Is double-clutching bad for your car?

Ok before I go babbling on with my newbish self...let me rephrase the Topic:

Is tapping your clutch while accelerating to make the RPM's jump and give you a little boost bad for your car?

I wasn't sure if that's what double-clutching is, but I've found that if you tap the clutch when accelerating, you get a little boost and the RPM's go up a little. It works really well at the VTEC engage point.

I was just wondering if this was bad for your car?

Thanks.

yes, thanks, come again

Well what makes you think that it is "GOOD" for it? If you ever think something your doing is bad for the car then it most likely is.

Well the only reason I started doing it is because it helps me out alot when racing. It gives me a nice little boost in speed and RPM's.

If it's bad for my clutch I don't want to do it anymore..

That's not double clutching. It's not good for the clutch, flywheel, tranny, engine, or axles. Doing that basically does about the same stress a downshift makes to the parts listed. It's not like your shit will break on the first attemp, it's over time(premature wear) I do it once in a while, it's kinda cool hearing your tires break loose in 4th gear & 50+mph.

If your drive it like a race car, be ready to maintain & repair it like a race car!

Brief description of a double clutch:
Accelerate
Push in clutch
Shift to neutral
Release clutch
Adjust RPM
Push in clutch
Shift to next gear
Release clutch
Back on the gas

That should happen a hell of a lot faster than you read it. Double clutching is useless with a synchro tranny(your car), D/clutch on a downshift will reduce wear on synchros & still pretty uselss on a synchro tranny since you can up/sown shift without using the clutch at all. Double clutching is mainly for BIG ASS truck, older vehicles, & race cars because they do not have synchros.

For shifting without the clutch, that's all about timing & feel.

The F&F really put alot of FALSE ideas into people's head which is one reason why I hate that movie (besides the poor acting).

Double clutching is only needed for trucks and cars that didn't have synchros in the tranny. It would help align the gears for the next shift.

Doing that basically does about the same stress a downshift makes to the parts listed.

Are you saying it's bad to downshift your car? Obviously brake pads are cheaper than a new engine, so should I not be downshifting? Will downshifting significantly decrease the life of my engine, or siginificantly increase my maintenance costs?

Are you saying it's bad to downshift your car? Obviously brake pads are cheaper than a new engine, so should I not be downshifting? Will downshifting significantly decrease the life of my engine, or siginificantly increase my maintenance costs?


BOTH :biggrin:

YES we have got too much b.s. from f & f. Just forget the concept. you wont need to do it on ur civic.

Are you saying it's bad to downshift your car? Obviously brake pads are cheaper than a new engine, so should I not be downshifting? Will downshifting significantly decrease the life of my engine, or siginificantly increase my maintenance costs?
Honda manual tranmissions were never designed to be downshifted, but if done properly you can greatly reduce wear by rev-matching.

Brakes are for stopping not a transmission.

I don't know how you drive. . . .You could be like a couple of the S2000 owners that needed new engine due to downshifts to the wrong gear. Remember if you downshift in the wrong gear, there is NOTHING, not even a rev-limiter than can stop an over-rev besides very quick driver reaction - slam that clutch to the floor fast as you can.

Yeah if I do any downshifting I always rev match them. Really no need to but I have gotten into the habit. My bike got me into that habit.

so even if ur like in 4th at like 3.5k rpms...and u downshift to 3rd and it brings u to 5k rpms...thats really bad for ur car?

if it is my clutch is gonna go soon cuz i downshift hella especially in highway races. : /

Thats not really bad or good, that's called ABUSE! When something breaks, don't wonder why. Downshifting properly for extra power is not as bad as downshifting to slow down, instead of using that lovely invention called BRAKES!

Keep the racing at the track, that's all we need is some body(not saying you) thinking they know how to drive @ high speeds when they can't drive for shit.

www.scca.org (http://www.scca.org)
www.racingschools.com (http://www.racingschools.com)

My buddy was at the track running one night & he's like guess what I did? I said what? He said I ran while I was on the cell phone. I was like OK your a fucking idiot. he says why? I say exactly . . .Cell phones and driving should be banned. At least drunks are trying to pay attention, now you got people trying to text message & drive. Sorry to bring this O/T.

One more thing. Instead of wasting money trying to make cars a big pillow during an accident, they should stick that $$$$ into NATIONAL driver training & not give a license to any one!

downshifting is just a bad habit to get into unless you are downshifting while speeding up... in the words of my past racing 'guru' "gears go, and brakes whoa"

I know the reason for this, but it is hard for me to put it into words so this will be a little rough... basically when you are on the gas to speed up you are loading the gears one way, the way they are 'used to' but then when you downshift and let off the gas so the engine slows the car down you shock the gears by reversing the load... in short, its just a bad idea. there ya go

Oh shit. I didn't know that. I've downshifted to save wear on brakes. Oh well, guess I'll give that up. I did hear though, that rev-matching/double-clutching is good even for a synchro'd tranny. I tried it for the first time the other day, and it seems much less traumatizing to the car. Thanks for all the info, I thought this was a helpful thread.

NOBU

Excellent link here on rev matching, manuals with synchro, and double clutching:

http://www.pca.org/ky/Shifting-Tech.html

So according to your link, double-clutching is used on newer cars....but mainly when downshifting.

Thanks alot guys. Good link btw.

dont mean to bring up a dead thread (i acctually used the search)
so its not a bad thing to down shift when it is used to go faster but it is a bad thing to shift down to slow down ( compretion shift )

I think that's pretty absurd. Anyone who drives in cold weather knows it's always better to downshift to slow down rather than use your breaks on snow and ice. Rev matching it is useless in that scenario, because the whole point of downshifting is to yank your speed down in a hurry without locking your wheels. I've been downshifting since I first got my license 12 years ago; I have almost 127,000 miles on the original clutch and absolutely no problems.
Saying downshifting is bad is like saying turning your headlights on is bad. Yes, many years from now they're going to wear out if you use them. But that doesn't mean you should drive blind in the dark.

Of course you could have problems if you are already at 7500 rpm in 5th and you throw it into 3rd. But if you are at 4000 rpm in 5th and you throw it into 4th, you will be fine.

I totally agree about double clutching being pointless, but I don't think downshifting is as terrible as a lot of people are making it out to be. If you do it reasonably, it's perfectly fine.

Just get ABS, you don't wanna buy a new engine if you accidently downshift into the wrong gear.