Roll or "drive" up to red light?

Question about driving habits... I notice my (and I assume all) C2s don't "coast" very well when in gear but giving no gas...it tends to slow down rather rapidly, especially when downshifting. That said, if I notice a red light up ahead...be it 1/2 block to 1 block, I often shift into neutral and just let the car roll up to the light and break. This enables me to "coast", and hence utilize less gas (since my foot is off the pedal). If I were to stay in gear, I'd have to continue to depress the accelerator, be it slightly, virtually all the way to the light to avoid slowing too dramatically and pissing off the cars behind me. Can anyone comment on this 'habit' of mine? Do you do the same? Will it hurt the engine to coast for a block in neutral? (I've heard the in the past, but not sure of the truth to it). Thanks

If you are slowing down so fast, just keep it in a higher gear. Always keep your car in gear for ssafety reasons.

Ditto.

Silly question, but why would you not just push in the clutch and coast into the light, leaving the car in gear for possible emergency situations? Does this hurt the clutch to hold it in like that? That is what I did for years on my last Porsche and went 56K miles on that clutch before selling the car. Just curious.

I've been driving standard cars for 20 years, and If I know I'm stopping ahead I'll put the car in neutral and cost to a stop. Keep in mind this would not apply to highway driving, just normal street driving where you're only doing a few miles an hour anyway. Rob

Agreed Riad, that's what I've always done as well. I've heard rumors that coasting in neutral for more than a few feet isn't good on the engine. Not sure why, but just wanted to clarify here...

The engine doesn't know if you're coasting in neutral, sitting still in neutral, or have fallen off a cliff in neutral. Its generally not a good habit to press the clutch in and just hold it there waiting, which is why you shift to neutral at a stop and let the clutch out while you wait.

Sorry, that sounds like total nonsense. In what way should that contribute to safety?

I agree with Riad on this one. I don't see any major safety problem with the situation as he describes it.

The reasoning to leave the car in gear is in the event that you would need to make a quick manuver to avoid an accident. This happened recently with my wife in her Audi TT. She was stopped at a red light with the car in first and the clutch depressed. She noticed that a car was barreling down on her and appeared to be on the way to rear-ending her at about 35mph. She wisely looked to see if the oncoming traffic lane was clear and accelerated into that lane. The driver stiil clipped her rear end, but nowhere near as hard as if she was standing still like a sitting duck. Who knows, it could have even saved her life. If she was in nuetral with her foot off the clutch, she would not have been able to react quickly enough.

Glad your wife escaped the potential disaster, Patric. No to be argumentative, but if your wife had the instinct to check the rearview mirror and the wherewithal to carry out an evasive maneuver, she would've engaged the gear and still ended up with the same result had she been in neutral. For any experienced driver, it doesn't take much more time to shift into gear in that situation. Had she not been paying attention to what was behind her, then it wouldn't have made any difference whether she was in gear at the stoplight.

I'm with Riad on this one as well. It does seem like we're the same group arguing the same thing...maybe I'm just losing it.

Patric, Glad to hear your wife is okay... I once had a similar experience, except that the guy was going *much* faster than 35mph. I nearly lost it. As for the original question, I typically downshift until I get to second and then don't bother with first. I like to keep the car in gear at all times - safety is one very good reason for this. I do pop into neutral at stop lights/signs/etc. tto save my foot wear and tear A well-rested foot is a safe foot! -Justin

As Patric stated, you should never coast in neutral. If you're expecting to come to a halt shortly (e.g., ~30 feet), you should be in 2nd gear and have the clutch pedal depressed once your speed falls below a few mph (I'm guessing 5mph but I never really checked). If the distance is greater then I would expect that your speed is greater than 5mph and you should be fully in 2nd gear. BTW, never downshift into 1st gear. I'm not even sure that you can and even if you tried to force it, the resulting noise you'd hear would tell you it's a bad thing to do. 1st gear is only meant to be used from a stopped position. As for the safety reason for being in gear, again as stated by Patric, it's for avoidance maneuver reasons. Contrary to what Ucube said, quickly shifting into 1st gear when in a situation such as the one Patric's wife was in, is not as easy as it sounds. No matter how good drivers we all think we are and how good we think our reflexes are, when in an extreme situation, our brain and reflexes are naturally challenged. If on top of that, due to the hecticness of the situation, we miss the 1st gear or it refuses to engage (don't tell me it never ever happened to you, unless you've only been driving stick for 2 weeks and then again...), the situation turns from challenging to catastrophic in a matter of seconds... Seconds that we're desperately wasting trying to shift into that darn 1st gear. One last thing, whenever you're coming to a stop (stop sign or red light), you should ALWAYS check your rear view mirror to make sure that the driver behind you is also coming to a stop... without using your car as a crash test wall. Now, before someone shoots me down for being opinionated, my driving style is my own and I don't claim to be an expert of any kind. That being said, I think that 23 some years of driving stick, mostly in European countries where people either drive fast, or like crazy ants, or both, does give me some experience in the matter. ... I'm done

