Riding the clutch in a yaris

[negev]

Hello everyone,

I am curious, I see a lot of people online talking about riding the clutch and that this wears the clutch out and is really expensive if you burn it out, but on this forum people seem to be saying that they've done hundreds of thousands of miles in their Yarises and never needed a new one.

I tend to hold the car on the clutch a lot when driving in London as there's a lot of stop-start and using the handbrake is annoying, is this bad for the clutch or does it not really matter in a car like this?

Ta much

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Riding the clutch on any car is bad. I wouldn't suggest doing it.

[nookandcrannycar]

Hello everyone,

I am curious, I see a lot of people online talking about riding the clutch and that this wears the clutch out and is really expensive if you burn it out, but on this forum people seem to be saying that they've done hundreds of thousands of miles in their Yarises and never needed a new one.

I tend to hold the car on the clutch a lot when driving in London as there's a lot of stop-start and using the handbrake is annoying, is this bad for the clutch or does it not really matter in a car like this?

Ta much

Driving a manual transmission car (that you own) in London.....:eek:. I feel for you. I am a nearly die hard manual transmission driver. My Yaris is manual and my clutch is original. I've driven in London in a rental car.....an automatic. If I repeated that exercise, I'd want it to again be in an automatic. I can't speak definitively for other high mileage manual transmission Yaris owners, only for myself, but I don't ride my clutch. If I had to guess, I would doubt any others do either.

[peckerhead]

Hello everyone,

I am curious, I see a lot of people online talking about riding the clutch and that this wears the clutch out and is really expensive if you burn it out, but on this forum people seem to be saying that they've done hundreds of thousands of miles in their Yarises and never needed a new one.

I tend to hold the car on the clutch a lot when driving in London as there's a lot of stop-start and using the handbrake is annoying, is this bad for the clutch or does it not really matter in a car like this?

Ta much

Riding the clutch = the kiss of death.

[why?]

to put it into perspective, to replace a clutch the book says 8 hours of labor. That is $600 just in labor costs, the replacement parts are probably around $500 as well. So $1100 total. No driving style can be worth that much money.

[Sparcoboy]

A clutch doesn't wear even a little bit by keeping the pedal depressed, only the throwoutbearing will get some extra wear on it, but on a Toyota they're built strong enough to last the lifetime of the car.

[edmscan]

to put it into perspective, to replace a clutch the book says 8 hours of labor. That is $600 just in labor costs, the replacement parts are probably around $500 as well. So $1100 total. No driving style can be worth that much money.

Boy .. I would love your rates. Around here .. labor rates are well over 100$ an hour.

[negev]

A clutch doesn't wear even a little bit by keeping the pedal depressed, only the throwoutbearing will get some extra wear on it, but on a Toyota they're built strong enough to last the lifetime of the car.

What about keep it up just enough to keep the car stationary on a hill though?

[peckerhead]

A clutch doesn't wear even a little bit by keeping the pedal depressed, only the throwoutbearing will get some extra wear on it, but on a Toyota they're built strong enough to last the lifetime of the car.

Nonsense.

[peckerhead]

What about keep it up just enough to keep the car stationary on a hill though?
Go ahead and do that. Show us the pictures of your smoked clutch disc, pressure plate, and flywheel in 10,000 miles.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

What about keep it up just enough to keep the car stationary on a hill though?

Just use the handbrake or avoid driving in hilly areas (I avoided hilly areas until I got confident in using the handbrake on hills).

[DebbyM46227]

I've owned many cars with MT's and I've never worn out a clutch. I never ride the clutch, and I also don't hold it in at stoplights. I put it in neutral.

[Jabro]

Nonsense.

Peckerhead, mechanically speaking I have to disagree with you. So long as the clutch is fully disengaged, no friction will be occurring whatsoever, equating to zero wear. Having the clutch fully depressed on a neutral incline shouldn't do any more damage than having the car in neutral. Now on an incline, that changes if your holding it at the "sweet spot", because the clutch is no longer disengaged and is encountering friction.

[Kal-El]

I admit that I never use the handbrake while driving. When stopped on an incline, I'm in neutral with the brakes depressed, and then balance the clutch and gas to proceed from a stop to prevent rollback. In other instances, I ride it briefly while in reverse. I think these practices are normal.

My original clutch works perfect with 132,000 miles on it.

[DebbyM46227]

I admit that I never use the handbrake while driving. When stopped on an incline, I'm in neutral with the brakes depressed, and then balance the clutch and gas to proceed from a stop to prevent rollback. In other instances, I ride it briefly while in reverse. I think these practices are normal.

