BallisticSquid
Senior Member
I drove stick exclusively for 20 years after I got my license in '86. During that time, I owned 3 new cars ('91 civic hatch, '96 accord, '00 4Runner) and put about 120k miles on each. Prior to those was an '83 chevette and an '82 VW quantum. Never had I heard that you should leave the car in neutral rather than have the clutch to the floor when sitting at a traffic light. I've never had to replace a clutch or had clutch issues.I’ve always considered the act of disengaging/engaging the clutch to be “harder” on it than leaving it depressed. If it’s a quick stop sign or short traffic light leaving it in and keeping it in gear takes half as many clutch presses to do.
If you’re sitting at a light for minutes on end then definitely throw it in neutral after you’ve already shifted into 1st gear coming to a stop.
The biggest thing I’ve always been concerned about is having the gear locked out or having to shift into 1st gear quickly to avoid someone rear ending me which is why I do what I do. I’ve never had a clutch failure in 20 years of driving manual cars but the method could be adjusted if you’re concerned about it.
1. Shift into 1st gear while slowing.
2. After you have stopped and are not rolling shift to neutral and take your foot off the clutch.
The trick is getting it into gear while moving to prevent the lockout. Similar to motorcycles which can be even more finicky!
Today, watch any video on the internet about driving manual and it's made to seem that if you drive this way you'll prematurely wear out the throwout bearing and ruin your clutch. Is this something new with modern clutches? I am teaching my son how to drive manual and I'm reluctant to teach him to put the car in neutral at a stop light. In bad traffic, I'd put the car in neutral and let the clutch out just to give my leg a rest.
Regarding difficulty getting the car into gear, years ago I can remember doing the "shift into second" first thing to get the car to go into gear from a stop occasionally. Sometimes reverse could be tricky and putting into first gear and then reverse would help. Today I go into second before first sometimes without thinking about it from old habit.
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