Re: New Crystal Grey In Las Vegas

I believe you are right. You are pressing the clutch pedal, thus clutch is disconnected from the flywheel. You can rev to eleventybillion revs, and the car won't move. Thus no clutch wear.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/clutch3.htm

 

If your clutch is properly adjusted you won't get any additional clutch wear --however-- you WILL cause extra wear on the throwout bearing. If your clutch is even slightly out of adjustment, you will also put extra load on it too.

There is also a safety issue to consider. If you are bumped from behind, or if something distracting happens inside the cabin, you are just 1 clutch release away from driving into the intersection and potentially getting t-boned -- and THAT isn't good.

End result: I'd say your friend is basically wrong, but it still isn't a safe practice.

 

From what I've been told your friend is partially right. Its not that you will wear the clutch disk or the throwout bearing per se, but the springs on the pressure plate will eventually lose their elasticity. This in turn will cause premature clutch disk failure from a lack of sufficent pressure on the disk.

I may be off base...

 

Also, FWIW I do the same thing as your friend...put the car in neutral. Thats how my pops taught me to drive way back when...

 

I leave the car in neutral at a light with the clutch out (why wear out your foot as well as the throwout bearing?) BUT keep your right foot firmly on the break! When I see the opposite traffic start to stop, I get the car in first and ready my launch.

 

I leave the clutch in with the foot on the brake when stopped. I've got about 170K on a daily driver with the original clutch and tranny with pretty much ALL city miles. ... just my 0.02$

 

just pay attention on the road. i leave it in neutral until i see the other intersection light turns yellow, then i clutch and put in gear. by that time, you will have sufficient amount of time to go

 

I shift to neutral once I've stopped. I leave it in gear when making left or right hand turns, unless the oncoming traffic is heavy, then I put it into neutral. Last thing I want to do is go launching into oncoming traffic if someone bumps me.

 

I always live it in neutral at the light. 99% of the people react slow to green lights in Tucson, so I can still shift it into first and move out before all the sheep driving automatics (including the fools attempting to anticipate the light).

I just wish the lights where the same as in Europe. red, red&yellow, green. Put the car in gear when the light goes red&yellow.

 

Graffiti

just watch the stop light of the moving traffic... (the light that is green when u have red)... When their light goes red, your light will go green in about 3 seconds.