Ball2687

Well i was just wondering if it would hurt anything to pull the e-brake when you are at a long redlight with the car still in gear. i know this deserves a stupid answer but please be nice

StygianMax

iTrader: (8)

Auto: okay (just like stepping on brake pedal)
Manual: must depress clutch pedal or you'll stall the car.

MChapel

iTrader: (1)

The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.

Pearl99GXE

If you are sitting at a light with your foot on the clutch, you are burning it up. At light put in neutral and take foot off clutch.

StygianMax

iTrader: (8)

Ooops, I certainly didn't mean to suggest doing that. My bad. I was assuming the original question came from an owner with an A/T. An M/T owner should know about the stalling & clutch wear issues.

JeffesonM

iTrader: (5)

How are you burning up the clutch if you sit there with it in? I'm not disagreeing, just trying to understand.

Midknight MAXX

iTrader: (1)

I don't think you are burning it up, you are wearing out the springs though.

Pearl99GXE

Not sure. Was always told that you burn the clutch sitting at a light or rocking back and forth at a light on a slight incline.
Not a mechanic and have no proof. Just know that my last stick car had over 140 thousand miles on the original clutch.(Ford)

hacim105

iTrader: (6)

Yes but that's rocking back and forth not just sitting there completely still. At most holding in your clutch in a stopped position will maybe wear out the spring but I doubt that. Now if you're moving and you have your clutch in, you will burn it out.

maxfanfromohio

iTrader: (7)

Please remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people that ask questions. I can't remember what movie that is from.

Tapio

Bleh, holding the clutch in while at a stop light will not burn the clutch or cause any damage in any sort. My last car went 160,000 miles on the original clutch and I'm notorious for riding the clutch constantly while I drive and using the gears rather than brakes to slow my car down. Only thing I ever did that hurt my clutch was let my friends, especially female, drive my car. EVERY time they did, car would reek of burning clutch which has a very distint smell.

fearthegecko

south park, i think. But the TV show, not the movie.

At a long red light:

A/T: Put it into park
M/T: put into neutral, and put E-Brake on

But that's if you're too dman lazy to just wait at a light with your foot on the brake.......

MacGyver265

The springs can take it. The only wearing surfaces when you depress the clutch are on the thrust bearing. Don't worry about it, it won't hurt anything to hold it in at a light. I would just pop it into neutral just so I wouldn't wear out my foot waiting at the light. Shoes are expensive these days!

96SE5Spd

Holding,or Riding the Clutch doesn't burn the clutch out any quicker it wears out your throw out bearing, ask any mechanic.

Scruit

I'm going to guess that the original poster meant AT, because "Sitting at a red light in gear" has to be an auto, or a manual with the clutch in.

Holding the clutch in at a long red is going to wear out your leg before it wears out the clutch system! Also, you will fail a British driver's test if you sit at the light for more than a couple of seconds with it in gear and your foot on the clutch. The fear is that you could set off prematurely if somone taps you from behind or some other such bollocks. Regardless of the reason, my friend failed his test for sitting for 10 seconds at a red and holing in the cluth with the gearbox in 1st instead of applying the handbrake, putting iot in neutral and releasing the clutch.

Similarly, if you are waiting to turn left across traffic you should still have your wheels facing parallel withthe road, not ****ed towards the left. If you get rearended you could be pushed into oncoming traffic if your wheels are turned to the left.
In an auto there's no real benefit to putting the handbrake on if the footbrake is already on.

Anyone who drives a stick in stop-and-go downtown traffic will tell you that getting the chance to rest your clutch foot is welcomed wherever possible!

96SE5Spd

If your Clutch is in durring a rear end collision and you lift your foot off the clutch (you will probably do this fast ie:Clutch Drop) you will most likely stall your car in some cases this will acctually help the situation. At most your car will go a foot if you just drop the clutch while it is in gear as the engine will act as a break. I guess I just don't understand the british.


It seems to me that if your wheels are straight and you get rear ended the results would be the same depending on the situation, but then again I don't live in England.

fearthegecko

actually, they teach that in the US, too. If you get hit with your wheels straight, you go straight. If your wheels are turned left, you go left.....into oncoming traffic.
Also, if your car stalls out and you're still in gear, you will still move. So if you do happen to drop the clutch, even though you're not giving the car any gas, you will still move. Depending on how fast the guy behind you was going will determine how much momentum your car will have as it travels into the other lane.



i guess it's easier to bash on the british than to think about the situation logically.

JeffesonM

iTrader: (5)

that may be true, but your car will move less if it's in gear than if its in neutral.

cbr2

iTrader: (1)

I would like to disagree w/ the people that say ridingit won't burn it... It does burn it.. Think about how the damn thing works.. If the plates are separated they still rub in there.. just not enough to make the car move.. Now holding thepedal down w/ the car not in gear is dif.. because the clutch is allowed to rotate at the speed of the plates.. But if it is in gear.. Then.. You would be moving the plates around a fixed item that no matter what anyone says will create wear...
I can got 500,000 miles on a clutch if it is mostly highway driving milage is NO indication of clutch wear.. Start & stops quantity means 1000x's more... If i wear to drive 100 miles w/out stopping or drove to the end of my road (.25miles) I would still have had the same clutch wear assuming I used all the same gears to get there.

96SE5Spd

This is what I was getting at.

96SE5Spd

I know that your car will go left if your wheels are turned left, I was never taught this in drivers ed.


I was thinking about the situation logically, I have a 96 no side air bags, if I'm at an intersection turning left and I have my wheels facing straight when I get rearended I'm going to get T-boned, depending on how fast the car is comming it will probably kill me or at least mame me. Now same situation but my wheels turned left I go straight into traffic and have a head on collision my airbag deploys and also depending on how fast the other car is comming I could either walk away or get hurt pretty badly, but unless it is a large vehicle or semi I will probably recover fully.Either way there is the potential for death but less likely in the front end collision than the side. There is alot less protection in the doors than in the front of the car. But this is also why I said depending on the situation.

They also tell you that if you know you are going to be rearended to let off the brake to lessen the impact.So whether or not you are riding the clutch shouldn't matter.

fearthegecko

okay: you're at a light, waiting for oncoming traffic to dissapate so you can make a left turn. If your wheels are straight and you get rearended, you go foward, not into in coming traffic, just straight ahead. How far you go depends on how fast the guy behind you was going. But if you have your foot on the brake, not that far. If your wheels are turned left, you get knocked into oncoming traffic, then possibly T-boned or a head on, depending on how many lanes of traffic you're going across, and how much your wheels are turned. How do you get T-boned if your wheels are straight?

96SE5Spd

Yeah I figured this out this morning, for some reason I was thinking at the white line waiting for the light to turn green thats how I got T-boned if your wheels are straigt, then I was out in the middle of the intersection and all of a sudden it hit me.

blizz20oma

iTrader: (1)

If the plates are separated, they still rub? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I thought with the pedal fully pressed in, the plates are totally separate as shown and told from howstuffworks:

"When the clutch pedal is pressed...a series of pins near the outside of the spring causes the spring to pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc (see below). This releases the clutch from the spinning engine."

How is friction causing wear if the two aren't touching each other?


I'm just curious because I've always been told the only consequence, in gear or not at a light, of holding the clutch in is wear on the throwout bearing. Even DBM went with that notion and he has a pretty good understanding of the way things work. Going against DBMs word here is like a cardinal sin