Clutch control, gears and stalling: driving a manual car as a learner

Most learners worry about the clutch more than anything else in the first few lessons, and most of them stop worrying by lesson five. The clutch only does one thing. Once you know what that is, stalling, rolling back and jerky gear changes all have the same few causes.

What the clutch does

The clutch connects the engine to the wheels. Pedal right down: they are disconnected, the engine runs on its own and you can change gear. Pedal right up: they are joined, and the engine drives the car. Everything in between is the plates slipping against each other, passing some of the engine's power through and not all of it. Driving a manual well is mostly about that middle part.

The biting point

As you lift the pedal slowly from the floor there is a point where the plates start to touch and the engine begins to pull. You will hear the engine note drop a little and feel the front of the car lift or the car strain against the handbrake. That is the biting point, or bite.

It is in a different place in every car, and it moves as a clutch wears. Find it in your car on a flat, quiet road: handbrake on, clutch down, first gear, a little gas, then lift the clutch slowly until you hear the change. Hold the pedal still there. Push it back down. Do it ten times until your foot finds it without you thinking.

Moving off on the flat

Instructors teach it in three parts, often called POM: prepare, observe, move.

• Prepare. Clutch down, select first, set a little gas, bring the clutch up to the biting point and hold it there.
• Observe. Mirrors, then the blind spot over your shoulder. Signal if anyone would benefit from it.
• Move. Handbrake off. Keep the clutch still for a moment as the car starts to roll, then lift it the rest of the way slowly while you add a little more gas.

The most common mistake is lifting the clutch off the bite too quickly once the car is moving. The car jerks or the engine stalls. The second most common is doing the observations before setting the bite and then taking so long with the clutch that the road behind has changed. Look again just before the car moves if it has been a few seconds.

Moving off uphill and downhill

Uphill the car needs more gas and a slightly higher biting point to hold it against the slope. Prepare as normal, then bring the clutch up until you feel the car pull against the handbrake, the bonnet rise slightly and the engine note drop clearly. Only then release the handbrake. If the car starts to roll back, the clutch is not high enough: footbrake, handbrake on, and set it again.

Downhill the slope does the work. Many instructors teach holding the car on the footbrake, selecting first (or second on a steep slope, if your instructor prefers), releasing the handbrake, then moving your foot from the brake and bringing the clutch up smoothly.

The hill start page has the full routine, the faults it attracts and what to do if the car rolls back.

Why cars stall, and how to recover

An engine stalls when it is asked to turn the wheels with too little power. Almost every stall comes from one of four things:

• the clutch came up too fast from the biting point;
• too little gas for the slope or the load;
• you braked to a stop without pressing the clutch down;
• the gear was too high for the speed (pulling away in third, or slowing to walking pace in third).

Recovering is a routine, and doing it calmly matters more than the stall itself:

1. Footbrake, and handbrake on if you are stopped.
2. Clutch down, select neutral.
3. Restart the engine.
4. Look all round again before you move off. The situation behind you has changed while you were restarting.

On the test, examiners mark the result of a stall, not the stall itself. A stall you recover from calmly, in a safe place, is usually recorded as a minor fault. Rolling back towards someone, stalling in the path of traffic and not dealing with it safely, or stalling repeatedly, is where it becomes serious.

Changing up

Change up when the engine sounds busy and the car is still picking up speed. As a rough guide in a typical petrol car: second at about 10 to 15 mph, third at about 20 to 25, fourth at about 30 to 35, fifth above 40. Every car is different; diesels pull from lower revs and many cars show an arrow on the dashboard when to change.

The movement is: gas off, clutch down, change gear, clutch up smoothly, gas back on. Keep your eyes on the road, not on the gear lever. Use a flat palm: the lever is sprung towards the middle of the gate, so from second to third you push forward and let it slide across on its own. Grabbing the knob and steering it round leads to finding the wrong gear.

Changing down and block changing

Use the brakes to slow down and the gears to go. Slow to the speed you need with the footbrake first, then choose the gear for that speed. You do not have to go down through every gear. If you are slowing from 40 mph in fifth to turn left at a junction, brake to the speed for the turn, then select second directly. DVSA's driving guidance calls this selective gear changing; instructors call it block changing. It is not a fault, and it saves you changing gear while you are turning.

Changing down too early, at too high a speed, makes the engine scream and the car lurch. Changing down too late leaves you in a gear that labours or stalls at the bottom of the turn.

Coasting

Coasting is driving along with the clutch held down or the gear in neutral. Highway Code rule 122 explains why it reduces your control: the engine no longer helps you slow down, speed builds quickly downhill, you lean harder on the brakes, the steering responds differently and it can be hard to pick the right gear when you need one.

The usual habit behind it is pressing the clutch down too early when slowing for a junction, then turning the corner with it still down. Brake first, keep the clutch up until the car is nearly at the speed where it would judder, then press it. When you stop, press it down just before the car stops.

Examiners mark coasting under control. A learner who habitually rolls round corners with the clutch down picks up a minor each time, and a few of those in the same box can add up to a serious fault.

Clutch control at walking pace

In slow queues and in manoeuvres you control the speed with the clutch, not the gas. Keep a little steady gas, hold the clutch around the biting point, and lift it a fraction to creep forward, press it a fraction to slow. Add the footbrake if you need to stop. This is what lets a reverse bay park happen at a walking pace instead of in bursts.

Do not rest your foot on the clutch pedal while driving normally. Riding the clutch wears it and leaves it partly slipping.

What the examiner marks

The driving test report has a Control section with boxes for the accelerator, clutch, gears, footbrake, parking brake and steering, and a Move off section for doing it safely and under control. The faults that land in them for manual drivers are usually:

• stalling, and stalling again on the next attempt;
• rolling back when moving off uphill;
• jerky changes, or looking down at the gear lever;
• the wrong gear for the speed, so the engine labours or over-revs;
• coasting into junctions and round corners;
• moving off with the handbrake still on.

Practising with PassRank

The hill start drill teaches the order: bite, then handbrake, then move, and it marks rolling back and stalling. It uses one drive bar instead of a real clutch, so it trains the sequence rather than the feel.

In PassRank's 3D drives you can choose Manual on the setup card. You get a clutch pedal and a gear lever on screen, the engine stalls if the clutch comes up too fast, and the car starts in neutral with the handbrake on when it is parked on a hill. It is good for practising the routine, the gear for each speed and recovering from a stall without panic. It cannot teach your foot where the biting point is in your car. That comes from the car and your instructor.

Thinking about an automatic instead? See driving an automatic car for what changes and what the licence lets you drive.