Shifting into reverse...

[mckraut]

Sorry for the delay in answering. I posted this on my lunch break, and just now got home from work.


Ok, this is one of those moments you just have to suffer the embarassment and man-up. Yep, ok, I'm an idiot. Did I read the manual before driving? Hell no. Drove MANY sticks in my life, and I never knew this.

So go ahead, make fun of me. haha I deserve it. Hell I'd make fun of me too in this case.

Geez I feel like a retard....

<crawls under a rock>



BTW, thanks guys for telling me how to properly do it.

I won't make fun of you and I wouldn't listen to anyone that does end up teasing you. At this point I'm:

A. Glad nothing is truly wrong with your car.
and
B. Surprised the ******* sales person didn't go over this with you. Granted it's in the manual (maybe, god knows I haven't read the whole thing), but come on, it's a six speed! Give this man 2 minutes worth of your time and tell him how reverse works!

Enjoy the new wheels my friend and welcome to the boards!

 

[vhayne]

Holy God!!! It's SO easy!!!! I just went out and tried it!! Wow!!

Luckily I've only had to actually go into reverse maybe a dozen times so far.

 

[knowledge007]

Lmao...

 

[jlocurto]

haha thats alright
this is my first car that is stick
and the first day i got it the guy never showed me how to go in reverse... so im trying to back out of a spot and my dad is next to me
and i put the car in first like 10 times and im like WTF why am i going forward?!
and my dad starts laughing at me and tells me that i have to push it down...
man did i feel like a retard especially with my girlfriend in the car lol

 

[phillyb]

haha thats alright
this is my first car that is stick
and the first day i got it the guy never showed me how to go in reverse... so im trying to back out of a spot and my dad is next to me
and i put the car in first like 10 times and im like WTF why am i going forward?!
and my dad starts laughing at me and tells me that i have to push it down...
man did i feel like a retard especially with my girlfriend in the car lol

hahahahahahah, wow

 

[jdm justin]

lol, def. get big respect points for owning up to your mistake. (bowdown)

 

[Olestra]

lol, def. get big respect points for owning up to your mistake. (bowdown)

Agreed.

The only reason why I know that a reverse shift lockout exists is b/c my brother owns a VW Jetta 5 sp. I never understood why crazy Germans put reverse on the left side when the 6th spot on the gear shifter was empty.

 

[phillyb]

Agreed.

The only reason why I know that a reverse shift lockout exists is b/c my brother owns a VW Jetta 5 sp. I never understood why crazy Germans put reverse on the left side when the 6th spot on the gear shifter was empty.

hahahaha, i've often wondered why that is also...
wtf is the point of having 4 gears on top and 2 gears on the bottom...it just looked odd


WEIRD

 

[15min5k]

Massive fail. That is all

 

[dandydaniel]

I remember when my reverse was all weird. I would push down and it only went down like a few millimeters. And then one day I was driving, I couldn't get into reverse and the gears felt unnotchy and long. This is what happened....
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123716721

damnit.. honestly, i've recently been running into the exact same problems as you. my first and reverse won't move up, they'll just crunch up initially and only move like 2cm towards the gear. I then have to go back to neutral and do it over again and then it will slip in. hopefully my damn shift rod doesn't snap in half like it did on yours...

 

[strytnyne]

lol dont feel bad when i drove mine home from the dealership, i was hoping i didnt accidently shift into reverse then when i parked, i was like " WTH isnt it reversing. then i accidently push the knob down....-_-"

 

[kneedragger241]

At least we don't have a ring you have to pull up like older SAABs had.

 

[Frisco speed3]

My dad kept trying to take off from third cause he thought he was in reverse when it was in the first position. He has a class A liscence and can drive 13 speed big rigs! WTF? So dont feel to bad. And dont let your dad drive your car or youll make his SL 500 feel over priced.

 

[Rotus8]

A few years back my Mother rented a VW and couldn't figure out the reverse lockout. She was parked in a diagonal parking space so she was stuck. So, she just put it in first and drove into the curb in front and it bounced backward off the curb. Three goes, and she was far enough out to drive off. Later she called me and I explained how to shift the thing.

 

[viper117630]

I didnt know about the whole push down to get into reverse thing either. For the test drive I looked like an idiot because I kept putting it in first. The woman came out and was like "I can show you how to do it". She stalled it 5 times trying to show me and all i needed to know was that I needed to push it down.

 

[happy and angry]

I actually went out and tried to go all the way over between 5th and 6th and then pull it over to reverse real quick, and I was surprised that it worked. No banging or crunching or the sounds of the reverse lockout breaking. Huh. Not that I'll do that again but:

Don't feel too bad about doing it wrong. You were honest about it at least, which is good. It's the kind of thing anyone might not know or pick up from somewhere else before driving their first 6-speed.

This doesn't mean I'm not sort of laughing at you a little, though.

 

[Falango]

Ok so the OP feels embarassed because of the reverse lock, but why didn't the dealer/previous owner show him this??? I'm sure if a salesguy doesn't show a customer this, they will see alot of them come back with ruined shift linkage and some other randomly bent parts.

 

[phillyb]

yeah. it sounds like your delivery sucked
still not the dealership's 'fault' meaning if you did come in with broken parts because you didn't know how to put the car in reverse, they would take no pity on you.

not knowing how to put the car in reverse is negligence

 

[oaklandopen]

op was just doing the same thing i have to do in my 6sp tacoma...only that one really is meant to be thrown as far left as possible to put it in revers. there's no safety catch or anything like that, just a higher pressure spring you have to overcome. so mostly i go all the way right to where 5th and 6th is, get some momentum in the 7inches it has to go, and throw it left and up.

personally i woulda liked the ms3 to have a ring like i think subaru has

 

[Falango]

Ya the lift ring makes it obvious. If you try to put it in reverse, and it doesn't go, you always kinda look at the shifter thinking "wtf, GO!!!"....then you see the ring and think oh my bad, lol.