Can you really ever gear change too much?

Well in my experience if you're changing gear for no apparent reason then it is of course too much, but if your gear corresponds to your situation then it's fine. e.g. if your speed varies a fair bit then your gears will need to be shifted correspondingly.

So my question is, can you really ever gear change too much? I’m just baffled that I’ve had that comment thrown at me by mum, but I’m genuinely curious if one can really do that....

Gears should be changed depending on five factors:

1. Engine characteristics
2. Current RPMs
3. How quick acceleration or deceleration do you need
4. Are you going on flat ground, hillclimbing or descending
5. Is the car heavily loaded or not.

How to interpret that:
1. Every engine reaches maximum torque and maximum power at different RPMs. Generally speaking, when accelerating gently or going uphill you should use RPMs up to those of maximum torque. When you're going stable speed, it's better to stay a little lower. In gasoline engines you should usually maintain rpms between 2-3k when driving gently.

2. From what has been said above, you can conclude you actually need to monitor RPMs to know if you need to shift-up or kick-down.

3. If you don't need to accelerate quickly you should maintain low-rpms, as has been said above. But if you need rapid acceleration, eg. when accelerating on a slip-road, you should kick-down to get engine rpms between those of maximum torque and maximum power. To get maximum acceleration you should be going full throttle up to rpms of maximum power, and only then shift up. That way your engine produces much more power, but also, because you're using the lower gear, that has shorter ratio, engine rpms are converted to produce even more torque at the wheels. That combined gives you much better acceleration.

On the other hand, the engine also serves as a brake. The higher the rpms, the more rapidly engine will decelerate your car when you get your foot off the throttle. This is usefull especially in the mountains, when using brakes only can cause brakes to overheat and result in brakes failure.

4. Generally when you hillclimb, you might need slightly higher rpms, closer to those of maximum torque of your engine.
When you're going downhill, everything depends on how fast do you want to go. If you want to acceleate, you can shift up to a very high gear, like even 5 or 6 and then your call will accelerate downhill without using the throttle. As a result you will accelerate using no fuel, as ECU will detect negative load and cut fuel injectors off.
If you wish to decelate, you shuld stay on a lower gear, or you might even wish to kick down, to get higher engine rpms, and then get stronger braking effect from the engine. You will still save fuel, as ECU will detect negative load, and cut off the fuel.

5. Well, as above. I think it's obvious now.

In my experience I find myself changing gears much more often when driving a small engined petrol car than a larger engined diesel. What car did you learn to drive in? What car does your Mum own?

In terms of fuel economy and driveshaft and clutch health, yes you can.

In terms of fuel economy and driveshaft and clutch health, yes you can.

Fuel economy is more likely to suffer if you change gears too rarely, while clutch and driveshaft don't suffer anything if you make changes properly.

Hi all.

Just wanted to ask something that’s been bugging me for a while. I’ve passed my driving test around 2.5 years ago. Haven’t driven in around 9 months due to an accident, and not having the funds to get a car, and getting over the accident, etc.

Anyway, in the past my mum has always said I apparently ‘gear change too much’ and she’s also recently said it when I mentioned that I was planning on getting some driving lessons to rebuild my confidence again. TBH I didn’t really query into it when she said it recently as we were out having something to eat, and didn’t want to cause a scene/argument. No one apart from my mum has ever commented on my gear change when I had my old car.

So my question is, can you really ever gear change too much? I’m just baffled that I’ve had that comment thrown at me by mum, but I’m genuinely curious if one can really do that....

(Also, I’m not wanting to get into an argument about this, but just want everyone’s thoughts. Also sorry if I’ve posted this into the wrong section )

It probably depends a lot on the car and the situation. I'm currently learning and switching between two cars (an instructor's and my parents'), and one is petrol and one is diesel. The diesel one is far more forgiving in terms of gear choice - it's basically happy anywhere between 20mph and 40mph in third, and 30 to 60 in fourth. On the other hand, in the petrol car there is usually only one suitable gear for a given situation - third starts just below 20mph and I usually want to shift up by 30, and then fourth is basically only useable between 30 and the low 40s.

Unless you're changing for no reason, it's probably fine. If anything it's better to change more if it means you have better control of the car, than to be lazy and possibly put the engine in a rev range it's not all that happy being in. This is what shifting too much looks like.

Sure, but that's not to say you can't change too often either. Too often would generally mean changing when you probably shouldn't.

This is what shifting too much looks like.