I’ve been releasing the clutch way too fast and skipping the bite point causing jerky shifts because I was scared to roast it. Thank you for this video explaining that pausing on the bite point for a few seconds when shifting as well as pausing on it to allow it to match revs when downshifting isn’t bad for it and is considered normal wear. Lifesaver man thank you!
Ironically what you were previously doing was actually putting more wear on your clutch. When you release the clutch too quick often refered to as dumping the clutch you are essentially slamming the clutch plate against the flywheel which is spinning at whatever speed you're reving the engine. Smooth operation is what makes clutches last. How long can a clutch last? How long is a piece of string. Some silly racer boy can burn through a clutch in 10000 miles or less than a year and someone else can make that same clutch last 200000 miles and 15 years.
@@gravemind6536 exactly I don’t know even know why I didn’t consider the other components of the clutch. You’d think I would’ve put two and two together being so into cars😂
To summarize: you want to keep heat out of the clutch. The clutch’s job is to match your transmission revs with the engines revs using friction. Excessive friction makes it overheat which increases wear. To avoid wear avoid staying on the bite point for over 5 consecutive seconds especially when there is a large difference in speed between the transmisión and the engine. If you ever smell burning make sure to give the vehicle time to cool. And diagnose what causes it so that you can improve. Don’t be scared to use the clutch it’s meant to be used. Yes it’s expensive to replace but it’s even more expensive to replace your transmission. So definitely USE IT. That’s what it’s for.
"for over 5 consecutive seconds" what. That's a fucking eternity! On the other hand I'm pretty sure I rode the clutch for a bit in stop and go traffic.
@@user-mn8lz7gf6d in stop and go traffic once my car starts to move i immediately clutch in and coast. it's more work on the legs but i assume it'll help to reduce wear on the clutch lol
I think most people especially men drive like total knobheads and generally abuse their cars when young but yeah you soon learn to take care of things. I am yet to replace a clutch and I intend on never having to do so. I have however blown out a tyre from a reckless overtake I learned from that big time it only cost me £50 and 30 minutes of my time but I did it to save 2 minutes. I overtook a tractor on a narrow stretch of road and ended up in the gutter and blew a rear tyre thankfully I was only doing 40mph. The way I drive now is so different, I plan ahead so much and don't focus on speed but instead on the flow of traffic. In a traffic jam I never stop for more than 10 seconds because I just keep the car rolling in 1st gear so by the time I reach traffic thats stopped it starts moving again it pisses people off behind me because they want me to accelerate to a stop quicker but I don't care about them. Honestly anyone speeding about like a nutter in the city is wasting their time you get to the next parked car, traffic light or traffic jam quicker.
I've watched a number of videos on clutch use--all of yours are very well done: clear, concise and easy to understand. Not many people teach well--you do. Cheers.
Been driving over a year. I drive lutons, transporters and cars hundreds of miles per week in my job. And I'm still learning with your videos. I wish I'd known about you during my lessons instead of the usual ones who explain potential issues but no actual detail or fine tuning. You're doing magnificent with your videos, and I'll be passing your channel to all and sundry. Keep on drivin'.
Learned clutch in a 99 miata. First 2-3 weeks were torturously frustrating, but i finally got most of the technique down and its been 99% joy ever since. Miatas are notoriously forgiving to learn on.
Great video. One additional way to reduce clutch wear is to prefer using the brakes to slow down, rather than changing down gears for engine braking. Both are valid driving techniques but replacing the brake pads will usually (depending on your car) be much cheaper than replacing a clutch, so if we can redirect more of the wear and tear to the brakes rather than clutch, that’s a win in my opinion.
There is just some odd satisfying feeling when shifting up the gears and you do it quick enough that you catch the engine rpm on the right time/speed for the next gear and you don't get that jerking nor do you need the clutch to rev-match for you.
It's even better when you perfectly match engine rpm and transmission when down shifting by double clutching. Because of the fluid dynamics, if your selector has a bit of play, your shifter gets sucked into the correct gear as you select it. Feels nice.
@@olliebonugli8881 just spent the day rev matching with just synchros and it's just not as smooth (and even slower in low gears or cold temperatures). Reminded me why I kept on double clutching lol. I don't know how I spent those couple years not doing it 😂
Sadly, it's annoying to try to do it this way in the US because of the rev hang in modern cars. It's not necessarily bad, but waiting so long for the revs to drop (especially from 1st to 2nd) while everybody else is driving an automatic means you'll be slowing down the traffic behind you.
Driver for like 20+ years and I realised that lately I'm often found myself with the foot leaning on the clutch pedal. I will work on it and hope to re-educate myself.
