If you’ve ever had that slipping feeling, you already know what it feels like when it’s time for a new clutch. You press down on the gas pedal and the engine speeds up – but your car or truck doesn’t. And then you smell that smell. Those are the clues that let you know you won’t be going much farther soon, especially if the going involves going up hills.
If you’re lucky, you’re not too far from a safe port – home or a friend’s place – where you can roll in on the inertia and not have to deal with an emergency (and expensive) tow. Usually, you’ll get some warning that the end is nigh. Those who have already had that slipping feeling will know what it portends as soon as they feel it. But if you’ve never had to deal with a clutch that’s close to the end of its life, you may not appreciate what that weird sensation of slipping is all about when you first feel it.
Pay attention to it – because it’s giving you fair warning that it’s going to get progressively worse. If you ignore it for too much longer, the day will come when no matter how much you push down on the gas pedal, all that will happen is the engine speeding up while you slow down and – very soon – come to an unwanted dead stop in a place that’s probably not where you wanted to stop, to the accompaniment of that smell and probably some visible smoke, too.
This is all inevitable, of course. Clutches – like brake pads – wear out eventually no matter what. Because both are literally wear items. Brake pads wear down via the friction and heat that results from clamping down on rotors to slow your vehicle. Clutches wear out for similar reasons; repeat clamping action that occurs when the clutch is engaged and disengaged. Each time that happens, you burn up a little bit of the friction material that makes up the clutch’s wear surface.
But you can delay the inevitable wearing-out for quite some time – in both cases – using similar and complementary driving techniques.
With brake pads, you can extend their service life by braking gradually and gently, ideally avoiding coming to a complete stop – as for a red light up ahead – by anticipating it and adjusting your speed in relation to it so that by the time you get to it, it has turned green and the traffic ahead of you is already moving again. Now you won’t have to stop – and that will save wear and tear on your brake pads.
The same principle applies when it comes to saving your clutch. If you avoid coming to a complete stop, it is much easier on the clutch because it does not have to deal with the entire deadweight of your vehicle when you let it out (and engage it) as you accelerate from a dead stop.
Even just a little bit of crawl is helpful insofar as longevity. Especially on hills. If you can keep ‘er moving forward, a clutch job will be farther down the road rather than nearer and sooner. Of course, this practice sometimes entails some illegality – technically – as at stop signs, where the sign says you must come to a complete stop. And sometimes, this is sound policy – if you can’t see what’s coming from either side of the stop sign or (obviously) if there is cross traffic. But there are also occasions when it is just a sign – and there is no good reason to come to a complete stop, other than it being “the law.”
If there’s no cop in sight, why come to a complete stop when it isn’t necessary – and it’s good for your clutch (and brakes)? This is a judgment call, of course. But the bottom line is avoiding unnecessary complete stops is the single best way to prolong the life of both brake pads and your car or truck’s clutch.
Another way – one that does not involve and technical foul illegalities – is to be easy with your gear-changing and your clutch work. When you’re changing from say first to second, push the clutch pedal in gently rather than stabbing at it suddenly; then ease the shifter lever into second and let the clutch out gently – but without riding it. Avoid releasing it suddenly/abruptly. This is a technique that takes a little while to master when you’re first learning to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission. But it’s easy to do once you have.
Try to avoid racing the engine as you shift through the gears. The faster the engine’s flywheel is spinning when the clutch is engaged, the faster the wear on the clutch. Try to keep in the right gear for the speed you’re driving and anticipate the need to shift so you can do it unhurriedly.
This won’t win you any races, of course. But it will contribute to a long-lived clutch.
So will not engaging the clutch – pressing the clutch pedal to the floor and holding it there – when you’re sitting at a red light or otherwise stopped. Let the clutch out – transmission in neutral – and your throw-out bearing will thank you by not failing. If it does, you’ll be doing a de facto clutch job even if you don’t need a new clutch, because the transmission has to come out to replace a bad throw-out bearing.
Same often goes for the clutch slave cylinder, which several manufacturers devilishly install inside the transmission. The clutch slave cylinder is the main component of the hydraulic system all modern (since the ’80s) manual-equipped vehicles have to make clutch engagement easier and smoother. But it is also a much-neglected component. The fluid – which is brake fluid – is often not replaced with fresh fluid per the prescribed intervals and that will accelerate the wearing out of this inexpensive component that often requires a lot of very expensive shop labor to replace.
