Thread: Something I've Always Wondered...

Hey,

Something I've always wondered was, do you need to engage the clutch to take a gear back to neutral? So, if I'm in X gear traveling, for example, do I need to engage the clutch to put the car in neutral or can I just put the car in neutral w/out the clutch?

Reason I ask is because on my car, I can go from X gear to neutral w/out engaging the clutch. It falls back to neutral pretty easy. I just didn't know if that was doing any harm and what is recommended?

-G

You can, and in fact you can even shift from neutral into gear without the clutch as well. It's just harder on the transmission that way, and will wear faster.

Only time I've ever pulled from gear to neutral without the clutch was in an emergency situation avoiding an accident. Only time I've ever shifted into gear without the clutch was when my clutch disc bound to the pressure plate making it impossible to disengage.

so is going from a gear to neutral worse or the same as going into gear from neutral? Is going from gear into neutral even recommended w/out clutch?

Are you talking about powershifting with our crappy gearboxes. Like just quickly slamming from one gear to the next Or do you mean you rev matched before changing gears? That shouldn't do any harm if you know how to rev match well enough.

Happened to me once, I tried to downshift into 1st going about 20mph and I got the shifter handed right back to me lol

Rev matching, but even so, that will piss the $hit out of your synchros.

I could be wrong but I really don't think it hurts any thing to disengage with out the clutch. It prolly reduces wear on the throwout bearing.

i for one never had a car do this on me and i could be wrong but i personally think it shouldnt do that best bet is to call a transmision shop and ask to get a def answer

do what on you? Does your tranny not easily fall out of gear into neutral w/out engaging the clutch? Obviously you have to move it out, it just doesn't fall out on its' own. But it's not nearly as hard as trying to get it into gear from neutral w/out the clutch(never tired that and won't hehe) I just kind of give it a small tug and it disengages to neutral w/out the clutch.

There's 2 different discussions going on now, one about not disengaging the clutch when moving to neutral, and one on gear popout, where the transmission kicks back into neutral by itself. The former is normal in any standard transmission, the latter is a sign of fatigue and needs servicing.