So I’ve been driving a 6mt for about a month now and I’m just wondering if I’m doing it wrong.I heard from previous G and z owners that they press the clutch halfway in and shift and have no problems and I noticed by doing that I get a massive clunk or notchy ness from 1st to 2nd.Its not a grind but more like a big clunk but when I press the clutch in all the way to the floor I don’t get this?

 

You're shifting wrong and harshly engaging the gears, a proper gearshift NEVER involves powering the input shaft while shifting.

No offense but this is basically a "learn to shift" problem.

Speed shifting is basically pulling the shifter to neutral during the time it takes to completely disengage the clutch then pulling from neutral to the next gear. It takes a little practice but you should be able to drop the clutch pedal to the floor in the time it takes to completely pull to the next gear, then quickly lift while accelerating to rev-match the next gear. This whole process takes a fraction of a second.

Obviously this is track-use shifting and not how you would normally shift.

Things like flat-foot shifting ECM mods will be different. Same with ignition-interrupt sequential shifting.

For NORMAL STREET USE however you should try to FEEL the gear synchro engaging to keep any shift engagement issues to a minimum and REV-MATCH to the next gear. This is proper technique to maximize clutch/drivetrain longevity. You should be able to find youtube video's to explain these techniques but if you can't find any I'm happy to explain in more detail if you need.

I understand you're LEARNING how to properly drive a manual but imo it's far more beneficial to learn to drive it for LONGEVITY rather than TRACK PERFORMANCE. Clutches are a time-consuming replacement (not necessarily expensive if you have a career job but this is also an issue for people on a tight budget due to <insert reason here>, plus it takes TIME and that is the same as money in most cases) and learning to maximize the life of the clutch, even a multi-puck high torque clutch, is worth it's weight in gold in the long run.

For longevity, if you are shifting properly, you won't feel the car "pull" or "push" between shifts, it will be completely smooth and seamless. In real-world practice this is impossible to nail EVERY TIME but it's what you should be aiming for. This means you are properly rev-matching the transmission to the engine and the clutch doesn't have to slip to make up the difference. Track use you are slipping a LOT and the extra clutch wear is worth the few precious seconds you make up on your timeslip because the winnings ($$$) justify the extra wear.

Again, no offense intended, I want you to be a great DRIVER, and having proper technique is essential.

 

Also, this is basically advice for a vehicle in 100% condition. As the transmission wears one of the first things to show actual signs of wear are the gear synchro's. As the edges get slightly burred over the dozens of miles and as the bearings don't match input shaft rpm's the synchro's become harder to match the rpm of the next gear. This leads to a condition where the transmission will "clunk" into a gear, or the shifter will FEEL like it doesn't want to go into the next gear until revs are properly matched.

This is due to a couple conditions that all relate to the same cause, cause being ABUSE of the transmission. Nearly all manual transmissions are abused, this is purely historical FACT at this point. People want gear changes to be FAST and FAST = Increased wear on the synchronizers (look up a video on how they work and it will probably make a lot more sense). Once the synchro's are worn the gear will engage very harshly unless you compensate by oil viscosity. You can band-aid this along for a LONG time but inevitably you will need a rebuild, as will all moving parts.

However, unless you have a receipt showing when the transmission was serviced last you should DEFINITELY replace the fluid. Worn tranny fluid will cause a lot of issues, usually synchronizing issues. Personally I had excellent results using the Redline MT - 75W90 oil on my previous 6MT with bad synchro's. They were bad when I bought the car and I swapped fluid every 20k miles and had almost no issues with it, however I don't drive much in the winter, if you DO winter driving you should probably stick with the "MT-85" which is a 75W85 oil otherwise it might be hard to get into gear on a cold winter transmission until it heats up after 15+ minutes of driving.