last night I was driving through a very hilly area going all down hill so I was doing a lot of clutching. after about 10 minuets I noticed a smell that reminded my of brakes and figured it was just from the car in front of me who had been riding his brakes, but he turned off on a side street and I continued on for another mile or so. when I got out of my car I noticed the smell was stronger so I am thinking it must have been from my fit but I don't understand. I had it in 2nd or 3rd and was driving about 35 mph with the clutch fully depressed and would let up on the clutch to slow down if needed. was I doing something wrong or should I have the dealer check it out?

 

what hilly area are you talking about?

you had your foot on the clutch pedal?

burning clutch smells like a mechanical fish smell.

 

Haiku... not sure what you mean by that first question, I had been up at about 1500 ft and came down to about 200 ft, through a area that is twisty and hilly.

yes, I had my foot on the clutch nearly the whole time unless I was using the motor to accelerate, if I was going down a hill I coasted so clutch in.

mechanical burning fish? humm maybe you could put it that way, so should I take it in? is it bad for the transmission to have the clutch fully engaged?

 

always try to leave the car in gear as much as possible, if coasting put the car in neutral and clutch out... but really just try to keep it in gear. the dealer will just tell you that it is your fault if you go in there and tell them this

 

it was in gear either 2nd or 3rd the whole time because of the odd terrain you would be constantly shifting in and out of neutral so if I needed to coast I just pushed the clutch fully in to coast and let it out to use engine brakeing

 

You might have worn an extra bit on your clutch. I wouldn't worry about it too much, a clutch will last 150k miles or so under normal circumstances.

Think of engine braking this way: Sure, you can use the engine to slow the car down, but you'll also burn off some clutch every time you force the engine to speed up to the transmission speed. A simple way to fix this is to match the engine speed with the transmission speed before you drop the clutch. It'll take practice, but it's worth it. You'll notice that you don't slow down nearly as quickly, but that's because you're not using your clutch as a huge brake.

Brakes: $150 at the dealership
Clutch: $1100+ at the dealership

F_P_K is right, most dealerships will tell you that you must have done it to the car. I had to argue for a while when the dealership failed to replace or resurface the flywheel in my civic during a clutch replacement, before they finally agreed to do it free-of-charge.

EDIT: Also, just to clarify, keeping the clutch pedal pushed down all the time is bad for the throwout bearing, so try not to do that either. Every time you engage the clutch, it burns a little bit off, it's designed to rub away. When you engage the clutch with a load on the transmission, the engine has to try to match the transmission speed instantly, but it has the momentum which causes it to burn more off the clutch.

I hope all that made sense to you.

 

if you start smelling that roasted fish smell, it's definitely your clutch and you should just minimize shifting for 5min or so while your clutch cools down.

my car is almost always in gear. the only time it is not in gear is when im waiting for the light. so you're doing nothing wrong per se, just need to be a tad more gentle on the clutch and try to minimize slippage. you'll get it down sooner or later.

 

learn to drive!

 

^^^ What SolBrothers said.....

 

There is also one other bad thing keeping your foot on the clutch does. The force of the clutch being disengaged also pushes the crankshaft in the engine to the front of the engine which also puts extra wear on the thrust bearings of the crankshaft It is bad for the throw out bearing as well as the thrust bearings on the crankshaft. If stopped at a light for an extended period of time it is also wise to put the vehicle in neutral and take your foot off the clutch.

 

Coasting down hills with the clutch in is false economy. You should only have the clutch in when stopped/ing (and then only briefly) or changing gears. For going down hills, keeping your foot off the clutch reduces your use of the brakes. If you want to coast faster, change up.

 

YOU SHOULD NEVER REST YOUR FOOT ON THE CLUTCH EVER.

at a stop light, you should NOT sit with your car in gear and clutch pedal pushed in. you are raping hte throwout bearing. **** newbie drivers

 

brakes are cheaper than the clutch it seems you're putting far too much wear on.

engine braking can be great sometimes but it's not worth wearing down your clutch, transmission, and engine.

have it in neutral and brake as needed.... holding the clutch in the entire time down a hill is the worst thing you can do.

like solbrothers said, the clutch isn't a foot rest. you use the clutch when you need to shift, and maybe if anticipate a shift (such as when someone around you appears to be doing something stupid)

don't hold the clutch in for longer than you need to

 

This applies when sitting at the lights, but not descending hills. It is DANGEROUS to descend hills in neutral.

I am not talking about slowing down using the gears. I am talking about using a lower gear (or at least a gear engaged) to prevent the car from speeding up. It doesn't put additional wear on the engine or the transmission - check your fuel usage gauge and it will hit zero if your foot is off the throttle. The forces involved are well inside those that the engine puts out when accelerating. If you had an auto Fit it would sense your constant braking when you come to a hill and change down. In a manual one you should do it.

If you leave your foot off the clutch there is no rubbing and therefore negligible wear. The engine is still being fed with oil (fuel is not a lubricant) and everything is running as the maker intended.

Descending a hill in neutral is dangerous because you must find another way to limit your speed. That means using the brakes. If you use them too long they will get hot and stop working. At the very least they will wear out faster.

The correct way is to use the gear that allows you to descend your hill with the foot off the throttle without increasing speed. This isn't always possible, so use the throttle or brakes for fine adjustment. DON'T travel with your foot on the clutch and DON'T travel in neutral.

But yes, put it in neutral when you stop at the lights. This is easier in the UK where you get a red/yellow light before the green to give you a chance to put it back in gear. Most people drive manuals there and are taught how to do it right.

 

clutch really only needs to be slipped to get you going.

But what about downshifting?

There you should blip the throttle and get the revs up to where you need to be to go into the lower gear. In other words say you are at 2800 in 3 rd gear but want to downshift to take a corner, then you would rev to say 3500 to match speeds

 

As the old timers will tell you ( and I guess I'm now an old timer), "there is only two positions for a clutch pedal, in or out".

If you want to down shift a lot, learn how to "heel and toe" my feet where always too big to be really good at it, but it's where you match engine revs while downshifting and braking at the same time. I'm sure there must be a U tube video on how to do it.

 

My father always told me to "double clutch" whenever possible on the downshift. That is, when moving from 3rd to 2nd, for example, use the clutch to get into neutral, let it out, quickly bring up the revs, and then use the clutch again to move into second. I have no idea whether or not this is good advice, but I do it all the time when exiting highways, etc., especially when the AC is on as I figure that with the fuel injectors shut off no gas will be wasted, and at the same time a lot of the "braking" energy will go into the compressor.

 

Hahahaha. So true. I'd rather replace brakes than clutches, but then again, that's just me.

 

HAY GUISE, IM 16 YEARS OLD, NEVER DRIVEN A CAR, AND IM GIVING ADVICE ON DRIVING.

caps

 

just put a stage 3 clutch and 7 lb flywheel in my brother's del sol. such a pain in the ass.