So, check the fluid – level and color – at least once every six months. If it’s low, you may have a leak. If it’s darker than wild honey, it needs to be replaced.
If you keep on top of that – and are kind to your clutch – you might get 20 years and 200,000 miles (or more) out of it. I have.
So can you!
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If your clutch fluid is leaking, Bar’s makes a great leak-stop clutch fluid. This really worked in my 30-year-old truck. No financial interest, just sharing info on a product that works.
Smell that smell lynard skynard … I have
95 f 150 in a snowstorm backing up a Xmas tree baler.
One other thing: avoid forced downshifts unless you’re deliberately trying to performance-drive or climb a steep hill fast. Drives me nuts when I ride along with somebody who does unnecessary forced downshifts on a manual in casual traffic — especially shoving it into first while rolling up to a stop sign.
I’ve never HAD to replace a clutch yet. Did one on a Ford Ranger with 127,000 on it about 20 years ago as a preventative measure because I was going out of state but it was completely unnecessary. When I pulled the transmission back everything was fine. My kid learned how to drive in that truck and that clutch was fine. She even took her road test with a stick. I put a new disc and pressure plate into it anyway since I already had the transmission out.
Got 211,000 on the original clutch of my Focus winter beater.
Power shiftin’ not double clutching like ya should.
ACWV fans? That flywheel/axle nut tool is worth it’s weight in gold. Like $70 ten years ago.
I have owned almost exclusively very used cars with manual transmissions. I avoid riding the clutch and release it rather quickly and smoothly when shifting through gears but not dumping it. I have yet to ever have to replace a clutch. I did own a Yugo once which has a clutch cable that snapped. I didn’t have the money to replace it right away so I drove by timing the gears in and timing the traffic lights (in St. Louis traffic). The car was light enough that if I had to come to a stop, I could start it first after wired around the neutral safety switch. It would hop a few times then go. By the time I got the new clutch cable put in the car threw a rod and that was the end of that horrible car. It served its purpose for a broke teen trying to get to work and back. Too bad young people cannot find cheap used cars like that anymore. They serve two purposes, one is that are affordable , two it forces young people to learn how to work on them to keep them going.
My manual is an 82 VW Westfalia Diesel. Thundering 48HP into a 4 speed. Only quibble with Eric’s advice is (in my case) you HAVE to keep the RPM’s up in order to keep moving at all. The beast is fun, but has minimal low end torque and around 4300 rpm at highway speed.
My first new car, a ’72 Karman Ghia (poor man’s Porsche) was a manual four speed. I burned out the clutch on the second day of driving. When I bought the car I did not know how to drive a stick shift. I actually drove off the dealers lot and got it home a few blocks away. I read up on the system and practiced using my feet and a stick before I bought the car. I was actually doing good except I mistakenly threw the stick straight back from first and it went into fourth gear. The car wasn’t moving so I applied more gas and that’s when the clutch got burned out. A valuable lesson learned. Once you learn how to drive a stick you’ll never forget. My stick shift car these days is a 2001 Mustang Cobra SVT convertible 37,000 miles. The Magnaflow exhaust makes it really scream at about 3,000 RPM and up.
Babying a clutch really works.
In 1980, I sold my 1968 Olds Cutlass S with over 150,000 miles on it to an old friend, with the original clutch intact, with plenty of life left in it.
That car was impeccably maintained by its original owner who sold it to me with 98,000 on the clock.
He bought it custom-order from the factory with the Rocket 350 2 bbl V8, a Ford-made 3-speed manual tranny, Hurst floor shifter, “Rally Pack” (tachometer), über-tall 2.78:1 rear axle, and a nice, fat rear anti-roll bar.
He taught me to baby the clutch by patiently coaxing it off the line with almost nil throttle … always rev-match when up- or down-shifting … never rest your foot on the clutch pedal … etc.
Once rolling, with that tall gearing, you could wind that car out to 60 mph in first gear! (That short-stroke 350 had an impressive 6-grand redline, but it was quadruple-masked by its stock 2 bbl carburetor and flat intake & exhaust manifolds.) But it was a great college commuter car … very stingy on fuel, even for a V8.
My first car was a ’51 Ford pickup with a four speed crashbox. That was the real ultimate driver’s machine.
I learned on a 50. No synchros in that baby. Fortunately the flathead V8 was a product of an older design school and the 100HP came with a big, flat, low RPM torque curve. Slide her into second (granny low was only good for smoking tires), then let out the clutch and listen to that chug-chug-chug as the trusty 239 got you going.
