When to Shift Gears in a 6-Speed Manual? Our Guide and Explanation

In short, you should shift in a 6-speed manual transmission between 2000 and 2500 RPM if you want to get the best gas mileage and avoid engine damage. But if you want to drive actively, you will need to take that RPM range higher - to about 3500 or 4000 RPM depending on the road condition and your needs.

Manual transmission use tips highlights

• Level of importance:High
• Problem prevention:Maintenance, careful driving
• Needed expertise:No
• Needed tools:No tools
• Time taken:1-2 hours for practicing or learning
• Possible issues:Transmission failure, overloading, overheating, destroying gears, burning clutch.

The golden rule - shift at 2500 RPM

If you don't know when you need to shift in a new car with a manual transmission, the best rule is to shift at about 2500 RPM. At this point, the engine is still not revving up like crazy but already has developed the needed power and torque to shift to the higher gear. This is the optimal RPM range for shifting from any gear to the higher one.

But you should also know that some engines will require different shifting patterns. For example, you will not need to rotate diesel engines to 2500 RPM to shift. They are OK to shift at 2000 RPM, in most cases, because their peak torque is available much earlier.

Also, V6 and V8 engines are OK to work at a lower range of RPMs. Although you will not kill or damage them if you shift at 2500 RPM, this may feel like a pretty sporty driving style. And you may want to shift at 2200 RPM or even lower.

But we don't know any V6 or V8 cars that would come with manual transmissions now. So, in most cases, this is all about the 4-cylinder engine that may also be equipped with a turbocharger. So, the rule of 2500 RPM sounds quite all-purpose and good to follow.

Early shifting in a 6-speed transmission - why is it bad?

Driving a car with a 6-speed manual transmission, you may think that the vehicle needs to be shifted to higher gears more often to use the entire range of gears. But this is a very destructive habit.

When you shift too early, the engine has not developed the optimal power and torque. And this will lead to overloads and maybe even overheating. Step by step, this condition will damage your engine and eventually, it will start burning some oil and losing its power.

Here are some of the possible consequences:

• low RPM range will lead to poor lubrication because the oil pump doesn't work very efficiently at a low range of revolutions;
• once you shift to a higher gear, it's more complicated for the engine to maintain the acceleration if the RPM is low;
• this affects the cylinder block of the engine, mainly, the piston rings may go bad;
• this situation increases the chance of rod bearings failure because of overloading;
• the valves may suffer because of poor oil pressure - the pump just doesn't create the needed pressure at low RPM;
• the car will seem to have low power and slow acceleration, so you will press the gas pedal harder and the consumption will grow.

So, eventually, you get a high risk of engine damage, poor lubrication, bad gas mileage, bad efficiency of your engine, and low power. Doesn't seem like a good habit to shift your 6-speed manual transmission too early.

Although it may seem that 2500 RPM is too high for your engine, just keep shifting your transmission at this level to keep the engine safe from damage and to ensure the gas mileage is optimal.

What if I shift my manual transmission too late?

This is another problem that may also lead to problems. After reading the previous section of this article, you may have thought "OK, now I will shift at over 3000 RPM to clearly avoid these issues with poor lubrication and power loss!" But this is also a bad strategy.

You may shift at 3500-4000 RPM if you want some sporty feelings right at the moment but shifting at this revolutions range all the time may lead to even worse problems.

Here's what happens:

• the engine goes mad and all the systems just can't catch up with this speed;
• the oil pump becomes less efficient;
• the cooling system can't cool the overheating engine;
• the cylinders change their shape and become oval;
• the engine starts burning more oil than usual;
• the fuel consumption skyrockets making gas mileage really miserable;
• the vibrations may lead to extra damage to different equipment;
• there is a risk of immediate engine death when rotating over 5000 RPM.

So, not all engines are OK to rotate over 5000 RPM. If you have an engine that is made for sports, that should be OK. But an average 4-cylinder engine will most likely be wearing extensively once it rotates to that range of revolutions.

Poor lubrication and bad cooling will do their job and gradually or even immediately kill the engine.

Now you know that shifting at too high RPM is not much better than shifting at too low revolutions.

How to understand the best shifting RPM for your car?

Unfortunately, all engines will have their optimal shifting, so you should experiment. Drive in different modes and see when you get the best gas mileage and the vehicle drives as smoothly as possible. This will be the optimal RPM range.

Also, you may want to look at speed rather than at RPM. Overall, drivers aren't used to looking at the tachometer, so they will mostly feel lost when trying to use my recommendations on RPM and shifting. But looking at the speedometer is quite a usual thing for all of us. So, you may build a system of shifting according to the speed of your car.

For example, the speed-oriented pattern may look like this:

• 5 MPH - second gear;
• 25 MPH - third gear;
• 40 MPH - fourth gear;
• 55 MPH - fifth gear;
• 65 MPH - sixth gear.

If you are driving on a highway at the constant speed of 55 MPH, you may go to the sixth gear and the vehicle will be OK with that driving at about 2000-2200 RPM or something like that. Anything that's higher than 60 MPH will require the highest possible gear for fuel economy. But constant driving with 1600-1800 RPM should not be your strategy.

Should I target fuel economy or engine life?

With your six-speed manual transmission, you may actually target both. You may find the shifting pattern that ensures the best fuel economy. In most cases, this will be exactly the pattern that ensures the longest engine life. Why? Because if your engine uses less fuel, it means that it's comfortable with the conditions of driving.

So, your 6-speed manual transmission allows you to drive with the highest possible gas mileage and the lowest risk of engine damage. Remember that when you shift too late or too early, your gas mileage deteriorates, so you will need to adjust something.

But also, the gas mileage depends on how fast you accelerate, or on how hard you press the gas pedal. So, try experimenting with the speed of your acceleration to adjust the fuel economy.

You should also target the EPA estimated fuel economy for your car. If it says that your vehicle can go 25 MPG in the city, you should take it for your goal. If you get much less, then something is not good with the shifting or with the driving style. Of course, this will work if everything works well in your engine and there are no technical issues.

Six-speed transmission in the city - how to drive it?

In most cities, you will get low speed limits of 25 MPH for residential districts. So, you will not be able to use the fifth and the sixth gear. The optimal gear for driving in a city is the fourth gear. But even this one is too high sometimes.

The best gear for a certain road situation depends on the speed of traffic. 25 MPH is usually a border speed for the fourth gear in a 6-speed manual transmission. So, maybe you should sacrifice some drops of fuel and drive in the third ear getting more flexibility from your engine working at the range of RPM over 2000.

Of course, you will still need to take into account the type of engine in your car. While a V6 or just a big-displacement engine will be OK to drive at a lower-than-2000 RPM range, the small 3 or 4-cylinder unit will require higher revolutions.

After you get some experience with your manual transmission, you will feel when you shift too early or too late and will be able to adjust the patterns. But now, if you still don't know how to shift in your car, just use my recommendations given above.