Is it bad on your car's clutch to...

[dugweb]

Is it bad on your car's clutch to fully depress it for a long period of time.

I frequently will push it in to coast down a hill (cruising at 45mph @ 700rpm's does wonders on the gas milage)

now im wondering if holding it in that long can wear out the spring or something.

 

[quakefiend420]

if you're worried about it why not just shift into nuetral and let it out?

 

[rmrf]

I believe that is what is known as "riding the clutch" and yes, it is bad. I would suggest pushing the clutch in, taking it out of gear, then letting the clutch back out, but legally you have to have your car in gear...

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: rmrf
I believe that is what is known as "riding the clutch" and yes, it is bad. I would suggest pushing the clutch in, taking it out of gear, then letting the clutch back out, but legally you have to have your car in gear...

Riding the clutch is when you are going uphill, and you're at a stoplight, and you don't feel like using your brakes to keep you from sliding down, so then you kind of let go of the clutch half way so it's kind of touching the flywheel, but it's still slipping so that the car would have some forward force. That causes a lot of damage to the clutch as the clutch is rubbing against the flywheel, and thus deteriorating away.

Depressing the clutch all the way is the same as staying in neutral.

 

[dugweb]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420
if you're worried about it why not just shift into nuetral and let it out?

it's the darndest thing. When I stick it in nuetral, and let the clutch out It'll idle at 1,000rpm's (when Im movin)

so I just got into the habit of keeping the clutch depressed to save on those 300 extra rpms.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

as long as its FULLY depressed your not hurting the clutch.

you are however more than likely fryng your throwout bearing, and yes you need that.

 

[Eli]

It's not bad for the clutch itself, but you will wear your throwout bearing faster than normal.

Whether this is a big deal or not depends on how reliable the throwout bearing is in your particular automobile.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: dugweb
Is it bad on your car's clutch to fully depress it for a long period of time.

I frequently will push it in to coast down a hill (cruising at 45mph @ 700rpm's does wonders on the gas milage)

now im wondering if holding it in that long can wear out the spring or something.

- What year is your car and does it have Fuel Injection?
- You won't wear out the 'Spring'
- Coasting like that offers less car control than leaving the car in gear, safer not to coast at speed
- If you must coast, just pop it into neutral.


To other posters FYI: Riding the clutch can be at any point in your journey and can be as simple as resting your foot on the clutch without depressing it. This can cause a slight actuation of the clutch and increase the wear rate as the clutch slips whilst you drive.

/0

 

[Viperoni]

The only thing that keeping the clutch out by stepping on the clutch pedal does is wear out the throw out bearing. If it dies, you might as well change the clutch. Who knows if keeping the pedal down significantly accelerates T.O.B. wear... but not pressing the pedal surely can't hurt at all 🙂

Basically: put it in neutral, let go of the clutch.

 

[thedarkwolf]

In other words if you car has fuel injection you aren't saving any gas and are in fact wasting gas by doing that. Oh and killing your throwout bearing.

 

[loic2003]

Yeah I heard that most moden cars are intelligent and actually use close to no fuel when the momentum of the car is turning the engine instead of the other way round (not sure about US vehicles - they're not exactly known to give a damn about fuel economy).

Pushing in the clutch is a bad idea. Similar to disk brakes, the plates don't actually separate completely with a visible gap but merely slip over each other, so there is always some wear going on. Best to keep it engaged.

And to the above poster, 'riding the clutch' is when you keep the pressure such that it is at the biting point, not fully pressed.

 

[asm0deus]

jeez, all these conflicting reports are just making me want to give up on manual. just when i think i got it down right someone says im not, its retarded. you have to push that clutch in, and then someone says everytime you push it in you wear it out. and im like then how the hell am i supposed to drive? and they're like.. you gotta push it in like this and im like FSCK THIS! i just try to get to 4th or 5th gear as fast as possible and cruise as i want, roll in neutral the rest of the time. as for riding the clutch, while i recognize the inherent problems with it, it's simply part of accelerating out of 1st gear on a hill and kept at a minimum is a necessity.