My ’94 Toyota pickup has an aftermarket clutch saver switch. Seems like a fantastic idea. Press the button before starting the engine so’s ya don’t have to push in the clutch.
Was helpful when doing adjustments to the engine, too. Didn’t have to get inside to start the engine, just reach in through the crank window & turn the key.
…Too bad the frame rusted out before the clutch gave up the ghost. It still sits, with the long grass, asking to be sold so some other fella can make a project out of it. Mouse hotel, for now.
Almost every time I’ve ridden along with someone that claims to be able to drive a stick, they clearly can’t.
Well, they can in the sense the car moves.
The rest is ham fisted slamming of the shifter while they try to “speed shift”, poor clutch skills, and lots of lugging the engine because they are too lazy to downshift when needed.
No wonder manuals are so rare in today’s world.
It took me awhile to learn how to blip the throttle just enough on the downshift, but I’m getting the hang of it now. I still worry I’m slipping the clutch too much on takeoff, but the 350 has a large cam and it takes some revs to get going from a stop.
First rule of clutch longevity: Only Dad drives the manual shift car.
“Man can’t own anything nice with women and kids around”. St. Sparkules
Oh I can hear the howling right thru the interwebs. Yes there are exceptions but that just proves the rule.
Re: brake long life. The daughter is a champion rotor warper. “When braking downhill, do not ride the brakes!” “Sure Dad.” Phone call from overseas: “The Acura brakes are shuddering really bad”. I send her a set of the best rotors (and spendy) I can find. Three months later, rinse repeat. Gave up, the last set before they came home was some Chicom cheap drilled rotors I got off Amazon.
Checked the brake wear on the Grand Cherokee, still lots left on the original pads at 70k miles no warped rotors and yes I am the only driver.
Go to http://www.frozenrotors.com….
No more warped rotors, and you can drive like Aryton Senna!!!
However, you might be concerned about the brake calipers…..
I had 178k on a Subie when the throwout bearing decided to disintegrate. Friction material had plenty of life left.
I got 219,000 out of my original clutch on my old WRX before I had to replace it.
That’s amazing. Most people I know that owned a WRX treated it like a $20 hooker that was trying to rip off her pimp.
I was one that did not try and tinker with the turbo and left it well alone. Had the maintenance done every 30,000 miles and got 235,000 out of it for which I cannot complain. And…only got speeding ticket, haha. It was definitely fun to hot rod around in.
I miss a stick shift. Especially when towing the trailer. Sigh.
I miss them for Winter driving. I think I have more control over a vehicle with a manual than an automatic albeit one can be far lazier a driver with an automatic.
Great advice, Eric. I would also add if you can develop the skill of matching revs on downshifts it will add to the life as well. As with most things in life smooth is better than jerky.
Simple front engine/rear drive set ups are soooo much better than transaxles when it comes to doing the job as well. Not much is more satisfying than that feeling of slipping the trans back in place when the job is done.
Yeah I second that on rev matching and driving smooth – original clutch on a 2007 FJ cruiser with 240,000 miles on it… if your driving feels smooth and seamless, youre likely doing right by your clutch.
Great article Eric!
Thanks, Mike!
I take good care of my truck – and it takes good care of me!
You have a manual FJ? Lucky you. Mine is the auto. Looking to get a second one. The manuals are hard to find.
Rev matching is easy on your trans syncros as well. Let that input shaft drift to near stopped then hit a downshift at high speed, that poor transmission trying to spin up the guts to match gears, owch. As others mentioned, riding with someone that can’t properly manage a manual transmission is cringe inducing. Alfa Romeo 5 speeds weak syncros on a good day 2nd to 3rd and back, you learn quick to match the innards or look forward to a spendy rebuild. Double clutch learn it, love it!
And it saves the synchronizers too.
Semi drivers do this, or at least used to, haven’t driven one in 30 years.
Roadracing bikes taught me how to rev match on downshifts or you are likely hitting the pavement.
If I’m not mistaken most semi’s have straight cut, non-synchro gear boxes. If you try to use a syncho box without using the clutch you will shorten the synchro life because it’s made for clutch use. Not so for “crash” boxes with dog rings.
Friend of mine who raced a Miata gave me his trans to rebuild. He said 4th gear wasn’t working. When I took it apart most of the teeth were gone on 4th. I asked him if he used the clutch and he said, “Never. I always rev match.” Well, not ALL the time…that’s for sure.