Seems to to run out of power at about 5k rpm and 170km/h so like 105mph or so.


Mine seems to have a bit of a difficulty shifting into 2nd especially when cold, just like my Miata. Seems like just being a bit patient with the shift and not slamming it in as quickly as possible helps, maybe with a little blip of the throttle if revs fell too much in the meantime.

 

Slow down. It’s a Honda Fit and you’re on public roads.

 

Yea, I was actually doing that yesterday to understand the engagement point better. I think the rev hang and lack of feel in the clutch is just a bad combo. I have had a Nissan Hardbody, Contour SVT, Nissan Xterra, and 8th gen Civic Si and this is by far the hardest manual transmission to drive smooth lol.

 

You can swap in a clutch master cylinder from an 01-05 civic directly. there's an outstanding write-up on it labeled as Clutch Delay Valve Delete. This allows for normal clutch feel. it's very positive.
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I would like to definitely advocate for high rpm shifts. I learned manual on this car, and even being inexperienced, it felt funky to me. So I did the delete and a pedal height adjustment to minimize pedal throw. Important FOOTnote here: if your clutch is too worn, lowering the pedal all the way down will mess with engagement and may prevent or unduly increase the force necessary to change gears. so if yuh go that route, naturally, if you struggle (mechanically) to shift post-adjustment, bring the pedal height back up in increments until stuff goes back to normal.

Based on my own experience, if you let the car stutter frequently and aggressively at clutch engagement (from not achieving high enough rpms to offset load) your clutch springs will wear out/get permanently compressed before the actual friction material of the disc wears off, leading to mechanical failure such as a spring coming out of its little pocket and wrecking stuff. Premature replacement would then be necessary.

I believe the delay valve is present in our cars to assist in preventing shocking the drivetrain. the clutch springs and friction material are the primary, if not only insulation between the transmission and the wheels, so if you go forward with a delay valve delete consider the possibility that you may shorten the life of the transmission if your resultant shifts aren't actually smoother with you in full control. you know. potentially.

 

I did read that whole write up, but not sure if I want to get into all that. If my mechanic buddy comes back to visit from Texas that may be on the table. I'm still in the "getting used to it" phase, so if it bothers me down the road I'll consider it.

 

From this post, it sounds like you’re not very good at driving a manual, beating on the car, and changing parts to work around your own inexperience.

 

Yeah, i'm definitely not the best, though it's been a few years since learnin' now. You can give the modification and adjustment a try if you want, or not
The CMC swap is direct though.
I had difficulty, so I tailored some stuff to my needs! It's fully reversible, too.

 

I hear yea. before the Fit I had an E36 M3 with some clutch improvements. it operated like a switch. Fit definitely took some getting used to, but ive been driving mine for almost 10 years now, so its all instinct by now. dont worry it wont take 10 years to get used to it!

pretty much! delay valves are there to soften the blow of inexperienced manual drivers. If you aren't already an experienced manual driver, and don't understand rev matching, the CDV delete will just fast forward your clutch wear.

For contrast, ive owned my 2010 since 25k miles, I'm at nearly 190k, and never did the CDV delete. I beat on my fit pretty hard, because it takes it with a smile, and ive only had to replace the clutch once at around 150k

 

My 2010 Fit has 230,000 miles with the original clutch.
Sometimes when the engine is cold...I will get a little 'clutch shudder'. Other than that...it's one smooth shifting car.
First to second is the most fun shift...because that's where the power is most noticed.