Does skipping gears in the shift pattern damage anything? My gearbox is pretty grumpy from 2nd-to-3rd until well warmed, so I've taken to shifting 2nd-to-4th instead (until warmed.)

I only do this on the flats or heading downhill and with very little throttle -- to avoid lugging. Otherwise, I'll just make a very deliberate shift to 3rd instead...

I read once that skipping gears was bad for synchros, any truth to that? Thanks.

 

Not sure if it's good or bad for the transmission but that's one hell of a ratio gap. Have you tried double-clutching?

 

Maaaybe on a downshift. but it sounds like pure BS to me. Especially on a downhill. It's not like it's sequential.

Stand by for Chris, Bill W or Steve W with the facts....

 

I don't see the harm as long as you run the rpms up enough that you don't lug it in 4th.

 

I do it 90% of the time, all the time.

 

I do it when appropriate, and I doubt there's any harm -- the synchros on my old Saab still work beautifully at 266K miles. As far as the 2nd - 3rd shift is concerned on a cold gearbox, I find double-clutching works very well, as Tim mentioned.

 

No harm, no foul,....

I would recommend honing your double-clutching skills as that really makes it easy to deal with a recalitrant transmission. I perfected that a long time ago with an XK-120M thatg I owned for awhile and once perfected, made ANYTHING easy.

 

Yup I do it all the time, although I tend to go from 4th to 6th when going on the highway.

 

I do it all the time....I'll run 2nd up pretty high, then go straight to 4th. I could be completely wrong, but it seems to me when manually shifting gears...if your gentle, smooth, and it doesn't feel like it's stressing or jammimg anything...then it is fine. I took my '95 525i to 250K miles on the original clutch, so I did something right...

 

Agreed ...do it all the time. The key is, of course, matching revs for a smooth/seamless gear change. Sometimes I do a 2/4 upshift ...go to 6K or so from a stop light and then relax her into 4th if I see clear road up ahead. Similar situation for fwy except that is a 4/6 upshift.

I don't do it often downshifting, but on occasion will go 4/2 if I am loafing down toward a turn. Never a problem, and sometimes just one less thing to do is nice.

Edward

 

most of the time entering the autobahn i'm accelerating in 3rd gear and then skip directly onto 6th. works pretty fine...

 

"everything's a dream when your alone"
- Swamp Thing - 1982

Allen, I wish I was reading Rennlist and had read this before my first marriage! Swamp Thing was right.

 

If I see clear road ahead I am into it in every gear untill I run out of road.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Driver's in Europe skips gears in shifting all the time, mainly for better fuel economy. My dad drives like this as he spent years in France, drives me nuts to watch him drive. He would get into my car and complain that I rev too hard, I would be like "What the hell are you talking about???"