Riding the clutch in a yaris

[mohitjames]

Originally Posted by 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 car accessories 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 )