Thanks but I'm pretty sure we all know how to drive stick. This thread isn't about that.

 

Not 2nd gear. The clutch will start slipping in the higher gears. 3rd or 4th. Accelerate in 4th and the rpm wll rise but the car won't be going any faster.

 

Not so. Try it, your car will move forward as long as you are still on the clutch, just past the engagement point where you still feel a spring in the pedal. If you release the clutch pedal slow enough, once you go just a bit too far, you'll hear your motor sputter right before it's about to stall, but you'll have plenty of time to save it if you react quick enough.

I have a habit of getting into first like that, when the car starts moving forward just a bit is when I give it gas. This ensures that I don't burn the clutch even when I'm driving other cars, or other cars with a much heavier clutch than the one in my car. It's also how I used to teach friends to drive a manual since it's just easier to pick up how to feel the engagement point like this. (I actually used to make them stall the car like this once or twice so they know what to expect, and they know what they are feeling for, and no, not in the G or anything nice or fast- we all learned in a beater Honda or an old Ford Festiva)

But another test I learned was to drop the clutch when you shift into 3rd. If the clutch catches violently, jerking the car, then the clutch is still good. If it slips, you can definitely tell here.

But then again, a clutch slipping doesn't necessarily mean the clutch is wearing low. Sometimes riding the clutch a bit too much out of poor driving habits or some valet who is just learning to drive a manual can wear the disc in an unusual way making it slip, and burning through a bit of clutch can make it grip again.

And now that I'm thinking about it, I guess another way to tell your clutch is wearing low is by the engagement point moving further and further up toward the top of the clutch pedal. Sometimes an adjustment will help, but sometimes adjusting it will only make the engagement point feel worse, meaning you need a new clutch soon.

 

Hey dofu- have you read that sticky? It goes beyond what some of the kids on this thread are capable of. It's obvious that many are just learning about cars in general and driving an MT specificly.

 

Sorry, I read your original post wrong. That is exactly how my dad tough me a few years ago. It's also the way I teach people to understand the function of the clutch. I feel in some traffic you do not have to use the gas pedal at all. Without the extra gas you minimizing the clutch riding.

I was confusing myself...I test drove a G35 for a friend and I could slip the clutch from stop all the way up to speed without giving it any gas. Does this mean the clutch is still in really good shape since it's fully engaging without any gas? Maybe it just had a high idle, I didn't notice..

 

Honestly, I learned that was an indicator to if you need to change your clutch or not, but my Stage 1 Exedy did this just fine even when it started slipping going into third. The thing had almost no more material left on the disc when I changed it out a week or so after it started slipping. I wish I took a pic of it.