Teach her how to find the engagement point... car in first at a dead stop, without any gas at all, very, very slowly release the clutch until the car starts pulling forward by itself, and then keep releasing the clutch pedal slowly until it's about to pop and stall. And have her do that over and over until she knows exactly how the engagement point feels like. Hell, I used to make my friends stall the car about 3 times so they get the feeling down quicker (but we used a beater that cost much less than a G35 clutch). From then on, she should know how to feel for the engagement point on any car. After that, driving a clutch is cake, even on an incline.

 

I would never practice on a G37. Must be rich or something.

 

if she is coming from the street, have her not stop on the incline, open the garage door before, so she can just pull right in

if she is at the top and has to move forward the easiest thing is to use the e-brake. pull the e-brake, put it in first and start to engave it, the e-brake will prevent her from going backwards. then as soon as she feels she is engaged she can let go of the e-brake and just go up

and keep and eye on FS thread for new clutches cause sounds like this one wont make it past 10k miles, no disrespected but mine barely made it past 20k miles and ive been driving manual for over 10 years, guess one too many speed shifts

 

why dont you learn how to drive manual yourself then teach your wife =D, kinda sad that u dont know how, not to mention it would probably be a hell of alot easier for her to learn rather from you showing her rather than just reading about it....juss sayin'

 

Agreed, She needs to find an engagement point of the clutch, you drive way doesnt look too difficult. This is my issue everyday, down hill to a uphill driveway, and Im lowered

 

Your driveway doesn't seem that steep.

I have a much steeper inclined driveway and it was nerve wracking at first getting in the garage because for one, it was my first manual car (wasn't use it the G yet, obviously! And I stalled 8 times halfway in the garage the very first night I drove it home) and second, it's a single garage, and I always tried to park closer to the right side so I could open my driver's side door enough to get out... but I was always scared to not be able to control the car rolling back (rolled back fast!) and going forward slowly to watch my side mirror to make sure it doesn't hit the garage door frame!

I would recommend that you have your wife practice the point of engagement, where the clutch is able to hold the car without rolling back and then giving a very light push of the gas. I found the gas very sensitive and the rpm's jump up there fast. With some practice, your wife will get the feel for it in a very short time.

When she's learned the clutch 'grab' point and has good control of the gas pedal, have her practice on a slight incline or the upper half of your driveway (with the garage door open) and have her practice by 'massaging' the clutch and give it slight gas. You shouldn't go over 2,000 rpms. I can get the car up my driveway under 1,500 or less rpms.

Basically, as she's moving up the driveway, she needs to control the clutch. She needs to push and release (massage, feel) around the engagement point. She doesn't have to push the clutch all the way in. If she does push the clutch all the way to the floor, she's gonna have a harder time locating the engagement point again if she's already on the incline.

It's hard to explain, but her feet has to alternate motions:
Letting out clutch... gas slowly...
Pushing clutch in slightly... off gas...
You keep repeating this as needed, until you get in the garage.
If she keeps alternating this motion, she should be able to 'dance' the car up and down the incline with almost no effort and carefully drive it. Assuming your garage floor is flat, she can roll the car in the rest of the way (all 4 wheels should be in your garage by now) by simply letting the clutch out slowly without gassing.

Tell her not to be discourage if she stalls. I'd rather stall going slowly, then over revving and burning the clutch. It always takes practice. Like someone else on here said, she has to start somewhere. Soon enough, she won't even have to think or worry about the incline, or any incline. You wife has awesome taste in cars as well as having the courage to get a manual gearbox! She's gonna have a lot of fun with that! I think you should learn too! Trust me... you're missing out!

Good luck!

Note: I probably repeated myself a few times with my explanations above, but I wasn't sure how to explain it, so... hopefully you understand it. Oh, and I forgot to mention, always be in FIRST gear when you do this. Not second, not third... FIRST!

 

I'm so disappointed in this thread.