My original clutch works perfect with 132,000 miles on it.

That's what I do when stopped on a hill. Thankfully, we don't have many hills where I live as it always seems someone is stopped behind me as close as they can get! So there's no margin for rollback errors without hitting someone!

When I learned to shift gears, I never was taught to use the handbrake. That's only used when parked.

[thebarber]

Using the clutch to hold the car up on hills will wear the clutch disc, pressure plate and flywheel.

Havigeathe car in gear and holding the clutch pedal down will lightly wear the throwout bearing.

I usually have it in neutral at a light unless I know ill be pulling away soon-ish

[Amdkt7]

Two different situations. One, holding the clutch all the way in does not hurt the clutch it's self. It does add wear to the throw out bearing, but should last longer then the clutch it's self.
Second, riding the clutch to hold the car on a hill is a very bad practice, the friction will greatly reduce the life of the clutch.
Far better to use the hand break, although I just get of the brake and onto the gas quick enough that I don't need too, on most hills.

[Kar98]

What about keep it up just enough to keep the car stationary on a hill though?

Smoke. Lots and lots of clutch turned into lots of smoke. Use your handbrake for hill starts.

[mohitjames]

Hello everyone,

I am curious, I see a lot of people online talking about riding the clutch and that this wears the clutch out and is really expensive if you burn it out, but on this forum people seem to be saying that they've done hundreds of thousands of miles in their Yarises and never needed a new one.

I tend to hold the car on the clutch a lot when driving car accessories (http://www.robustbuy.com/car-accessories-c-492.html) in London as there's a lot of stop-start and using the handbrake is annoying, is this bad for the clutch or does it not really matter in a car like this?

Ta much

Riding with clutch is foolish way of driving. It will kill your engine

[tsourorf]

How about when you drive downhill and use lower gears to slow down the car? Is the clutch worn in such a case?
I have gone from 1950m down to 200m in 30' once using a 'snake' road and, a bit before the end, there was a heavy smell of something burned. I thought it was my brakes, but could it have been the clutch?

[Amdkt7]

There is no harm to the clutch when you down shift, but always, you must keep your foot off the clutch. A little bit of pressure on the clutch will allow slippage to occur, which is what will cause clutch wear. Burnt clutch plates smell bad. Never heard of anybody smoking a clutch while going down hill, but I guess it could happen. But, were you using the brakes too? Was it an extremely steep hill, lots of breaking?

Again, the clutch should always be either all the way in, or all the way out (now, there should be a bit of slippage during your first gear pull out, that is normal wear and tear).

re-reading your post I understand it better. You were talking about elevation change. I don't know what you mean by 30'. It does sound like it was your brakes. Good thing you had down shifted. You might have burned up your brakes completely if you had not.

[tsourorf]

You can see the exact route using the google maps link below:
http://goo.gl/maps/JwKRx
It smelled like it was burnt rubber in that case, but a friend told me it could have been the clutch as well. That happened 3 or 4 years ago, so I didn't create a big problem obviously.

My question though is a bit more general. Imagine you drive a road downhill and there are a lot of 180 degrees turns. You need to let the car run for the short straights and then brake hard to make the steep turn (Let's forget about going sideways for the time being). Is it better to brake using the engine and change into lower gears every time before the turn, or maybe put neutral until speed is enough for 2nd gear to speed up for the next short straight? Keep in mind that every short straight is enough for you to put 4th gear in.

PS: 30' = 30 minutes (for that route, it basically means that I was on my right pedal almost as much as I was on my middle one)

[Amdkt7]

I would keep it in gear, don't let too much speed build up on the straights. If you have to brake hard you did not brake soon enough. Now, if you are wanting to take it fast you need to upgrade to performance brakes and rotors, and even the high temp brake fluid.
Personally, I would come out of each turn slow, say second gear, as the speed builds shift up a gear, but not too much, keep it in lower gears, and keep the speed down so you don't have to brake hard before turns.
Looks like a fun road. Keep the shiny side up, and color between the lines.....

[tsourorf]

Yes, I normally had been doing that! That route normally is for 50-60 minutes.
That day though, I was in a real hurry and I had to make it down to the village as fast as possible. I'm really proud of my Yaris that made 30 minutes possible.

Just wondering... what could I have done with a really tuned Yaris and a securely emptied road? (Probably would still be rolling down the mountain now :biggrin:)