Changing Gear Question

[aaronon]

lol. . . now I know I've been driving my Polo for two years after passing my driving test but tonight it dawned on me that I'm incredibly s**t at changing from First to Second gear. I ALWAYS get a jolt changing.

Usually. . .I'm gentle and feel bad reving the engine so I accelerate lightly and almost immediately go into second gear and use that to gather speed and go off into the distance.

The rev counter obviously goes up in 10's and 60 is red so I aim to never go there but what do you guys let your rev counter go to before changing gear? I'm on a 1.2 mind, not a GTi.

Also do you push the accelerator in quite far in first gear or just a little bit?

[Karson3270]

I do exactly what you do but I don't get a jolt. I think the trick is, to lift your clutch up slower than you would in the higher gears. I also changed instantly from 1st gear to 2nd gear. I try to be as eco-friendly as I can ( Not so I can save the world, So I have more fuel to race with when I want to ).

But I have a question that's also been on my mind. Would it take more fuel for me to accelerate from 30mph - 40mph stayng in 5th gear all the way, or would it take more if I dropped it down to 3rd or 4th to get from 30mph - 40mph? I've been having a debate with a friend of mine for awhile about the situation, we both don't know how the fuel system works, whether if you stay in high gears, but make your engine struggle with slow acceleration will use less fuel, or drop it down a gear or two and make your engine work a little harder and not struggle would save more fuel?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[blazeguarder]

On my 1.4, I tend to let it get to about 1600-1800rpm before changing from first to second. I know what you mean about the jolting, just lift the clutch a bit slower and try to not let the revs drop off too much.

Karson - I'll probably get shot down by people who are more clued up on the subject, but I always thought that in higher gears, the engine revs less, so its using less fuel as its doing less work. Therefore, providing the gear used isn't too high for the road speed (like fifth at 10mph lol) it should be more economical. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would assume that if the engine is struggling due to a low road speed, then the ECU would respond by giving it more fuel to try and prevent a stall, reducing fuel economy.

Can anyone explain this properly? Would be interested to know the definitive answer to this...

[Whos Adam?]

Karson - I'll probably get shot down by people who are more clued up on the subject, but I always thought that in higher gears, the engine revs less, so its using less fuel as its doing less work. Therefore, providing the gear used isn't too high for the road speed (like fifth at 10mph lol) it should be more economical. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would assume that if the engine is struggling due to a low road speed, then the ECU would respond by giving it more fuel to try and prevent a stall, reducing fuel economy.

Can anyone explain this properly? Would be interested to know the definitive answer to this...

If your in the right rev range in 5th it would be more economical. Around 40 and I'd slip it down into 4th.
You can feel when the engine is struggling to pull in a certain gear, If you feel that - change down

As for setting off, 1st gear up to just under 2000rpm and then the rest changes depending on roads