Clutch non-responsive???

[andru47]

Hi everyone, I have heard that the clutches on the yaris aren't the best and can be "finiky" I was wondering if this is one of the symptoms. This happens a lot but, not always; when I take off fast in first gear when I hear the engine getting close to the rev limiter and want to switch to second, I get the grinding noise. I double clutch and even triple clutch and I can't get into gear correctly. Eventually I do manage to get it into gear once the car slows down a bit but, I am wondering why this is happening. Any info/tips would be great! Thanks!

[Tamago]

synchros are going bad.

quit shifting at redline, calm down, you're not in a race car.

wtf is triple clutching by the way

[tomato]

Originally Posted by andru47

Hi everyone, I have heard that the clutches on the yaris aren't the best and can be "finiky" ..

You heard right. The Yaris clutch is touchy, especially 1st gear. I've b*tched about it enough on this forum, 'nuff said. HOWEVER... it really sounds to me like you are torturing that poor little car instead of driving it!

when I take off fast in first gear when I hear the engine getting close to the rev limiter and want to switch to second...

Don't do it. It ain't that kind of car. No need to go crazy. It takes off slow in first (mine does, I assume they all do?), not much you can do about it.

Personally, I try to drive the car as smoothly as possible and I try to shift when the car is ready to shift, BEFORE you can hear the engine really asking for it. Does that make sense?

Listen to your engine (it's pretty quiet at low speed and you want to keep it that way) and drive the car as it's meant to be driven, and your car will thank you and take you lots of places other than to the mechanic for constant repairs!

Once you get used to the car, the shifting goes pretty smoothly and you won't have to think about it at all.

Good luck and be nice to your car!

[tomato]

By the way, I forgot, make sure your left pedal is ALL THE WAY to the floor when you shift, otherwise you'll hear grinding, pretty nasty sound. You don't want that! When I got my Yaris, I didn't realize how you have to push that pedal all the way down, it was kind of a shock coming from Honda, which is a completely different clutch feel.

Hope that helps.

[Bob Dog]

If you will grab the shifter, not from the top like you would hold a bowling ball, but grasped in a fist like you would punch with and grab the ball from underneath then pull the shifter instead of pushing in it you will find it slides past the syncros instead of into them. Also be sure not to disengage the clutch prematurely as it will surely grind, watch out the floor mat does bunch up and prevent you from fully depressing the clutch.. I had the same problem for the first couple hundred miles, but have been virtually crunch free for 25,000 miles.

[tomato]

I had the same problem with the floor mat. If you have a factory mat, look for the little hook under the driver seat. If you hook the mat in there, it'll stay there and won't slide under the clutch pedal anymore. I found out the hard way !

[Forrest]

Originally Posted by andru47

Hi everyone, I have heard that the clutches on the yaris aren't the best and can be "finiky" I was wondering if this is one of the symptoms. This happens a lot but, not always; when I take off fast in first gear when I hear the engine getting close to the rev limiter and want to switch to second, I get the grinding noise. I double clutch and even triple clutch and I can't get into gear correctly. Eventually I do manage to get it into gear once the car slows down a bit but, I am wondering why this is happening. Any info/tips would be great! Thanks!

Poor little car. I think you are pushing it to a limit that is beyond the cars daily ability to do.

[WolfWings]

Let the damn engine rev down, the syncro's on our transmissions don't deal well with slowing the engine down at all, double-clutching or not. You can't speed-shift our cars, one of the biggest problems with going to full-synth engine and transmission lube: I have to take over a full second to shift from 1st to 2nd now sometimes from waiting for the engine to spin down.

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by WolfWings

Let the damn engine rev down, the syncro's on our transmissions don't deal well with slowing the engine down at all, double-clutching or not. You can't speed-shift our cars, one of the biggest problems with going to full-synth engine and transmission lube: I have to take over a full second to shift from 1st to 2nd now sometimes from waiting for the engine to spin down.

You're saying going full synthetic caused you problems with your transmission? Did you use GL-5 full-synthetic? I noticed a problem of getting transmission into reverse when I swithed to a GL-5 full-synthetic, switched to GL-4 synthetic lube and transmission now shifts perfect in all gears now.

[WolfWings]

Originally Posted by 1stToyota

You're saying going full synthetic caused you problems with your transmission? Did you use GL-5 full-synthetic? I noticed a problem of getting transmission into reverse when I swithed to a GL-5 full-synthetic, switched to GL-4 synthetic lube and transmission now shifts perfect in all gears now.

