hold in clutch or shift to neutral?

[seanjuan]

I just read in another post something about it being hard on the throw out bearing yadda yadda yadda to hold in the clutch for an extended period

what's the truth behind this... I have pretty much always done this in my car and never had any tranny or clutch probs

 

[BigJ]

I've done the same, but my friend recently that is going to the local tech school rode with me, and hes like it will increase life on the throwout bearing by like 15% if you take pressure off it and put it in neutral...

I've also read in a article in a car and driver the clutch should only be depressed for 5 seconds at most at a time.

 

[D See 2]

there's no question about it... holding the clutch in for any amount of time puts wear and tear on the throwout bearing and pressure plate diaphragm.

 

[sportlinecrx]

so youre saying this quickly leads to the throwing out of the throw out bearing? jp

 

[highperboi]

dang that sucks i always do this. And when dragging i sit there for hella long just waiting to go.

 

[jamesA]

Originally posted by DTEC@Nov 14 2003, 06:13 PM
there's no question about it... holding the clutch in for any amount of time puts wear and tear on the throwout bearing and pressure plate diaphragm.

when I'm coasting down my street I just put it in neutral and let it coast with my foot off the clutch.

 

[seanjuan]

time to kick an old bad habbit I guess
I've started forcing myself to put'er in neutral now instead of holding in the clutch
I still catch myself not doing it sometimes but I'm working on it

the only thing that sucks about it is how it kills reaction time when sitting at a light, unless you are paying really close attention all of a sudden the light turns green and you still have to put the clutch in and shift to 1st before you can hit the gas
oh well, I guess it's better than F'ing up the clutch assembly

 

[CRXRookie]

I thought holding down the clutch reduced the life of the clutch itself? I had a friend tell me that a while ago. He said it's melts the clutch or something...?

 

[92civicb18b1]

Anytime the clutch disengages then re-engages there always gonna be wear, there will be more wear if your like my sister and try to rev it to 6 grand and slowly release the clutch everytime..poor staurn..LOL

But rookie, your friend doesn't know what hes talking about, think about it, if your disengaging the pressure plate/disc everytime you push the clutch in it only can leave wear for the throw out bearing, thus putting it in nuetral and letting go of the pedal will leave nothing to be engaged/disengaged = no wear.

 

[CRX_B16B]

I think you were talking about what I wrote and it is the main thrust bearing in the engine that it wears due to the crank walking back and riding on it when pressure from the clutch is off and it will wear your throw out bearing too. B)

 

[cointelpro]

ive never held in the clutch at a light, or any other time for that matter, maybe its because im lazy and i dont wanna spend the energy to hold the damned clutch pedal down for that long. laziness always wins!

 

[94RedSiGal]

Originally posted by CRXRookie@Nov 17 2003, 12:29 PM
I thought holding down the clutch reduced the life of the clutch itself? I had a friend tell me that a while ago. He said it's melts the clutch or something...?

Riding the clutch pedal shortens the life of your clutch by a lot. The dead pedal is where your left foot should be resting when not shifting gears. Keeping the clutch pedal depressed for long periods of time, even a little bit down, heats up the system... and that's how the clutch gets fried too early. I've seen my old pressure plates... and they looked wicked baked after about 100K miles of use.

Several mechanics have told me that using your clutch pedal as a foot rest fries the system prematurely.