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Issue with changing up to 5th gear?

Most of the time I’m driving along in 4th and when I try to go into 5th, I end up putting it in 3rd by accident😬 With this be a serious fault on the test?
Reply 1
Avatar for maeger
maeger
6
No, I did it on my test, I just rather quickly and "safely" put the clutch in and changed it to fifth.
Only if you actually put it into 3rd and then come off the clutch, as this can cause a lot of drag on the car which can slow it down quite harshly depending on how quickly you come off the clutch - add to that you don't have your foot on the brake so your brake lights don't come on, and this could potentially be dangerous. So make sure you've got it in the right gear before you come off the clutch. If you do that, no fault will be given.
Reply 3
Avatar for iMZee
iMZee
8
A tip i use is to put some slight pressure to the right before taking it out of 4th, that way when you push up it will slot into 5th with ease.
You've identified it as a problem for you, so practice over and over. Find a stretch of road that's fairly quiet and get yourself up to 4th then just keep swapping between 4th and 5th at an appropriate speed. Soon it'll be almost impossible to go into the wrong gear - though never completely impossible, as even the most professional of drivers make mistakes.
Reply 5
Avatar for maeger
maeger
6
As long as you aren't doing stupidly high revs in 4th, besides the obvious unnecessary wear, it shouldn't be a problem, and you know as soon as you've done it. I've "mis shifted" from 4th to 3rd at 80mph, making the engine just bang off the rev limiter, but I didn't crash or die.

But yeah, I did 4th to 3rd in my driving test by accident, I must have been doing like 50-60ish mph, it was barely noticable, the car was pretty quiet. I just put it into 5th, nothing was said, and I passed.
Original post by Panickingdiscos
Most of the time I’m driving along in 4th and when I try to go into 5th, I end up putting it in 3rd by accident😬 With this be a serious fault on the test?


i used to do this out of nervousness. You have to take your tine with putting the gear stick slowly to the right and then up, take your time with the gear change
This is exactly the one thing I wasn't getting right until I'd had a couple of hours behind the wheel. Just keep practicing, and as someone said above applying a tiny bit of pressure to the right as you're coming out of 4th is how I've always done it and is just second nature now.

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