When you push in the clutch the half shaft doesn�t oil which in turn causes the full shaft to rub against the quarter shaft causing the three quarter shaft to dwindle I think

That's a bunch of shaft.

When I drove stick (in Europe for about 20yrs) you shift down when approaching a light or traffic and brake on the engine, because this safes your brakes...this is what they teach you in driving school which is mandatory in most countries in Europe (about 20 lessons with an instructor)....they tell you never to put the car in neutral but shift down to 2nd gear and when coming to a complete stop in 1st gear ready to go. I have noticed that American drivers, don't really care about the world around them...they drive all over the road (30 in the left lane etc) except for NC and SC (when I travelled form NYC to Atlanta..I was happily surprised about the great "European style" driving....everybody past left and kept to the right permitted faster traffic to pass on the left (like it should be) Here in CA it is a complete disaster.. that is why the traffic accidents are so huge and frequent here. Sorry for the little rant...but it is frustrating "hanging behind a "grandma" in the left lane of a 6 lane highway!!

Nico, an engine costs more than brakes. Don't forget, brakes ARE for stopping the car. However, that said, I will downshift while slowing in order to maintain max-efficient control over the throttle in the event that sudden acceleration is required. If you guys really want to have an eye-opening experience on driving mechanics, go to motorcycle safety classes. On a motorcycle, being clipped at all by anything at all can very quickly become lethal.

Nicolaas- Exactly as I remember my driving classes when I was 18... Are you Dutch or Belgian (Flemish)?

Just my $0.02. Years ago, when I learned to drive overseas, schools drilled into my head to keep the car in gear for as long as possible when coming to a full stop. The rationale was that full control of the car is maintained for as long as possible; if the situation arose to have to accelerate, the car is already in gear. When stopped, the car is put in neutral, handbrake on, foot off the clutch, to save wear on the throw out bearing (when I rode a bike, this was also in case the clutch cable fails). Now, especially when I drive in bad neighborhoods, I will keep the car in gear, the clutch in, with plenty of escape room at stops in case of a carjack.

Having grown up in Europe as well (in a highly mountainous part of France), I couldn't agree more with the last few posts. I'd also like to add that unfortunately, most North Americans don't know how to drive a manual transmission very well since most of the driver's ed is done on automatic Detroit land yachts. Yes, you should downshift to slow the car down and when just about fully stopped, clutch in, shift to neutral, release clutch (to save throw out bearing). I was also taught to use the e-brake to hold the car on very steep inclines when starting off in first and to use downshifts/engine braking when decending mountain passes to hold your speed and to minimize the use of the brakes. Most of the accidents on the mountain roads every ski season, were caused by people who were not comfortable with steep roads and who'd fry their brakes on descent because they'd ride them all the way down. Just my $.02

Guys - we were talking about coming to a complete stop in front of a stop light which is well anticipated in advance. There's nothing wrong with shifting into neutral and let it roll. It saves fuel and for sure it won't kill you. BTW: If you have problems finding first gear immediately then something's wrong with you or your car. Of course you don't shift into neutral, brake a little and the engage the gear again when you're decelerating before a corner. FYI: even driving schools don't tell you to substitute the brake with downshifting. They only want you to use it silmutaneously to assist the brakes and to keep the rpm in the right range. Just like nycebo said. For the downhill driving pongobaz is exactly on the spot. Driving behind some people downhill in the alps I often put my sunglasses on Thorsten

It won't kill you but the car careening towards your rear-end out of control may... People on the road think that they are safe because they know how to drive. They forget one major thing: they are not the only ones driving on the road... There's everything wrong with someone's brain when one is in a life threatening situation. To think otherwise is to start counting yourself out of the living population.