All clutch owners

[gr330zhp]

So I curious, all of you who drive cars with manual transmissions. When you are at a red light/stop or traffic, do you leave your car in gear with the clutch and brake held down? Or in neutral with foot on brake? I am curious as I heard leaving the clutch pressed in can affect the life of the clutch? Then again it may be false.

When I am at a light, I usually leave it in gear with the clutch in, occasionally I may throw it in neutral. In bumper to bumper traffic, say when I am visiting NY/NJ area or if I am in Boston, I usually throw it in neutral and when its time to go I put it in gear.

What about you?

[kayger12]

Foot off clutch, car in neutral.

I believe keeping the clutch depressed leads to excessive wear.

[Nomar06]

Foot off clutch, car in neutral.

I believe keeping the clutch depressed leads to excessive wear.

Same here....try to be off the clutch as much as possible. Sometimes not one the brakes either, lol.

I believe old down the clutch pedal creates wear on the throwout bearing.

[wsmeyer]

Depends on the length of the light but usually in gear with clutch pedal depressed.

While this does put extra wear on the throw out bearing I don't consider this as atypical use so I would assume they took this into account in the requirements.

I've got 42K on my original clutch now and even though I would estimate 90% of my driving is stop-n-go city driving I still expect my throw out bearing to outlast my clutch disc.

William.

[midlandtech]

Neutral foot off clutch


~Steve
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HokieZHP]

Foot off the clutch and car in neutral, always.

[Newjack]

90% of the time it is in neutral with my foot off the clutch. The only exception is when I'm in balls traffic and have to keep scootching up a little bit.

[M0nk3y]

So I curious, all of you who drive cars with manual transmissions. When you are at a red light/stop or traffic, do you leave your car in gear with the clutch and brake held down? Or in neutral with foot on brake? I am curious as I heard leaving the clutch pressed in can affect the life of the clutch? Then again it may be false.

When I am at a light, I usually leave it in gear with the clutch in, occasionally I may throw it in neutral. In bumper to bumper traffic, say when I am visiting NY/NJ area or if I am in Boston, I usually throw it in neutral and when its time to go I put it in gear.

What about you?

Neutral.

I left it in gear on my e46, than read that you can throw out a bearing and I stopped

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[Newjack]

Neutral.

I left it in gear on my e46, than read that you can throw out a bearing and I stopped

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

I see what you did there.

[danewilson77]

Foot off clutch, car in neutral.

I believe keeping the clutch depressed leads to excessive wear.

This.

[johnnyrad]

I do both now that I think about it..I think I will try to keep in neutral tho moving forward.

[danewilson77]

I do both now that I think about it..I think I will try to keep in neutral tho moving forward.

If it's in neutral...you won't move forward.

[M0nk3y]

I see what you did there.

Lol it was before this thread.

With my E86 its always been neutral

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[johnnyrad]

:) bad choice of words I suppose. How bout, in the future I shall try to not depress the clutch at complete stops.

If I'm on an incline, I hold the clutch in. If not then I usually coast the last 20 ft or so in neutral. Idk..twenty two years of bad habits driving a manual is hard to break.

[BRGcoopahS]

pretty much always in neutral. even in traffic where im moving up 5 feet every 20 seconds I still usually have it in neutral.

[Oli77]

Neutral foot off clutch. I am afraid PO did not do that and my throw out bearing is a little noisy sometimes.

[brettbimmer]

Neutral! Just in case you missed that from just about everyone else above. :shifty

[Newjack]

Neutral foot off clutch. I am afraid PO did not do that and my throw out bearing is a little noisy sometimes.

What does it sound like?

[danewilson77]

I try to stay neutral concerning questions of this nature.

[gr330zhp]

What does it sound like?

Pretty much a faint rattling when you let off the clutch completely

Well guys, looks like I am going to change it up, now that my clutch is new

[kayger12]

^Good decision. :chuck

[Oli77]

Yes, a rattle down below.

If I let go of the clutch slowly when I come to a full stop, it won't make the noise at all.

If I let go fast, I can hear it for sure especially when the oil is nice and warm (never does it cold).

[nike001]

When coming to a stop, I go from 2nd and throw it in neutral and coast to the light and then let it sit in neutral until I see the other light turn yellow or if I feel like my light is about to change


Pretty much a faint rattling when you let off the clutch completely

Well guys, looks like I am going to change it up, now that my clutch is new


Neutral foot off clutch. I am afraid PO did not do that and my throw out bearing is a little noisy sometimes.

Yep. My car sounds like a diesel at idle sometimes when I leave my clutch in at a light :(

When I reverse, it's rattlefest 2012 as well.. lol

[Oli77]

I don't rattle in reverse. Your's doesn't go quiet if you raise your foot off the clutch really slowly ?

[nike001]

I don't rattle in reverse. Your's doesn't go quiet if you raise your foot off the clutch really slowly ?

I can make it go away if I let off the clutch slower or rev the engine a bit more. My clutch has been acting funny lately though. It doesn't want to engage (but the clutch is fine when it's engaged) I just need to rev it more or the TOB rattles to high hell.

[llll1l1ll]

I always sit in neutral at a light with the clutch out. I try to spend as little time as possible with the clutch pedal depressed. When I'm in traffic, I will literally put it in first and just manipulate the throttle to prevent having to disengage the clutch.

As far as TOBs are concerned, my E30 had the noisiest one ever. I would hit the clutch and it would emit this awful sound and you could feel the sound through your foot on the pedal. I got the clutch and TOB replaced and it still made the noise. ::shrug:: Also, at idle, it would sound like a bunch of marbles in a paint can because the gearbox had low oil. I added more oil to the gearbox, noise gone.

[midlandtech]

I try to stay neutral concerning questions of this nature.