 

[loic2003]

Originally posted by: asm0deus
jeez, all these conflicting reports are just making me want to give up on manual. just when i think i got it down right someone says im not, its retarded. you have to push that clutch in, and then someone says everytime you push it in you wear it out. and im like then how the hell am i supposed to drive? and they're like.. you gotta push it in like this and im like FSCK THIS! i just try to get to 4th or 5th gear as fast as possible and cruise as i want, roll in neutral the rest of the time. as for riding the clutch, while i recognize the inherent problems with it, it's simply part of accelerating out of 1st gear on a hill and kept at a minimum is a necessity.

You must be either a woman or american... Either way, automatics are crappy and only for the lazy/people stuck in traffic every day. It just takes a little knowledge and everything will be fine. Here's the info in a compressed easy to read format:

-Clutches wear out through normal use, just like oil, tyres, brakes, engines, etc. Auto boxes also have clutches, but.... they're automatic.
-Clutches are happiest when engaged (ie your foot is off the pedal)
-Clutches are least happy when you're holding the car at the biting point when on a hill, with no brakes applied.
-Having the pedal fully pressed down isn't as bad as having it at the biting point, but still causes wear as the plates are rubbing.
-Rolling down hills in neutral uses more fuel, offers inferior braking capabilities, less control and more danger than rolling down a hill in gear.
-Short shifting to 4th or 5th wastes fuel and is detrimental to acceleration.


That's pretty much it. Don't be afraid to use the clutch, but do bear in mind that there's a method of use that minimizes wear, similar to how going around a corner slower causes less tyre wear than say if you drifted round the corner doing a powerslide...

 

[Reggae4k]

say bye to your current clutch and say hello to a new one. you are wearing the crap out of the clutch. ioic2003 is correct, the only time you should depress the clutch is to SHIFT gears!

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
as long as its FULLY depressed your not hurting the clutch.

you are however more than likely fryng your throwout bearing, and yes you need that.

That really depends on clutch - fully depressing it doesn't necessarily mean that the clutch disc is not in contact with the flywheel.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
In other words if you car has fuel injection you aren't saving any gas and are in fact wasting gas by doing that. Oh and killing your throwout bearing.

err what are you talking about? He's still saving gas 700rpm < 2800rpm, so the amount of air ingested at a given period is 4x more, so there will be 4x more gasoline injected. Or in otherwords, the fuel map is higher at 2800rpm/20% throttle than 700rpm/0% throttle and your crank revolves 4x as much...

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
as long as its FULLY depressed your not hurting the clutch.

you are however more than likely fryng your throwout bearing, and yes you need that.

The throwout bearing won't be the first thing to fail. It's on a different bearing when it's in anyway, and they're probably from the same box.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: loic2003

You must be either a woman or american... Either way, automatics are crappy and only for the lazy/people stuck in traffic every day. It just takes a little knowledge and everything will be fine. Here's the info in a compressed easy to read format:


-Clutches wear out through normal use, just like oil, tyres, brakes, engines, etc. Auto boxes also have clutches, but.... they're automatic.
Some hydraulic manuals consume the clutch fluid to lube the TOB, too. My mom's eclipse for example.

-Clutches are happiest when engaged (ie your foot is off the pedal)

-Clutches are least happy when you're holding the car at the biting point when on a hill, with no brakes applied.
My mom does this :disgust:

-Having the pedal fully pressed down isn't as bad as having it at the biting point, but still causes wear as the plates are rubbing.
Not all manuals. In fact, I don't know of a single one. Examples, please?

-Rolling down hills in neutral uses more fuel, offers inferior braking capabilities, less control and more danger than rolling down a hill in gear.
Agreed, definately keep it in gear, only acceptable time to put it in neutral is sitting at a light or in traffic.

-Short shifting to 4th or 5th wastes fuel and is detrimental to acceleration.
Tell that to GM. The GTO and 'Vette both have a 1st-4th skip-shift under light acceleration. But then, they have enough power to pull from 30mph in 4th, and I wouldn't try it on most cars 😉

That's pretty much it. Don't be afraid to use the clutch, but do bear in mind that there's a method of use that minimizes wear, similar to how going around a corner slower causes less tyre wear than say if you drifted round the corner doing a powerslide...