No, I'm saying my engine and transmission have too little friction. They shift smooth as silk, as long as I don't try to rush things. But from redline it takes quite a bit longer than stock for the engine to 'rev down' from natural friction now while in neutral between gear shifts.

[IllusionX]

I hope you guys do understand the problem is NOT the clutch itself right? Anyways... Wolfwings, if you wanted the rev to drop faster, a lighter flywheel would cure your problem.

Beware, if you suck at driving stick, you will suck even more with a lighter flywheel.

My friend says his yaris have problems with the clutch, so i test drove his car. It was perfectly fine.. So i guess i've got the trick with the yaris DBW and clutch. Although, i'm very FAR from having mastered it yet.

[jambo101]

One way or another speed costs money?in this case the good news is that revving the shit out of the poor little engine may only cost you a new clutch the bad news is you might have destroyed something in the tranny.

[Pars]

I used to shift at redline all the time. Shifting out of first into 2nd while at redline can cause problems occasionally(or rarely in my case). This car doesn't like it, especially with the quick shifting. However, I've gotten good at backing off when it's about to grind and will quickly pop it into 3rd instead of 2nd.

Another problem I had, at highway speeds, dropping it into 3rd gear sometimes will cause it to grind. But once I had the transmission oil flushed (at Toyota) it solved that problem.

I wish the clutch/pedal was as intuitive as my old Civic. Hopefully Toyota will take note if they ever decide to cater to manual drivers who like to the wring the most out of their engine.

[IllusionX]

Originally Posted by Pars

I used to shift at redline all the time. Shifting out of first into 2nd while at redline can cause problems occasionally(or rarely in my case). This car doesn't like it, especially with the quick shifting. However, I've gotten good at backing off when it's about to grind and will quickly pop it into 3rd instead of 2nd.

Another problem I had, at highway speeds, dropping it into 3rd gear sometimes will cause it to grind. But once I had the transmission oil flushed (at Toyota) it solved that problem.

I wish the clutch/pedal was as intuitive as my old Civic. Hopefully Toyota will take note if they ever decide to cater to manual drivers who like to the wring the most out of their engine.

You don't drive a honda like you drive a Toyota. The thing about Hondas, you can depress the clutch only about 1 inches.

[SailDesign]

Originally Posted by Pars

<snip>
I wish the clutch/pedal was as intuitive as my old Civic.
<more snip>

Define "intuitive" as it applies to a clutch pedal. What could be more intuitive than "clutch in = disengage" and "clutch out = engage"?
Or did you mean "forgiving" ?

[tomato]

Originally Posted by SailDesign

Define "intuitive" as it applies to a clutch pedal. What could be more intuitive than "clutch in = disengage" and "clutch out = engage"?
Or did you mean "forgiving" ?

No, he meant intuitive as in user-friendly. I drove Civics for a lot of years and the Honda clutch (or MT process, if you want to call it that) is like knife in butter. By comparison the Yaris MT takes a little longer to get used to

[andru47]

Wow thanks for all the suggestions, yeah I did find that it would only engage after the engine revs down so now I know it's just the way it is. I liked driving my car like a zip machine but I guess I'll have to adjust :-/ haha.

[WolfWings]

Originally Posted by IllusionX

Anyways... Wolfwings, if you wanted the rev to drop faster, a lighter flywheel would cure your problem.

Beware, if you suck at driving stick, you will suck even more with a lighter flywheel.

Lighter flywheel is a maybe, but they're such a pain to install it's unlikely. I will admit, the Yaris clutch is one of the few that only has maybe... an inch of travel LEFT instead of only an inch of travel used to get to fully decoupled. At the same time, it seems to have a bit of 'dead space' at the start.

Most other manual-addicts are used to using vehicles where that 'dead space' is all they had to use to shift, I think is the gotcha. Even my 944 was like that, the first inch or two was all it took, the other four was just to give your foot more room to work while the clutch was decoupled.

I will vouch though, Any->2nd seem to be the (vastly most common) 'grind point' for this transmission. Dunno if 2nd is just weak somehow, or oddly engineered, but it's the only gear I ever experience any grind into. May also just be the only gear with a large enough 'gap' from those on either side to cause the issue with the relatively heavy (seriously, the 4.0l engine in my Jeep is only around the same weight!) stock flywheel.