The rules of the road are clear – stay in your lane, don’t drive drunk, etc. But are there any rules for keeping your car performing at peak beside a regular service? Are there any ways to avoid wear on your clutch and engine? According to the mechanical engineer, Jason Fenske, founder of the Youtube channel, Engineering Explained, there are a few surprising bad habits manual drivers make that causes unknown damage to their vehicles.
Resting Your Hand On The Gear
Changing gears involves a selector fork pushing up against a rotating collar.When resting your hand on the shift, you unknowingly apply pressure on this selector fork which causes premature wear of your gears.
For other obvious reasons, it’s always safer to have both hands on the steering wheel.
Leaving Your Car In Gear When At a Stop
The main components allowing for engaging and disengaging the clutch is a pressure plate and a throwout bearing in your car’s transmission. When pushing in the clutch pedal, pressure from the throw-out bearing is placed on the diaphragm spring of the pressure plate.
Sounds complicated right? Simply put – leaving your car in gear at stops, causes unnecessary pressure on the throw-out bearing resulting in early deterioration of your clutch system.
Using Your Clutch To Hold Steady On a Hill
Feathering the clutch throttle up a hill to avoid rolling down a hill is common amongst motorists. However, doing this causes the speedy decline of the friction material on your clutch disc. Pull up the handbrake instead.
Applying Throttle When You’re Not At a High RPM
In other words, driving in 5th gear at a speed of 70km/ph is not a good idea. Driving like this puts your engine at a huge disadvantage because it overworks your car and causes engine lug.
Instead of flooring the accelerator, down-shift to a more compatible gear that matches your RPM and prevents early wear of your engine.
Resting Your Foot On The Clutch Pedal While Driving
There are a few reasons why you may want to put an end to resting your foot on the clutch pedal while driving:
- Because your clutch is not fully engaged, it could result in your clutch eventually slipping.
- It causes wear to your clutch’s throw-out bearing.
- It wears out the overall performance of your vehicle’s clutch.
Do you know of any more habits that may be harmful to your car’s performance?