You say your clutch feels less springy.... what kind is it? Lever, cable or hydraulic? If it's lever or cable, it might be out of adjustment due to wear, if it's hydraulic, there might be some air in the lines. I'd have it checked.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
In other words if you car has fuel injection you aren't saving any gas and are in fact wasting gas by doing that. Oh and killing your throwout bearing.

err what are you talking about? He's still saving gas 700rpm < 2800rpm, so the amount of air ingested at a given period is 4x more, so there will be 4x more gasoline injected. Or in otherwords, the fuel map is higher at 2800rpm/20% throttle than 700rpm/0% throttle and your crank revolves 4x as much...

NOT THIS CRAP AGAIN :|

Fuel cut. That is all. I can't be arsed to explain it again...

 

[Saint Nick]

1) Clutch in
2) Put in neutral
3) Clutch out
4) YOU WIN!!!

 

[dugweb]

My car is a 2001 ford escape... I'm not sure what 'type' of clutch is in there.

I'm going to keep it in gear and engine brake it for a while and see how I like that. My car is fuel injected, and I understand the ecu calculates how much fuel to squirt in there based on the air fuel mixture, but I just can't wrap my head around the idea that I am getting no benifit (possibly worse) to my gas milage when I'm cruising at 700rmp's rather than 2800.

Could someone give me a quick explanation? 😕

 

[Crucial]

Originally posted by: loic2003

Originally posted by: asm0deus
jeez, all these conflicting reports are just making me want to give up on manual. just when i think i got it down right someone says im not, its retarded. you have to push that clutch in, and then someone says everytime you push it in you wear it out. and im like then how the hell am i supposed to drive? and they're like.. you gotta push it in like this and im like FSCK THIS! i just try to get to 4th or 5th gear as fast as possible and cruise as i want, roll in neutral the rest of the time. as for riding the clutch, while i recognize the inherent problems with it, it's simply part of accelerating out of 1st gear on a hill and kept at a minimum is a necessity.

You must be either a woman or american... Either way, automatics are crappy and only for the lazy/people stuck in traffic every day. It just takes a little knowledge and everything will be fine. Here's the info in a compressed easy to read format:

-Clutches wear out through normal use, just like oil, tyres, brakes, engines, etc. Auto boxes also have clutches, but.... they're automatic.
-Clutches are happiest when engaged (ie your foot is off the pedal)
-Clutches are least happy when you're holding the car at the biting point when on a hill, with no brakes applied.
-Having the pedal fully pressed down isn't as bad as having it at the biting point, but still causes wear as the plates are rubbing.
-Rolling down hills in neutral uses more fuel, offers inferior braking capabilities, less control and more danger than rolling down a hill in gear.
-Short shifting to 4th or 5th wastes fuel and is detrimental to acceleration.


That's pretty much it. Don't be afraid to use the clutch, but do bear in mind that there's a method of use that minimizes wear, similar to how going around a corner slower causes less tyre wear than say if you drifted round the corner doing a powerslide...

Q: What's CAGS (skip shift) and how does it work?

A: CAGS stands for Computer Assisted Gear Selection and is on 1994 and on cars with 6 speed transmissions. It's purpose is to improve gas mileage and avoid the "gas-guzzler" new car tax. CAGS comes into play under the following conditions:

you're in 1st gear (of course)
you're at 35% throttle or less
you're between 15 and 21 mph
engine coolant temperature is greater than 171 F (77 C)

This is the same 1st - 4th shift Raduque mentioned.

And whats with the american bashing?

 

[mugs]

My car's manual specifically recommends not resting your foot on the clutch pedal or holding it in when you don't need to. It says it will wear out the throwout bearings (I have no idea what those are).

Leave it in gear when you're going down hills, just put it in a high gear if you don't want the engine to slow you down.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: dugweb
I'm going to keep it in gear and engine brake it for a while and see how I like that. My car is fuel injected, and I understand the ecu calculates how much fuel to squirt in there based on the air fuel mixture, but I just can't wrap my head around the idea that I am getting no benifit (possibly worse) to my gas milage when I'm cruising at 700rmp's rather than 2800.

I'm a bit confused, but if you're asking why you use less fuel when engine braking than when you're in neutral, it's because the wheels are turning the engine so it doesn't NEED fuel to keep it going at idle speed.

 

[EMPshockwave82]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420
if you're worried about it why not just shift into nuetral and let it out?

QFT. When driving stick I shift to neutral and coast / shift to neutral and place foot on break instead of just holding clutch in.