club.liberty.asn.au

Hey guys and girls,

Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I've got an '04 Liberty 3.0RB, and compared to other manual cars I have driven its quite different... I find it very difficult to get a smooth gearshift, even when driving quite gently. Even after driving it 10k kms I still struggle to shift consistently smoothly. I have never had this issue in other manuals I have driven (forester, outback, troopy, golf). It just seems like the revs drop too quickly. Is this a known "feature" of the engine in this car? Or is it more likely that the previous owner has installed a lighter flywheel, heavier clutch, etc? Its to the point where I would actually consider going to an Auto for my next car, just very frustrating.

Cheers.

I hear your pain! Yes the manual H6 is a challenging car to drive right. I've had mine (a 2005) since new and the drive by wire was very difficult to get use to. That and the lack of of torque down low makes it a hard to get moving smoothly and quickly. The H6 may have a light flywheel and that dosen't help but the designers wanted it to rev smoothly and quickly which is what a flat boxer engine can do well, look at the Porsche.

Keep at it and you will get better at it, match the revs and use the rev range to your advantage.

Rob.

I found that to get a smooth shift to second you need at least 3500rpm otherwise it is always jerky. The other changes don't seem to matter as much though and after my tune it seems to be much easier to get a smoother shift presumably due to the extra low range torque

All of you need an ECU tune to fix that horrible throttle mapping.

Contact Matt (throttlehappy) and save yourselves from burning clutches, frustration and from bad fuel economy and engine pinging.

I've always thought this and wondered if it was just me!
The wifes car is a manual and when I jump in that the shifting is totally different, alot easier.

The ECU tune is good news, I'm guessing Matt is pretty busy, but yeah, totally keen on getting that done soon.

I have similar issues with my H6 (stock tune 06 MY07 Liberty 3.0RB) I found that unless the revs are up around 3.5/4k the shifts can be a bit clunky. To make the shifts smoother at low RPM, i kinda let the clutch sit on the bite point for a second or 2 and then release the clutch. I find this gives the engine time to match the wheel rotation and allows for a smooth shift, can usually tell by the RPM gauge.

Plan on getting a tune at some point which sounds like it should help.
Also my clutch is pretty new, only done around 1500km since it was replaced. Still not thrashing it around yet...

The difference between a stock map and the tune from Matt is like night and day in terms of driveability The stock dbw is not that clever.

SpeedFreak wrote: To make the shifts smoother at low RPM, i kinda let the clutch sit on the bite point for a second or 2 and then release the clutch.

That's the best advice I was ever given before I got my license, and has helped for smoother changes in every car I've driven since, though about 1/4 sec is usually enough. That is of course unless I'm racing

Understand the original posters comments.

A retune and so much of that problem disappears.