How Often Do You Stall Your Car?

[emorphien]

I just stalled today as I started to move in 1st gear after reversing out of a spot. I felt like a dumbass.

 

is it technically impossible to have smoothe shifts in a cold start in cold weather? or is it just my bad driving?

It's possible, just not the easiest thing in the world.

[starlabs]

I *almost* stalled again this morning to work... to the point where the DRLs were flickering

But just enough gas to get through. Pfffft.

[emorphien]

I'm glad I don't do it often because I'd hate to be the person sitting there in traffic going "yah, it's me. I'm starting my car, HANG ON!"

[GetAwayDriver]

I'm bone headed sometimes and do it definately more than once a month.

[billyhuff]

two or three times in the six months I've had it, four if you count the first time I tried to move it during the test drive. I'll share what has happened even worse then stalling. At approx 70MPH, not sure what I was doing situating in the seat or what, but my knee hit the key and shut the engine off. Startled me for a second, then I simply turned the key back and depressed the clutch momentarily and was back in control (power steering).

[eL GaTo]

I go through 1st to 5th gear with my 5EAT and never stalled once. :icon_bigg Sorry, wrong thread.

[RuskiTrombone]

Driving today I wanted to see how low the rpms can be to start driving and not stall. Seemed like 1K rpms and even 7-- was just fine. Maybe some of you just like to dump the clutch from 700 rpms and experience this stalling with flashing DRLs.

[S4]

I have a theory about stalling. Well, for me at least, it always seems that I ONLY stall with more than just me and my wife in the car (more passengers), but it's rare.

 

Two possibilities:

1) Performance anxiety or something like that. But I don't even think about driving a manual hardly at all any more, so I don't know why it'd be that.

2) When the car has substantially more weight, it doesn't roll as easily as I'm used to, and I usually stall going from forward to back, back to forward, or starting up a hill with passengers. I'm thinking I'm used to the car having less rolling resistance with less weight, therefore I'm more likely to stall with passengers.

 

So, what do you think. It's 1 isn't it?

[rfd425]

2) When the car has substantially more weight, it doesn't roll as easily as I'm used to, and I usually stall going from forward to back, back to forward, or starting up a hill with passengers. I'm thinking I'm used to the car having less rolling resistance with less weight, therefore I'm more likely to stall with passengers.

I think weight's a big factor in why I've stalled my LGT and my A4 more than any previous cars. In the case of the A4, the 2.8 engine didn't have a lot of low-end torque, which made getting all that weight going from a stop a more sensitive process than with previous cars. The LGT isn't exactly a featherweight either, and although it has more low-end torque than the A4, it also has a trickier clutch.

 

My previous MT cars have been a '79 Mustang turbo (4-cyl.), a '66 Porsche 912, and a '91 Eagle Talon TSi AWD. All were lighter cars, although the Talon probably wasn't much lighter. I rarely stalled any of those cars, even the Mustang when I was 16 and first learning to drive a stick.

 

Like I said previously, when I would occasionally drive loaner Audi 4000Q's, they were basically stall-proof. I attribute that to their weight (~2,800 lbs.), and to the five-cylinder engine which had plenty of low-end torque.

 

By far the worst car that I ever drove, in terms of stalling it, was the Passat W8 6-speed that I test-drove before the LGT. I stalled it probably four times before I got off the dealer lot, and another two or three times at the first stop sign. That car weighs 3,800+ lbs., and while it was a dream for highway cruising, would have not been much fun for daily city commuting. The weight also made it handle like a boat, which was probably a more important factor in my not buying it.

[tsyGT]

Usually when I'm not paying attention and the radios too loud. Sometimes while going uphill and trying to avoid the clutch stink I end up stalling instead. Then I'm so embarrased I usually give too much gas and get the clutch stink anyway!

 

tom

[MonteCarlo]

Just had my new tires installed and the twirp stalled it twice backing it off of the lift, then slipped the clutch all the way as he backed it out into the parking lot.

Hmm, I allways slip the clutch some in reverse, because I am always creeping in reverse.

But I am not sure I know what I am doing... its been like 15 years since i last owned a manual

 

Also when I am creeping very slow ahead to pull into the garage, I have a hard time keeping the rpms down, and end up

slipping the clutch.

 

What is the best way to creep?

[starlabs]

^ Practice

 

Is your driveway/garage on a slope? That'd make things slightly harder.

 

Try this: on a flat incline, push in the clutch and put it into 1st gear. Then slowly release the clutch until the car just starts to move forward, without pushing on the accelerator at all.

 

Doing this will give you a familiarity with where the clutch starts to actually catch and how much gas (or how little) is needed to move forward.

[MonteCarlo]

Yeah, its a bit of a slope... practice practice!

[biturbowagon]

People have talked about a few reasons that certain engines may be easier to stall than others, including low torque at low engine speeds.

 

There's another factor that I haven't seen mentioned yet (maybe I missed it): engine flywheel weight. At least in the motorcycle world, it has been my experience that engines with heavier flywheels are less prone to stalling, all else equal. I suspect the same is true in the car world.

[racerdave]

I had a '02 WRX for 4 years and NEVER stalled it, but on my LGT test drive I stalled it pulling back into the dealer's lot...very embarassing. But seriously the legacy GT throttle is so much harder to control. I've only stalled it once since I bought it about 2 months ago, but it requires so much more delicacy than the wrx.

 

My friend with an 02 WRX said the same... he thought the difference was that the LGT -- from the start of engagement to full engagement -- happened over a shorter distance of pedal stroke. Hence, more sensitive that the WRX.