How reliable is manual transmission? (acura tsx)

[ex_MGB]

LOL, your angsting.

Just drive your TSX like you stole it that morning and are going to strip it for parts that night. Do not baby it, wind it up to redline and wham-bam into the next gear. Downshift and listen to the tires chirp and the engine howl.

That's exactly how the Honda engineers treat it.

 

[gedcruise]

I'm assuming you actually had an MGB. I've had one for nearly thirty years, and there is no easier nor more enjoyable manual trans to use.
Anyway, back to topic.
I doubt whether the ocassional crunch will really hurt your Honda. We've had manny tranny Hondas for decades now, and have had zero problems with their transaxles. Like ex_MGB said, drive it as hard as you'd like. You won't hurt it. Part of your trouble might be that you are not fully depressing the clutch pedal for each shift. This is okay for upshifts, but must be avoided for downshifts.
In any event, enjoy your car, and I don't think you'll really hurt it.

 

[pacem]

BMW makes the smoothest clutches I saw.

replaced the original with 200K miles / 20 years on it.

Nissan is OK too.

 

[kontakterr61]

i keep making this mistake, when either in 2nd or 3rd, sometimes i think i am perfectly rev-matched and it feels so (the 6th sense manual feeling) and let go of the clutch fairly fast; however, it was perfectly revmatched and off by about 2.5 k and as a result, i get one HUGE buck (not sure if its forward or backward buck)...
is this basically dumping the clutch?
i seem to make this mistake once in while (once a month?) and it just happens out of the blue.

and would this do any damage to the tranny or engine mounts that i should worry about?

 

[FrozenPilot]

You'll know if you break an engine mount. MTX cars will wear out the mounts sooner than an ATX. I've replaced a set on my Saturn, turns out I really didn't need it. It was easy though. When it comes to wearing the clutch, the higher the mis-match in RPM and the longer it occurs, the higher the wear. Wear on those jerky shifts are minimal, less than if you would have slowly let the clutch out.

 

[Al]

Make your shifts at say 2500 rpm with very little throttle. (Basically grampa type driving). That's the best way to learn to shift smoothly. That applies mainly for 1 to 2 shifts and 2 to 3 shifts and a little of 3 to 4.

Even though I have been driving stick for 45 years the TSX clutch/gears are very hard to master in 2nd and 3rd gear. I had my son's car for a few days and finally managed to get it down O.K. but not nearly as good as other vehicles. There is no question that its a hard car to shift smoothly.