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Neutral at a red light?

P

passivex

Senior member
Okay so I know nothing about car but can anybody tell me if it's safe to put your car in Neutral when waiting for a green light (as opposed to leaving it in Drive gear and braking)? Of course, I'd still brake but leaving it in Neutral feels like I'm putting less stress on the car.
 
its fine as long as you rev your engine really high right before you drop it back in gear
 
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
 
dont sit at a light with your foot on the clutch...if thats what you are saying. put it in neutral, but only if its a stick. no point in doing it with an automatic. the car can handle it better than you can.
 
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...

This means...you have a manual. OP has an auto.
 
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...

why on earth do you use the hand brake when you are at a stop light? you know the car has regular brakes too, right?
 
Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...

This means...you have a manual. OP has an auto.
Click to expand...

Auto trans...??? never... not me, nope.. never!

😉

edit: MrDudeMan.. putting my car in neutral and using the foot brakes will not stop the car from roling forward. And if I am accidently hit .. the car will move.


 
Originally posted by: troytime
its fine as long as you rev your engine really high right before you drop it back in gear
Click to expand...

reminds me of the family guy episode where Meg learns do drive and peter tells her that if she makes eye contact at a red light she has to rev the engine and race them. then on her driving test she races a cop. its funny
 
I'm about 90% of the way to calling parody already... but in case the other 10% of me is right...

You should put the shifter into neutral at red lights and let go of the clutch. Keeping your foot on it does add to wear.

Edit: If the OP has an auto tranny... no. You should never need to be in anything besides Drive or Reverse while you're on the road. Neutral is there for emergency situations.
 
Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...

why on earth do you use the hand brake when you are at a stop light? you know the car has regular brakes too, right?
Click to expand...
Sometimes on a hill or something it's useful. I only do it because I get lazy sometimes at long stop lights where it isn't flat 😛
 
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...

This means...you have a manual. OP has an auto.
Click to expand...

Auto trans...??? never... not me, nope.. never!

😉

edit: MrDudeMan.. putting my car in neutral and using the foot brakes will not stop the car from roling forward. And if I am accidently hit .. the car will move.
Click to expand...

Time to replace your brakes maybe?
 
Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
I'm about 90% of the way to calling parody already... but in case the other 10% of me is right...

You should put the shifter into neutral at red lights and let go of the clutch. Keeping your foot on it does add to wear.

Edit: If the OP has an auto tranny... no. You should never need to be in anything besides Drive or Reverse while you're on the road. Neutral is there for emergency situations.
Click to expand...

Ding! Winnar!
 
Originally posted by: troytime
its fine as long as you rev your engine really high right before you drop it back in gear
Click to expand...

Dude I just did it and it freakin' wrecked my car!!


Yeah, right. I have an automatic (yes, the shame...my wife wouldn't let me buy a stick cuz she's afraid the ride's gonna be too rough for her...all that shifting and the occasional jerk)

Actually this comment hits the spot:
dont sit at a light with your foot on the clutch...if thats what you are saying. put it in neutral, but only if its a stick. no point in doing it with an automatic. the car can handle it better than you can.
Click to expand...

But really? The car can handle it better than I can? When I kept it on Drive mode and my have my foot on the brake, the car keeps trying to move forward (which it is supposed to). When I put it in Neutral, the pressure on the brake is released so shouldn't it be better? Right before the light turns green, I usually shift into Drive mode, released the brake then hit the gas.
 
keeping the clutch all the way in is *not* going to add any wear to the clutch.
(unless my understanding about how clutches work is completely incorrect)

from what I recall (I'm not a mechanic), the clutch works similarly to the way your brakes work... you can ride your brakes, wearing them; you can have the brakes not engaged, or you can lock up the brakes. The clutch works the same way... pushed all the way in, it's like the brakes not touching...
All the way out, it's like having the brakes locked up. And, slight pressure on the clutch will result in some slipping/frictional wear on the clutch.

Anyone able to confirm this?
 
Originally posted by: KarenMarie
When stopped.. the car needs to be in neutral and the hand break up. If you dont put the hand brake up, you do not have control of the car. You can put it in first and keep your foot on the clutch, but neutral and brake up is the way to go.

