Can a Manual Transmission Skip Gears When Upshifting?
4 Answers
Manual transmission can skip gears when upshifting, but skipping gears means you need to accelerate aggressively, rapidly increasing the engine speed in a short time. This places a significant burden on the engine and is not beneficial for its longevity. Additionally, sudden acceleration reduces ride comfort. In contrast, smooth acceleration with sequential upshifting allows the vehicle to speed up steadily, causing no harm to the engine while providing better ride comfort. A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox (MT), requires the driver to manually shift gears by moving the gear lever, which changes the gear engagement inside the transmission and alters the gear ratio to achieve speed variation.
From a mechanical principle standpoint, it's possible but not recommended as a regular practice. My understanding is that when you shift directly from third gear to fifth gear, the excessive RPM drop causes the engine to suddenly fall into a low-rev zone. It feels like suddenly shifting to the highest gear ratio on a bicycle while still climbing a hill - the entire drivetrain struggles. Doing this long-term may lead to engine carbon buildup and a spike in fuel consumption. I've tried skipping from fourth to sixth gear during highway cruising, but only when the speed was already stabilized above 80 km/h. The most crucial thing is to carefully monitor whether the car body shudders after shifting - any slight vibration is the engine sounding an alarm.
My instructor taught me emergency techniques: for example, on long downhill sections, to prevent brake overheating, it's permissible to skip from 4th gear directly to 6th gear for engine braking. The key lies in precisely matching the RPM—first lightly tap the accelerator with your right foot to raise the RPM above 2500, then press the clutch with your left foot to shift into neutral, and the moment the RPM starts to drop, engage the target gear. Once on a mountain drive, I successfully skipped gears, but it's not recommended for beginners—getting it wrong can cause a loud clashing of transmission gears. The safest approach is still to confirm the RPM drops to 1500 before releasing the clutch for every gear change.
My friends who are into car modifications often do this. They keep the revs high in third gear when exiting the track, then directly shift to fifth gear when entering the straight, enjoying the 'whoosh' sound of the blow-off valve. However, regular family cars can't withstand such aggressive driving. My neighbor's used car is a case in point—he frequently started in second gear and cruised in fifth, resulting in a major transmission overhaul at just 30,000 kilometers. The real danger of skipping gears lies in low-speed high-gear situations, especially when the engine stutters during turns and the steering wheel vibrates, indicating abnormal stress on the piston rods.
