I broke two records today...

[113]

How would that not burn the clutch? If I am correct, any time the clutch is not either fully engaged or disengaged you are wearing down the clutch.

You can, nay, must feather/slip the clutch a bit in slow driving conditions, parking, and hills. There's no way around that, you just have to learn to minimize it and that's entirely a feel-thing. I've driven 1 manual car for 7 years (S197) and just switched to the S550 two days ago and I have to relearn, well retrain, myself on the new car because it's a different feel.

If I was on a steep hill in the S197 I'd have little to no anxiety tackling that, but if that happened to me in the S550 at this point I'd be nervous cause I'm not used to it. Having said that, this S550 is pretty friendly to beginners. A really light clutch, combined with hill assist, and creep mode, make it a pretty pleasant experience day to day.

Also, keep in mind, it will take many thousands of miles for you to learn, and get comfortable with, all the different nuances of stickshift. And you want to tackle each thing one at a time.

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[113]

Also Update:

My Check Engine light is basically a non-issue. The car has a bad sensor, so getting that replaced next week.

 

[Waldorf]

Well whatever you do don't tell them the car wash story lol just say you were driving and smelled something "weird" and heard "weird" noises.

When you use the word weird twice in your description of the problem, they always buy it.

Let's get this baby a warranty claim!

YES! Maybe add a "I was baffled" too!

That is all...

 

[boolean]

This is interesting behavior I see over and over again. Don't man up, lie and count on a free repair even though you screwed up. And there's ton of threads about how difficult it is Ford Service to make do something about real warranty problem - it's because of behavior like that.

I agree. Don't sell your integrity out for the price of a clutch. If you were able to afford the car this is an unfortunate price to pay for the lesson.

I am very sorry to hear about your clutch. I am also in the camp of folks here that thinks you likely just glazed it and that you might get away with not having to replace it. All the best bud...

 

[dogiebitt]

What do you mean by this? What if I want to shift from 1>2 at 5k RPM for example?

What Bmatt said. You can still do it, but that's for accelerating hard. I was talking more about just day to day normal city driving.
Doing a 1>2 at 5K RPM you would accelerate to 5K in 1st, then clutch in, shift quickly to 2nd, then at same time give it moderate gas and clutch out. If you pause too long with your clutch held in, RPMs will drop too low to match the speed of the engine to the drive shaft at those speeds and when you do let it go in 2nd, it will jerk (not good on clutch).

 

[GT Pony]

That's not good bro... have you tried pulling the code?

I don't know how to do that. If the engine light is still on tomorrow I'm going to call the service dpt and try to bring the car in.

Go into engineering test mode as shown in this video. You can see any trouble-codes there ... don't need a code reader.

[ame]

 

[MultiMediaWill]

I agree. Don't sell your integrity out for the price of a clutch. If you were able to afford the car this is an unfortunate price to pay for the lesson.

I am very sorry to hear about your clutch. I am also in the camp of folks here that thinks you likely just glazed it and that you might get away with not having to replace it. All the best bud...

I never really explained what happened. The reason I had to get it towed was because I could not shift into gear. I would press the clutch down and it would not let me move the stick into first gear. Am I right in assuming that the clutch is dead? The entire car smelled like burnt clutch.

 

[bee bop]

That does not sound like a burnt clutch. even if you destroyed the friction material on the disk it should still let you shift. It almost sounds like what my 02 Gt did recently. The fingers on the pressure plate collapsed and it was almost impossible to shift. I had an 88 that the disk failed shortly after it was replaced I could still shift like normal, but it just would barley go because there was no grip between the disk, pressure plate and fly wheel.

 

[GT Pony]

Okay thank you! So I'm assuming engaging the clutch halfway also with the brake pressed down is bad? I was doing this to avoid embarrassing stalls at red lights.

Sounds like you are riding the clutch half way ALOT. You probably put 100,000 miles of wear on the clutch in 1000 miles! :doh:

 

[bigb996]

Im trying to understand why you didnt let the track system on the car wash move the car for you like they all do. Pretty common sense. I have been told new clutches cost upwards of 700+ installed at a dealer. This will be a learning experience for you.

 

[TheDivaDanielle]

Im trying to understand why you didnt let the track system on the car wash move the car for you like they all do. Pretty common sense. I have been told new clutches cost upwards of 700+ installed at a dealer. This will be a learning experience for you.

700 would be cheap, I was quoted around $2700 parts and labor when we had a clutch issue on our last Mustang.

 

[Big P91]

I had a 150 mile drive home after buying my car as well. And I had a total of maybe an hour in a manual car before that (4 years before that... and it was a 89 toyota truck with a 4 banger). The drive home was hard/embarrassing/nerve-racking, to say the least.
Two things that I've figured out since then:
1. "creep assist" (when you are in 1st gear and can just slowly let off the clutch with no gas, and it goes) seems to be disabled if you are touching the brakes. This means if you are on a slight incline, or at a red light with someone right on your ass, and you are holding the brakes, you will almost certainly stall by trying to release the clutch then move your foot from brake to gas. Clutch and gas needs to be simultaneous. At the same time, reving to 4k rpm at a light with the clutch pressed in, then releasing clutch will make you burn out, as well as ruin your clutch.
2. Use Sports+ mode. It seems to allow for smoother shifts at slightly higher RPMs. For example, in normal mode, going 1>2 you should be below 2k RPM when you press in the clutch to begin the shift, at which point the RPMs drop slightly as you shift into 2nd. In sports+, you can shift 1>2 at about 3k RPMs, so it drops to around 2k by the time you're in 2nd and it's MUCH smoother. At least from my experience.

I've had my car for a month and a half now (1200 miles) and it's starting to become second nature. Just keep at it and don't listen to the nay-sayers in this thread that want to crack jokes. They don't understand/remember the anxiety that comes with a manual. Especially with this kind of power.

This! I had cold sweats getting my car home the first day! Give it time and you'll get way better in no time. Just release the clutch smooth and slow and don't worry about the traffic behind you just focus on balancing the clutch and gas. I noticed that when I got anxious I would release the clutch way to fast and press the gas way to hard. Just be smooth.

 

[B0SS603]

This! I had cold sweats getting my car home the first day! Give it time and you'll get way better in no time. Just release the clutch smooth and slow and don't worry about the traffic behind you just focus on balancing the clutch and gas. I noticed that when I got anxious I would release the clutch way to fast and press the gas way to hard. Just be smooth.

Just worry about traffic behind you when you're on a hill or incline and someone is close on your ass.

 

[daytripper]

In some situations the clutch cannot be all out. Eg when going up on a hill with tight bumper to bumper traffic...You will have to learn how to balance the car with just the clutch and the gas with no brakes...

In fact you can practice that on your driveway or uphill with no traffic. Get the car to the balance point where it is not moving with no brakes but just the clutch and gas...rolling it back en forth till you master that technic. And you can do it without burning the clutch.[/QUOTE

Never do this if you like your clutch. Bad technic.

 

[garyharris1986]

want to hear how this plays out

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