~Steve
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ryans323i]

Mmm, I didn't realize it mattered. I usually do the in gear thing unless it's a long light. I have a relatively new clutch, 30-40k miles on it. But I do think I have the rattle thing. You guys will have to listen to it when I'm at SIGFest.

From now on neutral.

But my next question is, should we just disengage the last gear we were in (whether it's 6th or 3nd) and use the brake to slow down, or still down shift to 1rst (ok really 2nd, I never down shift to 1rst unless I need to start going again at 5mph)?

[nike001]

Depending on how fast I need to stop, I just normally rev-match downshifts to slow down. If I need to stop faster, I'll rev match to a lower gear to higher RPM's (like 4-5k) and then just brake from there.. and then disengage the clutch around 1,2000RPM in preparations to stop.

[midlandtech]

Depending on how fast I need to stop, I just normally rev-match downshifts to slow down. If I need to stop faster, I'll rev match to a lower gear to higher RPM's (like 4-5k) and then just brake from there.. and then disengage the clutch around 1,2000RPM in preparations to stop.

Note that if your not good at rev matching, and just drop a gear to decelerate you can also cause excess wear on the clutch.... I usually us mostly brakes and rev match every once and awhile.... Brakes are cheaper and easier to replace than clutches


~Steve
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[webster]

i tend to leave the car in gear if i sense it's going to be a short light, or if i'm at the front of the intersection. i don't want the cars behind me to have to wait, even if it's a few secs, for me to engage gear and get going after a light turns green. i know when i'm in back, and the light turns green....if people don't get moving i get honking. if i'm in the back of a long line i will typically put it in neutral as i can gauge how long i have til i need to get moving once the light turns green.

when approaching a stop sign i tend to decelerate in 2nd and not use the brakes til i absolutely need to. no shifting into 1st until < 5mph

[llll1l1ll]

Hahaha nothing sucks worse than the guy who holds up the light because his car won't go into gear.

Edit: That is me sometimes.

[MrMaico]

Another good idea is to let off the brakes if possible while sitting at a light. Holding the pads against a hot rotor can leave pad deposits on the rotor causing brake pulsation. A lot of complaints of warped rotors are actually just pad deposits on them. Or let the car roll forward a bit every so often while sitting stopped so the pads aren't always at the same spot on the rotor. Gotta admit though, that I rarely remember to do it myself.

Motorcycle riders are taught to leave the bike in gear at a light in case you see someone coming up from behind that might not see you and have enough time to stop once they do. I was rear ended in my old BMW 2002 in a little town in Nebraska once and ever since then I keep a close eye on anything coming up from behind. I was almost able to crank the wheel and gas it and get out of his way but didn't quite make it. He just barely caught my right rear. It was some old chicken farmer with the license number of 1313. Oddly, that's now my house address.

Even though, I also leave it in neutral at a light.

[Ryans323i]

I always watch the rear view at a stop and when stopping. Very good advice.

[johnrando]

Also, for my other manual cars, I never rest my hand on the shift knob while in neutral. Long time ago someone told me that.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk

[nike001]

Also, for my other manual cars, I never rest my hand on the shift knob while in neutral. Long time ago someone told me that.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk

They say resting your hand on the knob wears your synchro's.. but you actually have to be putting a decent amount of pressure on your knob to wear them.

[llll1l1ll]

That's what I figured. I think that if you shift into 3rd or 5th and keep your hand there with pressure pushing the shifter forward, that might wear them down. Simply resting your hand there is not going to do much. Despite that, I keep my hands free of the shifter when not shifting and instead place them on the wheel.

I also do not keep my foot on the brake when at a light - unless I'm on a hill. To prevent people from not realizing I'm stopped, I push the brake just enough to let the brake lights come on.

[R0B]

neutral, just cause that is how my dad did it

[BRGcoopahS]

They say resting your hand on the knob wears your synchro's.. but you actually have to be putting a decent amount of pressure on your knob to wear them.

whaaaaat? really?

I rest my hand on the shift knob all the time. often i slap the shifter around just out of boredom.

[zhpnsnv]

whaaaaat? really?

I rest my hand on the shift knob all the time. often i slap the shifter around just out of boredom.

Me too. Started in middle school.




Had to. Sorry.

[kayger12]

^ Well, if they're going to put it on a tee for you...

[ryankokesh]

lol..............

[antcamp]

I used to sit at lights with the clutch in til I had sciatic pain in my left leg. now neutral at all stop lights...its just easier

[BRGcoopahS]

Me too. Started in middle school.




Had to. Sorry.

I knew that was going to happen the moment after I posted it.....

[Newjack]

Another good idea is to let off the brakes if possible while sitting at a light. Holding the pads against a hot rotor can leave pad deposits on the rotor causing brake pulsation. A lot of complaints of warped rotors are actually just pad deposits on them. Or let the car roll forward a bit every so often while sitting stopped so the pads aren't always at the same spot on the rotor. Gotta admit though, that I rarely remember to do it myself.

Motorcycle riders are taught to leave the bike in gear at a light in case you see someone coming up from behind that might not see you and have enough time to stop once they do. I was rear ended in my old BMW 2002 in a little town in Nebraska once and ever since then I keep a close eye on anything coming up from behind. I was almost able to crank the wheel and gas it and get out of his way but didn't quite make it. He just barely caught my right rear. It was some old chicken farmer with the license number of 1313. Oddly, that's now my house address.

Even though, I also leave it in neutral at a light.

I usually let my foot off the brake when I'm stopped at a light and I know I won't roll away. My LED tails are crucially bright so I know people will see me. Good to know about the brake pad deposits.

V6 Revolution + TT

[az3579]

If I know I'll be stopped for more than 5 seconds, I put it in neutral and off the clutch.


Sent from my iPhone 4S from Tapatalk