Car owners usually skip gears mainly to save time or because of driving habit, without being aware of how it damages their vehicles in certain cases.
When should you slide through gears?
Of course, old cars are definitely not made to switch quickly. The classic design often goes with three-speed gearbox, which cannot adapt to sudden changes when driver skips the gear either from 1st to 3rd or vice versa.
Skipping gear is not recommended for older models
Besides, repeated actions of skipping gears, most seriously in case of 3 or even 4 levels skipped, can result in badly damaged engine as the vales are unintentionally put in contact with pistons as a result of the over-rev condition. In case you use a new clutch, other than eating the remnants of clutch lining, the damage might be lessened.
When can you skip gears?
In contrary to the above situations, skipping gears may not do harm to your auto of modern design which often uses five-speed transmission onwards. If you are about to enter a highway, feel free to shift from the 2nd to 4th without hesitation.
However, make sure you wait for a little bit before releasing the clutch. The reason is that when you move from the 2nd to 4th, the rev will experience a drop from high to low, and the transmission needs some time to match to it. The other way round, if you are going to switch from 4th gear to 2nd gear, push the clutch before switching the gears so that the clutch speed can adjust to the engine speed.
Clutch control is important while skipping gears
Is it applicable to a standstill car?
If you want to start a car from a halt, you can skip the 1st gear while still need to bear in mind that clutch’s and engine’s speed must match with each other. Let the clutch out at 1st gear then wait a few seconds to switch to the next gear. In these cases, skipping gears aren’t harmful to the engine but the clutch may wear out more easily.
To grab the right way to skip gears for manual transmission, watch the video below!
Is it okay to skip gears?
