Shift into Neutral to save TO Bearing?

[Mark R]

I think most of the wear on the throw-out bearing is every time it gets
engaged and disengaged.  So by shifting into neutral, I'd imagine you'd
actually increase the wear (2 cycles per stop as opposed to 1).  Of course,
this is all academic, as the only time I've seen a throw-out bearing fail
before the clutch needed work was on a car which was hit.  So there could've
been shock damage or misalignment due to that.

As an instructor, I always teach my students to always be aware of other
drivers (you need to "drive" their car as well) and if stopped, be ready to
take off.  I illustrate this with an early experience of mine.  I was a new
driver, in my first car ('87 Bertone X1/9) and stopped in the left most
straight lane.  The intersection is 4 lanes wide (left turn lane, right turn
lane, and 2 straight lanes).  Well, the light was red and nobody behind me,
but every other lane had cars.  I noticed a large sedan coming into the
intersection from behind (in MY lane) at a good rate of speed and it wasn't
slowing.  I ran the red light, pulled out in front of both cars to my right
(boy did I get a look!), blocking them.  Next thing they heard was squeeling
tires as that car slid fully into the intersection (through the hole I
made).  It was clear that I was the only stopped car that noticed the sedan
hurling at us.  Needless to say, I saved everyone a major accident with some
situational awareness.  I often joke, "G-d protects fools and children...
and I qualify as both!"  =)

So, I'd maintain that you should do what you've always done, and besides do
you *really* care about the (IMHO) academic discussion as to throw-out
bearing wear at stoplights?

Mark Rosenkrantz (bunch of Audis and other cars)

On Dec 30, 2007 2:19 PM, David Ullrich <david.ullrich at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wanted to get other's opinions on this. When sitting at a stoplight,
> should a manual tranie be shifted into neutral and the clutch released or
> should it be left in 1st with the clutch FULLY depressed? I've never put
> my
> cars into neutral at lights, but have also heard others say I am putting
> extra wear on my throwout bearing causing premature wear. True? Untrue? A
> real problem? I've never had to replace a TO bearing before a car needed a
> full clutch job, but Ive only had one car that ever needed a new clutch
> and
> that car had over 225,000 miles. All of my other cars have gone over
> 150,000
> on the original clutch.
>
> --
> David G. Ullrich
> Audiless for now
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> ---
> Watch this space for ads :)
>