posted
When stopping for a red light, you can either push the clutch down and hold it until it's time to start again; or you can put the stick in neutral and re-engage to start. Which do you do? I'm a clutch-pusher. Also, does anyone have any data, theory, folklore, or old wives' tales on which of these is better for the clutch? The first alternative means you're holding it compressed for a while, but the second has two compressions and two decompressions.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I was taught to put the car in neutral and put on the hand brake making sure both feet were off the pedals. I don't know whether this is right or wrong - I was just forced through the drill of "stop, handbrake, gear into neutral, foot of clutch, foot off brake".
Apparently the logic is that if you should be driver be struck dead by lightening or somesuch, the car would not lurch off.
Also if you get shunted in the rear end, you stand less chance of hitting the car in front (think of the spared insurance claim).
From a mechanical viewpoint keeping the clutch depressed puts the entire clutch mechanism under a prolonged load above and beyond the normal compression/decompresion cycle. In Days of Yore this was probably a bad thing and would your reduce your mean-time-to-failure. Nowadays I imagine that this is less of an issue.
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
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I graduated from a truck driving school, but did not go into truck driving.
For stopping, I was taught to downshift, watching my speed and the tachometer, brake to decelerate, and shift accordingly. And to always stop in gear!
When you take a road test in the state of Indiana to get your commercial drivers license, you will lose points for coming to a stop in neutral. Why? Because whenever you are in neutral, you don't have full control of the vehicle.
Going into neutral to stop like you have described is called "floating the gears." It's not exactly bad, but it does increase the risk of grinding the gears, which is bad for the transmission. Lots of commercial drivers float the gears instead of double-clutching, and everyone will tell you it's fine if you know the vehicle and won't grind the gears, otherwise the wear on the transmission will outweigh any benefit you might obtain from not wearing the clutch.
Some scientific studies have even been done on this, and they found that even professional drivers who know their vehicles inside and out and float their gears all the time put significantly more wear on their transmissions than drivers who don't float the gears.
posted
If I know the light's gonna take a few minutes, I'll pop into neutral and let my legs take a rest. Otherwise, I leave the clutch in and try to get the best start off the light as possible.
Side-question--does it seem to everyone else like you're always the one who gets stopped first at the light? It should be statistically impossible, but I'm first in line more often than not.
Posts: 1314 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Launchywiggin: Side-question--does it seem to everyone else like you're always the one who gets stopped first at the light? It should be statistically impossible, but I'm first in line more often than not.
Not only that, but when I used to drive my dad's truck (the only vehicle I used to drive on a regular basis with a clutch) I was always first in line, going uphill.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Shift to neutral, take your foot off the clutch.
And if you are always the first at the traffic light, that's because you are not driving in heavy traffic. In these parts, the light cycles through several times before you get to the front.
I also learned how to drive the manual, changing gears and all, without touching the clutch! Whoo-hoo! Good times! (I DID get the clutch fixed, but I could drive it in the interim. As long as I wasn't stopped facing uphill.)
Also, I learned how to stop the car sans brakes and without hitting anything! Whoo Hoo! Feel the excitement! (I DID get the brakes fixed, too.)
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Closest I get to manual is the Tetronics in my VW Passat. You can click the shifter to the right, then up and down if you want to change gears or just leave it as it was and let the car do everything.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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My first car was a manual, and I drove it for about 5 years. All that time I was a clutch-pusher. That's how my dad taught me, that's how my instructor in driver training taught me. I didn't even know that people put it in neutral when stopping at every light until I talked to a couple of other manual drivers. I tried it and it just felt strange. Now I drive an automatic, and I miss my clutch.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I was taught to leave the car in gear with the clutch in. The reason I was given is if for some reason you lose control of the car (hit from behind, lose consciousness, are abducted by aliens) the car will lurch and die and stop instead of rolling on perhaps uncontrollably.
I bought a new car with an automatic transmission over a year ago and I still find myself reaching for the clutch now and then.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Why do you have to hold the clutch down? Why can't you just come to a stop and hold the brakes down in first gear?
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: <---- Has never driven stick
Why do you have to hold the clutch down? Why can't you just come to a stop and hold the brakes down in first gear?
Because while in gear there is a direct mechanical connection between the engine and the tires. So if you brake and leave it in gear you have the engine trying to turn the wheels which aren't allowed to move so the engine will stall.
I don't know if there is an "official" answer (well, at least there is in some cases as DevilDreamt pointed out) but to me you're much safer leaving it in gear with the clutch in and your other foot on the break. Anything else and you aren't capable of a rapid response in the case of emergency. Also this gives you the option of taking your foot off the brake if you are about to be rear-ended (I glance from mirror to light since this has happened to me... the person behind me thought the red light was green and tried to drive through me).
Posts: 409 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Click and Clack say it's less wear on the clutch if you put it in neutral when you are stopped.
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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When I drove my 81 civic, I kept the clutch pushed in.
When I drove my 92 Escort, I put it in neutral because the clutch was much stiffer and my leg got tired.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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