🙂

edit.. we are talking about s stick shift, right?
Click to expand...
If you're using the parking brake at a stoplight, you need to have your license revoked.

ZV
 
Automatic or Manual?

For an automatic, idling at 500 - 700 RPM won't hurt your torque converter at all. It's designed to slip at that speed. As silly and stupid as automotive engineers are, *cough* *cough* BAD MANAGEMENT!! *cough*, they don't have a problem with that.

For a manual, I'd drop her into neutral if it's a particularly long light. Not only will your foot be less tired, you won't be abusing your throwout bearing as much.

Some good info for you:
How a clutch works at Howstuffworks.com
How a torque converter works at Howstuffworks.com

Those are a couple real good articles that have nice pictures to help you understand what the f**k is going on, and they're very quick reads.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
keeping the clutch all the way in is *not* going to add any wear to the clutch.
(unless my understanding about how clutches work is completely incorrect)

from what I recall (I'm not a mechanic), the clutch works similarly to the way your brakes work... you can ride your brakes, wearing them; you can have the brakes not engaged, or you can lock up the brakes. The clutch works the same way... pushed all the way in, it's like the brakes not touching...
All the way out, it's like having the brakes locked up. And, slight pressure on the clutch will result in some slipping/frictional wear on the clutch.

Anyone able to confirm this?
Click to expand...

Creates wear on the throwout bearing, or so I was told when I was learning to drive a standard.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
keeping the clutch all the way in is *not* going to add any wear to the clutch.
(unless my understanding about how clutches work is completely incorrect)

from what I recall (I'm not a mechanic), the clutch works similarly to the way your brakes work... you can ride your brakes, wearing them; you can have the brakes not engaged, or you can lock up the brakes. The clutch works the same way... pushed all the way in, it's like the brakes not touching...
All the way out, it's like having the brakes locked up. And, slight pressure on the clutch will result in some slipping/frictional wear on the clutch.

Anyone able to confirm this?
Click to expand...
Keeping the clutch disengaged will save a bit of wear on the clutch, but now you're putting all that pressure on the throwout bearing to keep her disengaged, when you could just drop her into neutral and slap the clutch together completely so there's no slippage.

So yeah, you're exactly right, but working your throwout bearing too hard could cause you to have to rebuild your clutch just as easily as riding her too hard. And that will almost definitely ruin an entire saturday, especially if she's one of these fruity new front wheel driven cars, which can be a real biatch to deal with.
 
Originally posted by: Polishwonder74
Originally posted by: DrPizza
keeping the clutch all the way in is *not* going to add any wear to the clutch.
(unless my understanding about how clutches work is completely incorrect)

from what I recall (I'm not a mechanic), the clutch works similarly to the way your brakes work... you can ride your brakes, wearing them; you can have the brakes not engaged, or you can lock up the brakes. The clutch works the same way... pushed all the way in, it's like the brakes not touching...
All the way out, it's like having the brakes locked up. And, slight pressure on the clutch will result in some slipping/frictional wear on the clutch.

Anyone able to confirm this?
Click to expand...
Keeping the clutch disengaged will save a bit of wear on the clutch, but now you're putting all that pressure on the throwout bearing to keep her disengaged, when you could just drop her into neutral and slap the clutch together completely so there's no slippage.

So yeah, you're exactly right, but working your throwout bearing too hard could cause you to have to rebuild your clutch just as easily as riding her too hard. And that will almost definitely ruin an entire saturday, especially if she's one of these fruity new front wheel driven cars, which can be a real biatch to deal with.
Click to expand...
I have never, not once, seen or heard of a throwout bearing wearing out before the clutch itself, regardless of owner technique at a stoplight. There's simply not enough force from the pressure plate on most cars to put that kind of strain on the TO bearing. That's what the TO bearing is designed for anyway. It's not like people suggest turning your engine off at stoplights to prevent wear on the rod bearings.

Simple answer is that one wears the clutch slightly (by cycling the clutch to engage neutral) and the other wears the TO bearing slightly. Neither does any significant wear to the system. Keeping the car in gear with your foot on the clutch does, however, decrease your reaction time.

ZV
 
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