I just purchased a 95' v6 5-speed camaro sunday. and it's my 1st 5-speed and i dont want to tear anything up..so at wat point should i shift to second gear..i have wen all the way to around 45 mph in 2nd. and i know thats wrong

 

As long as you don't keep it in the red line you should be ok. Welcome to the forum and welcome to Camaro!

 

As Baldi said, Stay away from your red line, for now

You'll get a feel for the motor, and when she likes to be shifted.

Also different driving situations call for didn't driving habits.

 

I have had several manuals (although not a camaro) and I don't think I've ever glanced at my tach after a week of owning a car. A tach is a dandy little device for showing off, but while your figuring out your shift points listen to the motor. After a while you'll just know when to shift by listening to the car. Now if you try to do massive burnouts watch the tach so you don't burn out your motor, but for normal driving the best way to judge when to shift is by sound. Now every vehicle shifts at different RPM's so it just takes time and patience. Shifting up is the easy part. It's staying stopped on inclines and not rolling that will probably get you. Another thing that might help a little bit is try float shifting. After you get going and think you know about when to shift slightly pull down on the stick. Don't try to force it out of gear but just hold a bit of pressure. It will pop out rather freely and that would be a good indication of where shift point is. Do it for every gear, and I reccomend using the clutch to shift to the new gear. Now I don't know if float shifting wears your tranny any, I'm no mechanic, but I'm sure it can't hurt anything if your doing it correctly until you know where to shift. That's kind of how I learned sticks. I hope this helps you a little. Have fun with it! I love manuals over automatics. you really feel like your driving the entire car, not just steering the thing. Just don't get frustrated with it, then you'll never figure it out. Just have fun with it and listen to logic. you'll have it in no time. From first to second you said about 25 mph? I would guess that's fairly close, but first gear is your shortest, so try around 15-20. With a 5 speed that sounds a little more accurate to me. I know in my mustang I hit 4th at 45mph, and 5th at 65. I shift at (mph) 2nd-15 3rd-35 4th-45 or 50 5th-65+. That's just rough numbers and an 87 stang with a 2.3L 5 speed, but it should give you an idea. 4th and 5th can be way different though what's your tach say at 45? Now of course down shifting will be right around the same mph, maybe a little slower that upshifting for you, it depends on how your car is. Sorry for the long post, but I love stick shifts, and hope this helps!

 

Well my 93 v6, in second, can go all the way to 65 but then im still hittin 5500 rpms. But mine is an auto 4 speed so im the one shifting that. I dont know if the auto 2nd is really true 2nd gear or not but you shouldnt only be hitting 45 in second.

 

try 3rd 4th or 5th, then you can go really fast! lol, just playin.

 

It can go over 45 i just stopped at that point because i didnt know if i'm doing anything wrong i found this car on craigslist and weent and got it sunday from about 100 miles outside my city. and didnt know it was a stick until i got their but figured i'd bring it bck since i've traveled that far. so it's ok to keep going until your in the red?

 

your rev limiter should kick in before you get to deep in the red. i think you should be able to get more than 45 out of second without getting to far into it. what is your gear ratio? if you don't know, check your glove box or drivers door. there should be a white tag with alphanumeric codes. you will be looking for a GU2-GU4. Also, look and see if it has a G80. If it has that code, you got posi

 

If your tryin to get exact numbers the car manual tells you the "recommended" shift points. To me they seem a little low but i drive my car sorta hard.

 

the only reason you can do that is because you have less gears. if you think about it makes sense. the 5 speed second gear is smaller than your automatics second gear.