Well, I'm glad I watched this video. Being a newbie to driving manual, I thought I was wildly abusing my clutch all the time by being inexperienced. Yes, I've mistakenly done some stupid things like absent-mindedly forcing it into reverse without pressing the clutch or dropping it at a high RPM a couple times, but now that I've seen this, the vast majority of the time, I haven't been destroying my clutch, and I certainly haven't overheated it, and I've never smelled it. Makes me feel a little better, because it's frightfully expensive to fix, and that's a terrifying prospect.
I have my license for only 7 months, and I drive better than some people who have owned a car longer than me, that is because I have taught myself all these tips you talked about by observing other professional drivers
When I was first learning manual, the guy teaching me always got on me for pushing the clutch pedal in for more then a second or so. It made driving terrible. Videos like these really help me rationalize proper clutch use
My father taught me all of these things. I've been driving for a couple of years now (4 I believe) and I have always tried to be aware of how I'm driving so I don't put any excessive wear on the clutch. My mother and my sister don't really care and one of the things that they didn't believe, was that the release bearing can wear like that. They always stood on the clutch when at a red light and now the release bearing has been making this horrible noise for the past few months. It's still working, but I'm just waiting for it to fail. At that point the car will be scrapped anyways, if not earlier. Time will tell if the bearing can outlast the car haha
Thank you for that video. I've been driving for 18 years now, I've had 4 cars so far and in every one of them, I had clutch problems. Thanks to this vid I know where I made the mistakes.
I've been driving for 7 years and was told about these things, but not down to the details such as "stay below 2k RPM". Definitely gonna learn more from this channel
Well it depends, if you're on flat roads, staying under 2k is good for efficiency. But going up a hill, you'll want to downshift to be above 3k or maybe even 4k depending on how powerful the car is. Going downhill you'll want to do the same as going uphill, but of course not pressing the accelerator, so you can use engine braking going downhill to not use up your brakes.
Thank you so much for these videos! After years of driving automatics, I bought a used manual car for cheap with 158K miles on it. After a month of learning in a hilly area, I've embarrassingly worn what was left of the clutch badly and I'm working on getting it replaced. I'll try and keep these in mind.
I’ve been driving manual since I got my license 8 years ago (I’m American so it’s not near as common a skill here). My stepsister wants to learn to drive manual in my car so thank you so much for helping get together a little to-do list on things to teach her. I want her to start with good habits but since I’ve been doing it so long on my own and have never taught someone else before, I had no clue how to teach it
Not sure why I clicked on this video but, you are a natural teacher! Great explanation! I've been driving clutch since I bought a 2003 Honda Civic in 2003, but never really thought about clutch dynamics and usage. I basically just felt if it was correct (smooth without over revving or choking the engine) or not. Glad I've been doing it correctly since I've only had to replace the clutch once in 20 years (yes same civic!!), and that was after the first 4 years when I was learning/intermediate. I'm getting it replaced as I type (maybe that's why I clicked!?) as it is soft now and a bit hard to start without excessive revs on steep hills. Cheers mate!
Yes, trust your instinct if you have it. No need to get too wrapped up in 'rev matching' (very trendy term it seems currently). Like me you probably learned to drive in cars without a rev counter, no bad thing to develop a 'feel' for driving smoothly.
I’ve had a car for about a month and a half now, and I’m glad I searched this 🤣 I’ve basically been riding the clutch at every set of lights I’ve gone through. Probably need to change my driving style 🤣
Watching these videos as I await a very expensive clutch replacement to be completed. I expect my next one to last quite a bit longer after learning all the things I was doing to destroy the old one. Thanks for the great instruction!
Just replaced my clutch on 2005 Toyota Corolla and when I say it was burned it was burned it literally falling apart but now that it tools me 8 hours of hard labor to do myself non stop I will definitely be driving better Thanks man I learned how to drive standard myself and I definitely mistakes I live inDallas so big city and your tips are fire 🔥 thankyou
great video. I have owned 3 BMW manual cars as well as a truck for over twenty years and it's the best thing ever here in the US. I look forward to driving my z3 every day. I was self taught and still picked up some great info from your lessons. Now I drive as smoooth as I ever had. I can never do without a manual car.
@@ConquerDriving We really do not have training for manual cars in the US at all! You pretty much learn on your own or from a friend. I really enjoy driving my beamer more than ever! I look for reasons to leave the house and drive! Thanks.