 

First attempt this afternoon and 1000% better. No stalls and no burnt clutch smell. No clutch at all going up the driveway.

Thanks for those of you who helped. For those of you who posted "rude" comments, why?

I would prefer to teach her myself, but as my family has never owned a manual since I started driving I have never learned. She has been reading this thread as people post so she is learning from you, not me.

Any honest feedback as to how concerned we should be with future clutch problems? Our salesperson indicated on more than one occasion that despite being a rookie manual driver, the clutch would not suffer. If this ends up not being true we will be mentioning that when the time comes. The good news is that she is getting much better every day so any rookie mistakes will be short lived.

Thanks again

 

^ haha Nice! I have no patients to teach...

also, your driveway is CAKE! I should take a photo of my driveway... hahha do I smell new thread? Anyhow, Great to hear she has got it DOWN!...

 

Hey!
Glad to hear that!
She caught on quickly!
Didn't you just post for help yesterday?

As for the clutch, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Since she has the hang of inclined driveways and inclined roads, then she won't have any problems on flat roads (I'm assuming most of her usual routes are flat roads). So, I really doubt she'll ride the clutch to the point that it'll burn out prematurely. In order to shift smoothly, during normal, easy driving, you have to sorta ride it a bit (engagement point) and let it out smoothly between gears to get a smooth ride. When she drives the car aggressively, then you pretty much let the clutch out faster than normal. All the aggressive stuff will come as she gets more comfortable driving the car. I've heard people going up to 100,000+kms. (I'm in Canada), before having to change the clutch.

Another tip: If the car starts to shudder/feel like it's choking, then she has to quickly clutch in or gas in order to save the car from stalling. If you stall, no worries. Just start back up again. Nothing to be embarrassed or scared about.

Again, it's all feel and practice! Have fun with the car!!! Soon, she'll be heeling and toeing, launching, etc etc! hahahaha!

Also, post pics of the new car!!!

 

Great thread, and some great, useful comments for new G owners!
My G was my first manual, and I'm not *rich* (as someone put it).
I was super discouraged at first, but I got the hang of it after practice on a few inclines. If your wife was able to figure it out (for the most part) after 1 day of practice on your driveway, she's going to be fine!
I got my car at 42000km (in Canada), and it's at 62000km now, and the clutch is still fine after quite a few stalls early on. I never rode the clutch though, it was always being 'too easy' on it, afraid I was going to ride it.

Give your wife a pat on the back, and if she lets you, try to learn manual yourself on her G

I've driven a few manuals since getting my G, and I truly feel that if you can master manual on a G, you can master it on ANY car; I don't feel Nissan has the whole manual transmission concept down pat just yet

 

Well at least she isn't blaming it on traffic.

 

I see a broken garage door in your future.

just keep trying. What you read here is not going to help much with her techniques. She just needs to keep trying and eventually it will work like clock.

One important fact tho is that you don't need to use throttle much at all. Get her out on a weekend. Find a nice steep hill (so that you don't mess up your garage door) and try using clutch only for going forward (in first) and brake pedal from rolling back. Once she'll master that then you can incorporate throttle usage to make the process quicker.

 

have her do a burn out and post the vids once she's a master of the clutch

 

When I was teaching a couple friends to drive clutch, after doing no-throttle clutch engagement starts and flat accelleration from a stop, I started them on a very slightly inclined parking lot so they could get used to the car starting to move backward when they let off the brake and get over the initial panic response that follows when you've been driving an auto your whole life.

From there, I move to more and more inclined roads-
For about an hour, they did nothing but start from a stop on an incline, go forward about 30 feet, stop, roll backward and repeat.

Once they were feeling good about this, I turned the car around and made them do the same in reverse, starting on the moderate incline working to the steep incline.

Once this was mastered, they got to un-parallel park, facing downhill. Bring some traffic cones to simulate the other cars.

I will add, that this was all in a 1990 prelude, not my 6MT sedan.