Gears

Ladjacket

Just wondering if someone could help on this. Whilst out in my lessons and if I am in 4th gear approaching a junction in the distance the instructor will tell me to slow down to about 20 kph and put it into 2nd gear.

However someone else has told me today that if you are in 4th or 5th and need to come down to 2nd, you would need to go from 5-4-3-2 rather than straight to 2nd.

Can anyone advise?

chin_grin

If you're in fourth slowing down you'll need to gauge by the revs if you can gear straight down to second or gear down sequentially so you don't cut out/stall. So it's pretty much up to yourself. Both are right.

Nonoperational

You can go straight to 2nd no problem.

Alanstrainor

You can do both. They're both perfectly acceptable for the test. But really going straight to second is the preferred way of doing things. There really is no need to go to third when slowing down, and most probably stopping.

DaveyDriving

I would agree . Slow the car down with the foot brake then change from 4 straight to 2, off the clutch and drive on slowly to your junction. I would use this for left and right turns and for yielding at roundabouts but where you are approaching a T junction where you know you will have to stop I (providing the car can handle it) would try to stop in the gear I am driving in and just change down when I actually come to a rest, just using the foot brake as I approach the junction. However if the car starts to struggle then obviously you will need to change down.

Jimbob 83

Something worth considering is alot of instructors cars now have small oddly geared diesel cars like fiesta's or Corsa's which have a very long 1st gear and a fairly short second, in the case of these where in a normal petrol car 1st is just a gear to move off and 2nd is your first driving gear it's abit odd as changing to second gear while in slow traffic or turning out of a junction left say the car will stutter in low rev's in the much shorter second gear.

Hope this helps