You mention some more advanced techniques to avoid clutch wear, but that you wouldn't explain them in much detail since they can be hard on newer drivers. I really like your style of teaching and would be interested in seeing a video on some advanced techniques with a manual transmission. I've been learning manual after driving an automatic car for some time, and I have found your videos extremely helpful in supplementing my learning and clearing up confusion.
as a young person learning to drive i find these very usefull as i dont really have that much time to practice i only really drive when i have to do something its nice to learn things even though im not in the car
yo same, remember don't be scared to use the clutch, when I started I was scared of killing the clutch so I tried to use it the least I could, I stalled a lot because I went to slow without pressing the clutch
I'm not sure why i'm watching this, I haven't driven in anything with a manual for years... And I don't think i ever will again with hybrids and electric cars becoming more and more popular, especially for company car drivers (which I am). Informative video though, well done.
if you have trouble driving manual watch his video you learn something from it, you wish he is your driving teacher from the very start, but you can teach yourself and get some pointers from good videos learn driving manual or any car
With the spring load in the plate, its okay when past say 2nd gear as it smooths out easier the higher you get up the gears. I found it best just to try and get out of 1st gear as early as possible
My car has never had a changed clutch and it’s been 24 years from factory with 278k miles, it locked up on me yesterday at a light and I had to shut it off and shift to 2nd and went home all the way in 2nd. I’m not surprised, I think it’s about time for it to get changed out😅
The best I've done so far: 2001 Cavalier, I bought brand new -- I got rid of the car at 15.5 years and 181,000 miles (nearly 300,000 km). At this time, the car had considerable corrosion, but the transmission was still functioning as well as it had when the car was new. The clutch was still factory original. I had zero maintenance or repairs on the transmission or clutch.
@@markf5314 That's exactly how people told me too and it's so unhelpful. Like no, it literally has nothing to do with how slowly you release it. It's all based on finding the spot where the clutch engages
I almost never (unless I really need to) get the car going from a stop with extra revs. I find I just don't need to do it with my car ('22 Corolla). I figure that will also help reduce wear. I am pretty much doing what you suggest in the video but I really appreciate the thorough explanation and also showing he kind of wear your clutch has gone through. That was an awesome addition to the video! My car has rev-matching but it defaults to "off" which is good because I like to rev-match manually. It is much more fun and rewarding. Thanks for justifying/reinforcing my clutch habits 👍
I bought my first car about 3 weeks ago, the clutch is really bad. The bite point is really high up, I thought about adjusting the cable when I found out it was hydraulic. It's a 2001 nissan almera with 120,000 miles on it. I try to keep the clutch alive for as long as possible, this video actually helped. Thanks!
I remember Car Throttle bought a car a few years ago that was on 540,000 miles and I believe it was still on the original clutch they do last quite a while even if you aren’t the smoothest, still it’s good practice
Great videos, enjoyed the clear info all the way from the US. Thanks for all the hard work. Again fantastic work. Wish you were here when I first started learning standard transmission. Thanks!
This is why i'm releasing the clutch as soon as possible - and i've never had problems for over 8 years 2nd - I rev my engine to a point that there is less stress on the clutch, guys knows how to treat a car
It's always a surprise to me how much some people struggle with things that come naturally to me. Still feel like I learned something. I'm usually either driving my own mx-5 with a light flywheel and very light clutch or my grandmas boxer diesel subaru with fairly heavy clutch and enough torque that you don't even need the gas pedal for a smooth start. Every time I get back into my car it feels like I'm about to step through the floor. Needless to say what works on one car doesn't on the other. And the the heavy-ass Outback is still faster...
I have been driving for 72 years and started the early years using the double declutch method. I now quite often ,miss out gears altogether providing ,I have the correct engine speed.
when you in hill he want you let the car roll back abit and slowly build the rev from there, i felt this help, i been not letting it roll back at all but build rev consistently, short amount of time that does not damage engine
This together with that other video with the pizza slicer has helped me to lose my fixation on friction. I had it in my head that in an ideal world I want to avoid all friction. But rev matching is necessary when changing gears and friction is the precise method the clutch uses to do rev matching. Especially when pulling away, because the drive train is starting at zero and it's friction all the way until it's up to the rpm of the engine.
I have really had to struggle to get it right. Most of my normal driving is fine, but under some circumstances I know I'm doing it wrong. An example would be down shifting. It took about two seconds to realize I'm doing it wrong when the car perked. My biggest confusion at this juncture is while pulling in my driveway. It's on a slant enough that I can just pull in and park. To make the climb without falling back, I use the clutch to stay moving forward. The revs naturally come up trying to get it right.
@@ConquerDriving Absolutely, as well as a few other metrics - For example lifetime average speed (The higher this is the more motorway miles), Total time spent at idle, maybe even things like average throttle percentage (the higher this is, the more hard acceleration the vehicle might have had). Even if these things could only be viewed through diagnostic equipment, it would be fantastic for gauging if a car has had a hard life before buying.
