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Clutch Control

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Clutch Control

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MattHarris19872016

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Out of interest for those of you who drive petrol cars. Are you able to use clutch control without touching the gas pedal for reversing or slow manoeuvres?
 
Yes. It's also possible to drive up to about 20 mph in slow moving traffic (3rd gear clutch up idling it shudders if you try 4th). Depends on the torque characteristics of your car, mine idles at 600rpm anyway and it'll happily crawl along feet off at walking in pace in 1st.
 
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It is possible, with care and a very sensitive left foot, but generally not good for the car.
Should always raise the engine speed, then find the clutch bite, then move away. Once moving, no problem with allowing it to drop to idle speed.
A basic bit of physics, rules of inertia if I remember correctly, it takes more effort to start something moving than to keep it moving.

Moving away without raising the engine speed puts more stress on the engine, more wear, although it'll take a lot of years to suffer noticeably. It also puts a low level vibration through the car, often not felt by occupants, but will gently cause all the panels to squeak or rattle. Can be made to turn a car into a squeaky wreck in about 3 months.

The clutch is capable of transmitting all the power and torque the engine could produce. At tickover, the clutch will be trying to bite and grip firmly, making control more difficult. With the revs higher, the difference between engine speed and gearbox input speed is greater (slightly) and therefore requires more movement of the clutch pedal between slip and grip, giving better control of actual speed and resisting the grab and go.
 
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When my sister was learning how to drive the instructors car was a Citroen C2 that automatically gave the car more rev's so reversing was a single pedal operation (the other hovering over the brake pedal obviously).

When she tried this in her Corsa it kept stalling.

Somewhat perplexed I showed how to reverse round a corner in my Alfa, Bravo, Dad's Skoda and her Corsa to show how you need to drive different cars to the characteristics of those cars.

Just because something can be done in one does not make it universal.

Personally I would never try reversing (or any aspect of driving) a vehicle without throttle control.
 
As others have said it can be done but petrols usually require a bit of throttle due to lower torque at low revs
Disels tend to need very little as most of the torque is lower down the rev range
 
chris3234 said:
As others have said it can be done but petrols usually require a bit of throttle due to lower torque at low revs
Disels tend to need very little as most of the torque is lower down the rev range
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Unfortunately if you do it in a car with a DMF, so most modern diesels and quite a few of the 3 cylinder petrols, you can wear the fly wheel with the vibrations at low rpm if you get it wrong so really not a good idea given how much they cost to replace.
 
I have 91 Golf GTI, as soon as you lift the clutch with no throttle the idle stabilisation valve (isv/PsV as you please) compensates and it drives happily in traffic like this, can’t see it being healthy though, I also have a 1.6 GP which will happily pull with no application of the throttle. My personal view is to minimise the time the pressure plate and friction plate are spinning at different speeds, for clutch longevity.
 
MattHarris19872016 said:
You are such a troll a goat should butt you off the bridge!
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:ROFLMAO:

I'm a troll?! Literally all I've ever suggested you do is thank people for their responses to your posts, do you know how many of your 156 posts contain the word 'thanks'?
1. Just 1.
1/2 of your most recent posts are literally spam, asking the same question over and over again. Why? Do you not like the answers you've been given, are you incapable of rational thought, or do you just think it's funny to be willfully ignorant and obtuse?
 
Back in t'owd days a petrol engined car would stall if you tried to move off without out using more revs than idling speed. However, in the late '80s and early '90s as more and more European cars got catalytic converters it was realised that every time a car stalled a small amount of unburnt petrol could get through the cylinders and into the exhaust, ending up with the ceramics in the catalyst being damaged.

Because of this and with the increasing levels of electronic control a side effect was discovered, namely that you could move off (gently) on the clutch alone. This wasn't entirely new as my Uno 60DS could do this which was very handy on snow or in a muddy field as it reduced wheelspin. It became even easier to do with electronically controlled diesel engined cars.

Before that big truck engines from Caterpillar and Cummins used to use the engine management systems to raise the idle speed to one that would allow the vehicle to move off on only the clutch.
 
AndyRKett said:
Why, what do you hope to glean from this and why are you spamming the forum with the same question repeatedly while ignoring the fact that people have answered.

Seriously get a grip :rolleyes:
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I’m not ignoring the fact that people have answered. Also posting several times was a mistake had my phone in my pocket and seems to have sent it. The only person I am ignoring are the trolls... :bang::bang::idea:
 
MattHarris19872016 said:
Also posting several times was a mistake had my phone in my pocket and seems to have sent it. The only person I am ignoring are the trolls... :bang::bang::idea:
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A brilliant excuse if it had posted repeatedly several times in a row (which the forum has software to prevent). No, instead your phone posted the same thing 3 times with slight variation over a period of 5 days, while inbetween you repeatedly visited the forum and posted other comments in other sections.

It’s clear hear you are a troll, looking through your nonsensical posts on here it’s also fairly clear you’ve not learned to drive and that you don’t have access to a punto, let alone owning one.

Isn’t there something you could be better spending your time on, like home work or jumping ?
 
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AndyRKett said:
A brilliant excuse if it had posted repeatedly several times in a row (which the forum has software to prevent) no instead your phone posted the same thing 3 times with slight variation over a period of 5 days, while inbetween you repeatedly visited the forum and posted other comments in other sections.

It’s clear hear you are a troll, looking through your nonsensical posts on here it’s also fairly clear you’ve not learned to drive and that you don’t have access to a punto, let alone owning one.

Isn’t there something you could be better spending your time on, like home work or jumping ?
Click to expand...

Despite the fact that each quote shows exactly word for word. You absolute muppet of a man. You are a bully and a troll sir. You know nothing about me so stop making assumptions. You complete moron
 
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