New driver questions on clutch help please don't want to burn it out..

daveyjp

kmb500 wrote: »

Hmm. I use the clutch all the time, when I accelerate I balance it out with the clutch, and when I brake I have the clutch fully down. I worry that the car will stall. Like I said, if you're in first and you just take your foot off the clutch too quickly doesn't it stall?


I have always driven like this. My instructor never said I had a problem with it. I can drive perfectly competently. I guess it's just a different style of driving.
I'm gonna pop out in my car now for a few mins just to see what you mean.

Sounds like a family friend who used to de clutch when going round corners, scared the hell out of everyone who was ever with her as she grappled to keep the car on the road.

"Gears to go, brakes to slow" has worked for me for 500,000 miles or so.

Only ever had one clutch replaced, on a car which had done 90,000 when I bought it so no idea how it had been treat before that.

My dad was a driving instructor for 25 years. He had 7-8 cars which all did 100,000+ miles and none of them ever had a new clutch. I took one car from him and took it to close on 200,000 on the original clutch.

Paradigm

GwylimT wrote: »

Drivers are still taught to slow down using gears, but are now taught its okay to skip gears as you go down. When you slow down using the brake you brake until the clutch needs to to down then change gear, otherwise you are coasting which definitely shouldn't be taught by instructors. Coasting should lead to minors on the practical test.

My boy passed his test 3 & a bit years ago, he was never taught to slow the car using the gears.
Instead, if making a turn for example, the procedure was to slow the car to the correct speed using the brakes then block change 5th (4th) to 2nd & drive around the turn.
When stopping there was no need to use the gears, he could if he wanted too (as long as the clutch was released after the change) or he could stop in 4th or 5th.


That's how he drove when he passed.

AdrianC

Most instructors will teach to pass the test, and no more. Test-pass standard is absolute bare minimum on the day of the check, just like an MOT. But, just like an MOT, many seem to regard it as some horrific nightmare highpoint...

As for our friend here... <shudder>

BeenThroughItAll

AdrianC wrote: »

I wonder if their Yaris has rear brakes? It's not quite the usual pattern...

Mm, I'm not so sure. Some threads with unlikely tales about finance, then some contributions to the motoring forum with a professed lack of knowledge interspersed with definitive statements from the standpoint of an expert... I've been wondering for a while now.

diceydeb

Book a few refresher lessons if just to get your clutch control mastered . At least then you wont be damaging your own vehicle lol. Tutors are used to learners riding the clutch n stuff and once you have mastered this bit it will all seem so much easier. Trust me I only learnt to drive at 48 and now 2 yrs on I wonder why I never got the hang of the clutch bit sooner! Its second nature now 😊

Richard53

Here's a reason why engine braking is a Good Idea:


When the car is in gear with the clutch up and the engine running, the wheels must be turning. If you then brake hard and meet a slippery patch on the road, the driving wheels cannot physically stop without stalling the engine. The car is therefore less likely to skid.


If you try to drive a Land Rover down a steep muddy slope, first in neutral using the brakes, and then in a low gear with no brakes, you will see what I mean.


But I am calling troll on the whole thread, to be honest.

EssexHebridean

neilmcl wrote: »

Sorry mate but I never do either.

I'll add to that 1%...which thankfully seems to be getting bigger!

kmb500 wrote: »

Why must I be trolling? I have seen very occasionally a gradient sign when I've been on holiday (not me driving), but never seen one that says "Low gear". I didn't realise that was a real picture when you posted it.

I live in Cambridgeshire which is exceptionally flat and has no hills to speak of at all. Why would I have ever seen a sign like that? Because, last time I looked, driving tests were rather more general than just limited to a single county. Clue - if your driving license limits you to only driving in Cambridgeshire, it's probably not a real one...


I'm not gonna change my driving style based on "what if someone rams into me", that's absurd. That is their problem not mine if they go into the back of me. It becomes your problem just the very second you then slam into the back of me. Trust me on this one.

kmb500 wrote: »

I dont see why it is such a big deal that I have never driven up a serious hill and never come across a sign that says Low Gear. I'm not blind, if I read it I would know what it meant.

Why are you all treating me LIke im stupid.

I'm not being drawn on that final point...

Agree with those saying Troll - and that's without looking at this character's forum history!

A note though - I passed my test (1st time) in 1991 - and even then "Skip changes" were taught as an accepted method of changing down the gears - I learned in a car with a 4-speed box and learned 4 > 2 and 3 > 1 as standard. It's far from being a recent thing.

EssexHebridean

AdventureRocks wrote: »

I don't want to burn out my clutch and I am a little rusty on driving.

So at traffic lights when waiting can I leave it in first with clutch down with brake on or is that bad for clutch?

When breaking is putting the clutch all the way down and breaking at the same time bad? Should I break then put clutch in at last minute?

Also on hill starts does everyone roll a little bit backwards? I am putting handbrake on building up revs then relasing hand break..

Appreciate your help

OP - getting back to your original point.

When you arrive at a set of lights, apply the handbrake, take the car out of gear, release the clutch.
When braking you depress the clutch when a gear change is required, whether that is to change down a gear or to put the car into neutral. In an emergency stop situation (which should be VERY rare indeed) you hit the brake first followed by the clutch - this prevents the wheels from locking up.
Hill starts - take yourself right back to your lessons - remember when pulling away you were taught to find the "biting point" at which you felt the car pull slightly against the handbrake - THEN release the handbrake and pull away? Same principle on a hill start. Re-learn this properly before you ram back into someone and cost yourself money if I were you.

bsod

EssexHebridean wrote: »

In an emergency stop situation (which should be VERY rare indeed) you hit the brake first followed by the clutch - this prevents the wheels from locking up.

It prevents the engine stalling, abs prevents the wheels locking up

iolanthe07

Honestly KMB500, assuming you're not trolling, you might be much better and safer in an automatic.