How do I deal with stalling?

Stalling is a very common fault in early driving lessons, but tends to become less frequent with practice. Normally it is due to a feeling of needing to do everything more quickly. Its very easy to worry about delaying the people behind you at traffic lights and similar situations. Lets have a look at the reasons for stalling, and what to do about it.


1. Stall caused by clutch being raised too quickly

How to deal with this kind of stall depends on your location.
If you stalled when attempting to move off from the side of the road, simply apply the handbrake, put the clutch down again, select neutral and restart the engine. When you try again, remember to lift the clutch smoothly until you find the biting point. Once you have found the bite, do all observations and release the handbrake, gently adding gas as you smoothly finish raising the clutch pedal.

If you stall in this manner on a junction, then you need to get the car moving again as soon as it is safe to drive away. Lingering on junctions holds up other traffic and can put you in a dangerous and vulnerable position. In this case, all you need to do is apply the footbrake, put the clutch down, restart the engine, select the correct gear (usually 1st) and get the bite again to move. If you are on a slope, the handbrake should also be used to prevent you rolling before moving off.

2. Stall caused by selecting the wrong gear.

An example of this is selecting third gear instead of 1st gear before moving off. If this is the case just follow the same procedure as 1) above.

If at a junction, follow the same procedure as above; however it is a good idea to give a "sorry" wave to the person behind... this tends to diffuse any anger they may be feeling.

3) Stall caused by being in the wrong gear for the current speed.

This sort of stall often happens when attempting to change up to second gear, but accidentally selecting 4th. The car doesn't have enough momentum and then stalls. Also quite common when changing down to second to take a corner, but missing and selecting 4th, or simply forgetting to change down at all!

If this happens you need to brake with the footbrake till you stop. Select neutral, restart the engine and drive away in 1st gear as normal. Occasionally, you may need to do a moving start. This is done by putting the clutch down and restarting the engine while rolling forward, selecting an appropriate gear (normally 1st or 2nd) and continuing with the gear change very smoothly. I must emphasise that this method is only needed when the situation would be more dangerous if you stopped the car.


4) Stall caused by taking too long to change gear

Most often happens in the very beginning stages of learning to drive. When changing gear, if the clutch is held down for too long before selecting the next gear, the car will lose momentum. By the time the next gear has been engaged, the car is going too slowly for the higher gear, and the engine stalls.
The solution to this is to make sure you are mentally prepared to move the gear stick before putting the clutch down. Once the gear stick has been moved, start bringing the clutch up.... remember, you don't have to do this as slowly as when you first drive away from a stationary position. A gear change should not take you 5 seconds! :)


I hope this helps you on your driving lessons... any questions... contact me or comment!