Manual car drivers often see clutch as an ideal foot resting place when driving. Some even keep it partially pressed for a smoother experience. This practice is generally called ‘riding the clutch’. Riding the clutch in first gear is more common as the car takes off. While driving with a partially pressed clutch will operate the engine smoothly, it can also damage your car.
In order to understand how such habits negatively impact a car’s health, we have to explore a bit about the internal combustion engine, transmission and clutch itself.
Understanding Engine and Transmission
The combustion engine is the power generator for the car. The engine produces torque depending on engine speed. Normally, the engine will produce enough drive force to pull the car and overcome the resistance and inertia. However, sometimes you will need greater force to move and if the engine is unable to produce enough torque, it will lead to engine stalling.
This is where transmission comes in. The transmission has various gears connected to the input shaft, output shaft and countershaft. The power produced by an engine depends on two factors, torque and speed. Here, speed and torque are inversely proportional to each other i.e. if torque decreases, speed increases.
To get the idea in terms of technical formula: Power (rotating body) = Torque x Angular Velocity
For instance, when a car is trying to climb a hill or an elevated road, it will require more torque. Hence, to avoid engine stall, a lower gear is used for maximum torque and acceleration to move the wheels.
To manage the demand for high torque requirements, manual gear is shifted downward. Unfortunately, some drivers make a habit of bypassing the need to shift to lower gear, by partially pressing the clutch.
Partially Pressed Clutch
The purpose of the clutch is to disconnect the power of engine from the transmission. The gear change can only occur when transmission is disconnected and there is no power flow through it.
When a car is running on high gear but at low engine speed, it will lead to engine stall as less torque is provided by the engine. Normally, shifting to a lower gear will increase the torque to maintain engine power at low speed.
In practice, many drivers avoid the inconvenience of shifting gear by partially pressing the clutch. This will partially disconnect the transmission from the engine, saving it from stalling. Hence, while keeping the clutch partially pressed, drivers will accelerate further to raise the engine torque and remove the pressure from the clutch pedal.
In short, you are able to prevent engine stall without shifting the gear down when riding the clutch. Although the technique gives a smoother experience by removing the need for changing gears at low speed, it is harmful to your car.
In order to understand how such practice is bad for your vehicle, let’s have a quick look at the working of a clutch.
Clutch Mechanism
The flywheel of the engine is connected to the clutch disc to transfer the rotatory motion. The clutch disc is basically a friction disc that has a spring mechanism or diaphragm to transfer motion from flywheel to the transmission.
Hence, when the clutch is not pressed, the spring mechanism will keep the friction plate and flywheel in contact to transfer power to the transmission. Whereas, when the clutch pedal is pressed, the diaphragm spring will separate the flywheel and the friction plate to disconnect the transmission.
With the basic mechanism in mind, when the clutch pedal is partially pressed, it reduces the contact friction between the flywheel and friction plate. Hence they remain in relative motion, resulting in wear and tear of disc plate.
Avoid Riding the Clutch
Most of the time, you can avoid riding the clutch, unless your car is going uphill. In other cases, you should try to release the clutch completely to avoid wear damage. The cost of clutch replacement may vary depending on the brand. In general, high end vehicles will cost more to replace the clutch disc.
Even resting your foot on the clutch is ill advised, as depending on the pedal pressure, you could be riding the clutch. Partially pressing the clutch is fine when you are learning to drive and need to practice clutch control. The correct way to press clutch is key to learning manual transmission. Once you have the confidence, practice moving the car by completely decompressing the clutch.
If you are already driving a car with a worn-out clutch and do not wish to invest in repairs, browse these used cars for sale in the UAE. Stay tuned to the UAE’s leading auto blogs for more information on car parts, market trends and automotive technology.
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