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Hey I was reading some posts about clutch life and that riding the clutch is really bad for the clutch. I THINK i do this all the time which is why Im asking.

What exactly is "riding the clutch." when I drive like a good driver should I shift just below 3000 rpms. So i know Im doing this right - but when shifting from, say 2nd to 3rd, or 3rd to 4th, i usually let the clutch out half way, blip gas just a TAD, then finally release the clutch so you can't feel any transition. is it bad to sort of hold the clutch is a bit longer than needed so you don't get the jerky motion???

 
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Holding the clutch halfway engaged is riding the clutch. This is generally bad for it.

 
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so its better to just pop it and get that jerky motion like you don't know how to drive stick?

 
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i posted this a couple days ago

 
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mm.... there is an inbetween there.... basically, no matter what you do, there will be clutch wear..... so, I wouldnt say just dump the clutch in between shifts, just release it a bit faster than you would compared to engaging 1st gear. Drive normal, and the clutch should last a long time.

I used to try to keep things very smooth by applying a little gas before the tranny fully engaged..... but that puts more unnecessary wear....

 
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Don't yank the clutch off unless your racing of course, but you need to let the clutch out gradually and apply the gas gradually....If you do it correctly you won't feel anything and you won't be riding the clutch, but everyone does it once in a while. There is a fine line there though....

 
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when the engine rpm and the tranny rpm are not equal and the clutch is midway engaged (slipping) it wears the friction material away, this is riding the clutch? i do it sometimes shifting to 2nd, ill ease out on the clutch and apply to much gas, so the car is accelerating, but rpms are increasing more than the mph, the clutch engages kinda and the rpms drop to the right value. i just rode my clutch. im a bad driver.

 
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^^^ yeah, from youre descrption sounds like youre riding the clutch.......

 
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moved to the General Auto Ramblings forum

 
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Am I the only one who has had their clutch last to 90,000? Everybody seems to burn their clutch up pretty fast. I am hard on my car, but its held up. I am going to replace it before it goes out on me though. Starting to get a little burning smell from it every few weeks or so.

I know this is an old thread. Just trying to figure out if a clutch will slip due to the rain?? Anybody? Or else it is just my B-pipe?

 
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i've got no problems with mine. 50557miles and counting.

 
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If you like to shift like that go from 1st at 4k to 3rd and then from 3rd at around 4K to 5th. This will give you the desired "gas saving, good driver affect" and make it much longer between shifts. This way you don't half let out the clutch and you are only using the clutch 2 times vs 4. MUCH MORE EFFICIENT "GOOD DRIVER"

 
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i need some advice guys if you can give me some, i have a act stage 2 clutch from my d16 that was only used for 6 months do you think i should use that one or get a brand new exedy clutch ?

 
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when they say riding the clutch, dont bring in the shifting part of driving because it has nothing to do with it, its basicly saying ur driving down the highway and u press the clutch just a little while driving, and keep it pressed for a while.

 
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mine has lasted 174,000 miles

 
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Do you rest your foot on the clutch pedal when you are not shifting? if you do then you are doing what could be considered "Riding the clutch" Stop that. instead, when you are not shifting, there is a nice little pedal to the left of the clutch... its attached to the floor and makes a wonderfull place to rest your foot when you arnt using the clutch.

 
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Im on my third cluth...heh

 
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I... have an auto

 
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well i hope i dont kill mine

 
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wtf, HOW??

 
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yup. that's riding the clutch.

if you're holding your clutch at the friction point for just a second while you rev match the next gear, that's fine and normal. it also prevents you from having a "jerky" shift transition.

 
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im installing a act stage 2 clutch and 11lb flywheel i have some arp pressure plate bolts and i can get the flywheel bolts do you think they are necessary or are the stock bolts just as good ?

 
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I guess not riding the clutch

 
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I'd also like to add that second only to riding the clutch, not rev-matching your downshifts is the biggest cause of clutch / tranny wear. Oh, and be sure you don't have the pedal shoved on the floor at a stoplight. Put it in neutral, please.

A wise old man once told me "A good downshift should be heard, not felt."

A manual tranny has an input shaft, which can be disengaged when you are in neutral, and an output shaft thats connected permanently to the wheels. To get the gears engaged, the input shaft has to be turning at the same rate as the output shaft. In the bad old days, while you were in neutral you had to blip the accelerator to get the engine turning at the same rate as the transmission shaft and wheels before you could engage the gears. Then you had to quickly shift into gear when the RPM's of both the wheels and the engine were the same.

New trannies have synchro rings. The rings engage when you shift with the clutch pedal down and forcibly spin the input shaft to the correct velocity to match the engine. The synchros are sacrificial: they wear down so your gears don't have to. It has been pointed out in numerous threads that our trannies are arguably the weakest link in the 7th gen, so in addition to taking care of your clutch, take care of your tranny by rev-matching to conserve your synchros as much as possible.

If you are upshifting, then the wear is pretty minimal, as you drop RPM's from one shift to the next and the synchros dont' have to do much work at all to sync the shafts. However, when downshifting, you usually are adding 1000's of RPMs between gears. You cause lots of synchro wear when you force the tranny to spin a shaft up +1500 rpm in under a second on a downshift to get power in a corner racing style. It's wear like that that causes hard shifting around the 3rd to 5th year of the car's life if it was driven hard.

So what to do to stop this wear? If you feel a lurch when you suddenly double your RPM's you are probably wearing your synchros more than you should be. Rev match the shift. Shift into neutral, rev the engine where you think the rpm's should be, then move the gearshift to shift to the other gear and let off the clutch. presto, less synchro wear.

Hope that helps :-) 105K miles on my clutch, but I can feel it beginning to slip on colder days taking off from stoplights. I'll probably get another 10-20K out of it.

 
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what you do is perfectly fine. riding the clutch is when you rest your foot on the pedal while driving and mess with it or whatever. almost 70k on my k20a2, just had the tranny off about 3k ago and the clutch still looked brand new. OEM clutches are pretty forgiving to mistakes.

 
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yeah, i'm hard on my car and it's lasted 115,000miles...still works perfectly. I do rev match when i downshift though..

 
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i dont downshift when im coming to a stop. just put it in neutral and brake. is this retarded?

 
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You're not retarded lots of ppl do it. I downshift so it saves on brakes with engine braking. 84,000+ on stock clutch. I can't wait for it to go though so I can get a stiffer one. I hate the feel of the OEM one.

 
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i engine brake instead of regular braking because my pads throw out so much dust on my wheels. hah.

 
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my philosophy has always been brakes are easier to replace than transmission components lol :S