I have to use my dream car as a daily commuter since im young and dont have money for a more...commuting car but I am trying to put as little wear and tear on it in the process and get good gas mileage. I've been upshifting from about 2K to 3K. Is this bad for my car? it has very little power/torque at such a low range right after the upshift but i'm not in the hurry so I dont mind. It shutters only on occasion when im careless with it. How bad for the car is it to shutter and am i somehow putting more strain on my car like this.

Whenever I try and shift "normally" from 1st to 2nd in say 3.5K it seems like my engine lags or something till I can put it into 2nd easily. I can jam it in quick but it doesnt feel like the transmission likes it that much. So I don't really have a problem shifting gears but sometimes it takes longer than I thought it was suppose to. Is this normal? this is really about the only manual I've ever driven so I dont really have anything to compare too. Thanks

 

Just do me a favor and take a nice long deep breath. Everything's going to be ok. Just chill out and drive your damn car. Stop freaking out about it. Normal people upshift around 3-4k. If the clutch shudders a little, no big deal. Try and figure out how to shift without doing that, but it really won't destroy your car. And for it not wanting to go easily into 2nd, that's probably the most common synchro to go on a manual transmission. People like to jam it in that gear, when it should slip easily into every gear. It's probably that way from years of abuse, getting jammed in 2nd at 7 or 8k rpm without regard to matching the speed before selecting the proper gear. No big deal though, try changing the gear lube to something good like royal purple, amsoil, or redline MT90. I guarantee you'll notice a difference.

 

2.5K-3K when driving gently is when the shift light will tell you to shift for economy, that's perfectly fine but you should remember to wind it up probably at least every other time you drive. You'll get carbon build up like mad if you never wind it up.

Also, that sounds a lot like how my transmission shifts, just gently press it towards the gear for a second till it engages. But yes, change the gear oil if you've never done it before.

 

2-3k? If I am driving my car easy I shift at 4-4.5k.