Actually, keeping your foot down on the clutch pedal at a light or something
is unlikely to wear out the clutch itself (although I guess it could) but it
is hard on throw-out bearings.
When you push in the clutch pedal, hydraulic fluid pushes a arm that puchse
the throw-out bearing. This bearing pushes on a heavily spring loaded
pressure plate, which lets the engine spin without transferring that spin to
the transmission (by the clutch disk). So, the flywheel and the pressure
plate spin with the engine, but the clutch disk spins with the transmission.
The clutch disk wears because of friction between the flywheel and the
pressure plate. When the clutch is engaged (foot off the pedal) the three
move as one unit. When the clutch is released (foot on the pedal) there is a
gap between the pressure plate and the flywheel - and the clutch disk is
sitting in that gap free to move or not. So the wearing on the clutch disk is
usually from the behaviour of the driver using the clutch, and the number of
times it is used. The throw out bearing wears just based on how often it is
used (total time, not number of times). Generally, they both wear out at
about 100,000 miles of general driving (some city, some highway), and both the
throw-out bearing and the clutch disk are usually replaced at the same time.
Geoffrey Gallaway wrote:
> This message didnt make it through to the list last time so I'll try
> again...
>
> ---
>
> While waiting on a traffic backup in my 70 BGT my friend and I got into a
> discussion on clutches. As traffic would inch forward, I would press the
> clutch in, shift into gear, release the clutch, move forward, and repeat
> the process to shift into neutral. My friend was asking why I dont just
> hold the clutch in while the traffic is stopped instead of engaging and
> releasing it constantly.
>
> I was under the impression that sitting still in traffic with the clutch
> depressed and i neutral was a Bad Thing would wear the clutch quickly. Is
> this true or is it only while the car is in gear?
>
> A general description of how this (the clutch) works, whether I'm wrong or
> not, would also be appreciated... :)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Geoff
>
> --
> Geoffrey Gallaway || I dunno, I dream in Perl sometimes.
> geoffeg@sloth.org ||
> D e v o r z h u n || -- Larry Wall
|