Depends on situation. If I know the light will be short I usually heel-toe as I approach it and stay in gear. If I see it turn red then I sit in neutral. Usually if it doesn't go into first I either drop the clutch slowly and it pops in, or I drop the engage the clutch in neutral again, then try again. Take off in 2nd gear if that takes too long, no big deal.

 

My car had the same problem as yours. To my surprise, the problem went away when I installed a C6 shifter assembly.

 

This is what I've done for many years in cars to 18-wheelers. I've never had to replace a clutch, even before the days of the synchromesh.

 

Exactly my thought.... I put er in neutral and coast up to light.

Toque

 

Never, clutch goes in neutral only when i stopped for while or shut off the engine, car always ready to takeoff.....com'n in......anyone?. I always stock clutches.....if it ever goes kaboom, start ripping driveline on Sat and done on sunday, monday......again ready for battle.....done.

 

I've always put it in neutral at a stop light (Manual transmission).. What if you are stopped at a steep incline? We are trained that way at work too, as a Professional Truck Driver.... Put it in Neutral and apply the Air brake or parking brake,wheather you are on a flat surface or an incline.. Its just common sense and a good routine habit to get into.. The only reason to keep it in first at a stop light, is if you are going to race the car next to you..

 

Truck isn't a passenger vehicle, you see any one of the scenarios I described above and you're getting into the accident regardless of whether you were in gear or not lol!

The reason to stay in gear and not coast to a stop light is to keep control of the car at all times while moving, once you're stopped and if it's going to be a minute or so throwing it in neutral makes sense to me, but if its a stop SIGN or yield or 4 way intersection I always leave in 1st.

 

Brakes are ALOT cheaper and there is less stress on the drive train if you don't downshift...sooo with that said, pop it into neutral and coast until I approach the light and start using brakes.
The only time I use engine braking/downshift is in bad conditions such as snow or slick rain, easier to come to a stop as oppose to using brakes.

 

WOW - this is really eye opening to me, I would've guessed the vast majority of guys driving manual cars, particularly muscle cars, would be downshifting as much as upshifting....seems like its more like 50/50. Maybe that's why there's so many more auto cars nowadays lol!

You're crazy if you think downshifting is going to wear the clutch out prematurely, as long as you're driving it like an idiot, surging the revs, dropping the clutch, etc. it isn't going to harm it. As mentioned earlier I have personally had cars go 178,000 and 280,000 on original clutches, downshifting regularly to slow the car down.

 

 

 

Sames. Neutral coasting is a NO-NO. When properly done, downshifting shouldn't wear down drive-line parts more than usual course of use. Even if it did, and reduced the life span by 10,000km it's still better than paying to fix a whole car because you got rear-ended, or tried to swerve and understeered into the person in front of you, or hit a post.

I used to coast in neutral but stopped it completely after driving on the track and getting into a few hairy situations on the street where I needed to move the car RIGHT NOW. You need to be in control of your car at all times- not to mention putting the car in neutral and coasting destabilizes the car making it harder to perform an emergency maneuver; avoiding an accident is more than just steering or jumping on the brakes. At the light or stop sign I'll put it into neutral if it's a long light.

Benefit of learning how to heel-toe; not just a track tool, but something that can be utilized on the street to save your ***.

@sami85L98: Bloody hell. Took me like a week. I guess after you do it once, you know some tricks.

 

I coast in neutral as often as possible (usually when I know I am going to slow down gradually 300+ft ahead)...whether it actually be in neutral or in gear w/ the clutch depressed. The argument here is not clutch vs brakes, it is brakes vs gasoline. Gas is MUCH more expensive than either. As far as clutch wear, theorectically the only time the clutch should be wearing is during take off. In fact, if you were a perfect driver, the clutch wouldn't even be necessary after the car is rolling. Obviously, none of us are perfect drivers so we don't risk the tranny damage. But regardless, rev matching (upshifting and downshifting) is the key to minimizing clutch wear. However, on a bike, I very rarely used the clutch to upshift (different type of tranny, see below).

While coasting in neutral, obviously with the intent of slowing down in the near future, there are very few situations that will ever call for using the accelerator. More brakes, yes. Swerve right or left, yes. Either one of these 3 directional inputs would produce g forces and immediacy MUCH greater than accelerating forward. Therefore, even with the car in gear, speeding up is VERY rarely the fastest way to perform an evasive maneuver. The argument for keeping it in gear to utilize engine braking for an emergency stop is valid, but the Z06 can lock up the brakes in neutral. Therefore, the brakes are powerful enough to reach the adhesion limit of street tires, on the street, without the use of engine braking, therefore the benefits would be negligible.

And there are two reasons why you don't coast on a motorcyle. The first is the cassette type transmissions on modern motorcycles, that do not like being popped from neutral into gear while the rear tire is turning. The second is that while the corvette is statically balanced 50/50, a modern sportbike is balanced while on partial throttle. The bike will not handle properly while in neutral...almost like turning a jet ski.

 

Actually coasting in neutral uses more gas than coasting in a relatively high gear. The reason is that when you coast in neutral, the engine is running and that is consuming fuel.

When you are coasting in gear with any modern fuel injection system, the fuel is shut off and you aren't burning any gas. Fuel is only resupplied when the speed drops below idle, so you don't want to try to drag down the engine and bog it below 1,000 rpm.

For that reason, if you want to maximize fuel economy you should leave it in gear and then depress the clutch when the rpm's get down near idle. If you want to downshift a couple of gears and then let it coast down again that will repeat the process.

 

I too am amazed that so many of you are using neutral with the clutch out. Doesn't really matter to me, but I've been driving manuals since my teenage years starting with a 67 GTO and never wore out a throwout bearing and I never sit around at lights with the car in neutral. My son developed the neutral habit on his own and he has always owned manual cars, a 91 MR2, a 2005 Scion TC, and now a 2013 370Z. I didn't bug him about it since it's just a personal choice, but I just thought he was being lazy! Now I find out most of the cars around me at the light are in neutral.

 

This is what I do. What's the sense of sitting there through a light with your foot depressing the clutch?

 

Good thinking, I'll take it a step further, why not just shut the engine off too, engines cost more than starters!


Just being silly, my left leg is too set in it's way to change now.

 

Respectfully disagree, none of this is correct. If the fuel is shut off, the engine shuts off.

Keep it simple...an engine running at 850 rpm going 40 mph will burn less fuel than the same engine at 2000 rpm going 40 mph. There may be emissions benefits, but as far as fuel economy, it's really pretty simple. Easy test...go 45 mph off throttle in 6th gear and look at the instanteous mpg. Then put the clutch in and look. That little instantaneous gas mileage meter will tell you a whole lot about the way the engine likes to be driven.

 

I don't know how that's relevant to anything whatsoever. I do it because it makes no sense to sit there through some of the longer lights with my foot to the floor. Nothing more than that. I don't care what you do, I'm just answering the question.

 

I know you're trying to be funny, but new cars are actually starting to implement this to save gas. Google start/stop technology.