Great video, I like how well you communicate as a teacher. I do have a question about rev-matching for upshifting as you demonstrated around 4:00. For my car, I clutch in for 1->2 but wait quite a while for the revs to drop (through my research on the web, I discovered it's called 'rev hang') but have gotten mixed answers on how to drive with it since I'm new to manual. If I want to get fully into 2 faster, is it acceptable wear to bring the clutch to the bite point quickly after shifting to pull the revs down faster to the point where it matches?
Yes that's ideal, the clutch doesn't really wear when it's rev matching. Many people confuse clutch rev matching with riding the clutch, as long as the clutch is able to bring the revs down and you don't rev it the clutch will be fine. Watch my video on clutch wear.
I do still have a few problems with the clutch, and did smell a fair amount of burning once trying to do a hill start, arghh! But I'm better these days, still not perfect, especially when going down gears, but I'll keep going.
You should have seen the clutch we replaced on the car of one i know... First i took a test drive. It was making funny noises when on idle and when driving, going in 70 km/h on highest gear (5), with a somewhat weak engine, and pressing on the gas pedal to try to accelerate - the rev was up like crazy! It was like driving an automatic car without torque converter lock! The clutch material was... FLAT with the rivets... I was amazed that you could even get the car going!
My old car had a very worn clutch. Quickly had to learn all techniques to preserve it including rolling into a light stop instead of stopping at the light and waiting. Sadly it was over after a inspection due to the workers completely ruining the clutch and lost all time to repair it. Now got a new car but all those techniques remains
13:00. Basically any time you are applying pressure to the clutch peddle you are putting wear into the release bearing. Sure, you can put some wear into the release bearing by resting your foot on the clutch peddle (a no-no), but since there is very little slip (which he talks about) there is very little bearing rotation, and thus wear. What really wears the release bearing quickly is holding the clutch in for long periods of time, like at traffic lights, drive-throughs, heavy stop and go traffic, etc. If you want your release bearing to last as long as possible, basically try to minimize the amount of time you have your foot on the clutch peddle. Regarding whether resting you foot on the clutch wears the desc: yes, yes it does! Just because it isn't slipping all the time, in a noticeable sense, doesn't mean you aren't reducing the clamping force being applied to the disc, and thus reducing the clutch's load carrying capacity. Just because you don't necessarily notice the slipping that happens, doesn't mean it isn't happening. The worse part of this is that the chances of slipping is very load dependent. The higher the load, the more likely it will slip, and the higher the load the more wear any amount of slipping will cause.
Thanks a lot for the videos. I moved to Europe from the US and automatic transmission cars and learned to drive a car with manual transmission on my own. I always hit the clutch when I brake even if I won't change gears. Does that wear the clutch unnecessarily?
@@ConquerDriving I work directly in production, they keep this info quite private. And I'm in the department of clutch covers/pressure plate, the part that you show in the video is the lamell and they male those somewhere elsewhere (afaik it's some fiberglass-metal mix)
Hey Richard. Really love your videos, they have helped immensely as a new driver. Just wondering if you know of any tests i can do to see if i worn my clutch. I stalled in traffic the other day and tried to do a quick start, but all i did was burn the clutch around 4000 rpm :(. There was a terrible smell for a few minutes and now im worried i may have damaged the clutch since its still in its break-in period for my new car. Thanks again.
I've always been "balancing the clutch" whilst holding my cars stationary uphill ever since I began driving cars back in 2007 but never encountered an excessive clutch wear due to doing that.
I've been driving for years but totaIly happy to be corrected. Isn't accelerating in too high a gear bad for the clutch? For example accelerating from 30mph in 5th or 6th gear. Or trying to climb a hill in too high a gear.
If the clutch is fully engaged and there's no slippage, it doesn't care what gear you're in at what speed. If you lug it or redline it, only the engine cares. Some transmissions don't like lugging as well.
Multiplate metal clutches like the one in the Carrera GT, motorcycles, and aftermarket ones, are meant to be ridden, as they work better hot. The tradeoff is, they bite like a vise no matter how you use them, so it forces you to drive like a racer. Great for a super sporty weekend car.
I bought a -00 Nissan Micra with 280 000km (173 000 miles) and the bite point is really high, I was told to not press the clutch down more than needed(so not flooring it), hopefully it'll last a year or 2, I just might have to drive in traffic jams when I get a job and I'm always afraid I'll break it there as I have to use it so much. It also doesn't have a rev meter and it revs up easily on neutral, so that was something to get used to.
