Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Clutch in or out at stoplights?

I should have asked this in the orginal post but...

With the clutch down is there not still some drag between the flywheel, clutch disk and Pressure Plate? Allowing it to rub the entire time you are setting at the stop light.

Where as, with the clutch out and the Trans not in gear the clutch assembly moves as one. But does this create worse drag in the Trans?

When the clutch pedal is down, there should be little if any drag, at least it should be insignificant. If there is any drag, it is hard to engage a gear when you try to move the shift lever.

In the old days, the throw out bearing had to lift off the clutch fingers slightly when the pedal was fully up so that it didn't burn off the grease and cause pre mature throw out bearing failure. Current design keeps the throwout bearing constantly touching the fingers at all times. The bearings are better built as are the seals and the lubricant is far better than in those old days.

About what is happening inside the trans when the clutch pedal is out and the trans is in neutral. The input shaft of the transmission would be spinning at engine speed. The rest of the trans is not moving as they are tied to the stopped wheels. That means that the bearings (needle or pin bearings) between the input shapt and the main shaft would be getting heavy use, but they are designed for exactly that purpose and there should be no significant wear.

If you want to cut any chances of any wear, shut the engine off and park the car.

Really it depends on where I am...

If it's a known stop light, and I watched it turn red, then I'll probly do the neutral thing and just relax until the final yellow light before mine turns green.

If it's unknown or I don't know how long till it will turn green, I leave it in gear.

I'm a yellow light watcher and like to start letting out the clutch right before it turns green to get a smooth takeoff. Back in Iowa I had the delays timed out and could roll across the stop line as the light changed at full speed. Always scared/impressed everyone, but was obviously dangerous if someone ran the light.

I'm down with beowulf, though... clutch out and in gear spinning the tires is WAY cooler