KeeganGiannoni

I purchased a stock 2004 s2k with 32k miles about 4 months ago and it is now my DD. The only previous owner was an old couple who just leisurely drove it on the weekends, so it has never been raced/pushed to the limits. Although I was told by several people not to have this as my first manual car, an s2k is what I wanted so thats what I got.

I know this is extremely subjective, but what overall wear and tear should I look out for in my first year of learning to drive a manual? Should I be worried about damaging anything significantly? My shifts are generally still not smooth(hoping that will go away by about month 6 as I am already way better than when I started), I have grinded gears while shifting probably about 5 times, I over-revved ONCE because it popped out of 2nd gear on me, but it was for less than a second(guessing 9k rev tops) and I am going for a compression test tomorrow to check that out. Up until about 3 weeks ago I was down shifting without rev matching, which I have now learned to rev match and I am getting that down pretty quick. I have read tons of threads on this site and it's almost an overwhelming amount of information to take in all at once. Any general tips for someone new to driving a manual(s2k specific) would be much appreciated(even though I'm sure its been posted a million times, it's easier to collect it in my own thread).

And btw, half the reason I bought the car was because of this site, lol. Having this as a resource is an amazing thing. I'm glad to be a part of the community!

Jacksparrow

I think you should be fine, the s2000 was my first manual car(I got it back in 08)and I havent had to replace anything, but then again it depends on the driver. If you didnt do a money shift your car should be fine, if it just popped out of 2nd and you accidently hit the rev limiter in neutral it wont harm anything. Anyways welcome and enjoy

oldlostcory

I don't have a s2k yet, but I learned on an Integra with 32k miles. I did a lot of the things you mentioned. The first day I had it i was so bad with it that you could smell the clutch horribly. 90k miles and 8 years later and i'm still on the original clutch with zero issues. I think you'll be ok.

retvet

I have been driving manual shift cars for just under 50 years--from Alfas, to Audis, to BMWs, Fiats and Ferraris; done lots of autocrossing and spent some time at Laguna Seca (just fun stuff). I would suggest, until you get comfortable with your timing, to consider the following. Consider double clutching initially. This will reduce and/or eliminate your grinds. This is done by pushing in on the clutch pedal, then moving the shifter to neutral. Release the clutch pedal, then push it back in (remaining in neutral). Now shift into the next gear. With some practice you can get pretty fast at it.
I very rarely try to speed shift my S2K as I rarely find a need to--unless you are racing or just want to feel the max accelleration.
I rarely downshift. That is something you would do in autocrossing or racing. I find no reason to so coming to a stop sign. Downshifting can be problematic. You must blip the gas pedal to increase the the rpm's to match those in the lower gear. And Honda does not recommend you bypass any gears when downshifting--but I would think there would be little problem if you do so double-clutching.

Hope this helps.

Not Sure

Driving a manual isn't rocket surgery. Unless it's already in bad shape you'll learn how to drive it correctly long before you wear anything out.

Fredster

the only real hard part about driving manual is taking off (launch), the rest shouldn't be too complicated. when changing gears just fully clutch and shift gears, do so slowly. i would stay away from down shifting until you fully feel comfortable with driving manual. but your tranny should be fine, grinding gears shouldn't be a biggy, but try avoiding it.. you might burn out your clutch sooner than expected though.. other than that just be very careful on mis shifting, that can become very costly.. if you did over-rev make sure you get that compression test done as well as a leakdown test. is your car an AP1? anyway here's a good technique on a backhand shift from 3rd to 4th

Fuman

I did a transmission fluid change when I was done learning.

jonathanyip343

That's what i do from 5th to 6th , or reverse . I don't think it will help from 3rd to 4th

Fredster

well don't think to hard my friend because this technique actually does help for those certain gears.

nofearofdanger

The backhand definitely helps you avoid the infamous 2nd instead of 4th mis-shift.