Shifting into 1st gear problem?

I've had a release bearing almost chew through the springs on the pressure plate. I got into the habit of shifting to neutral and letting the clutch out while sitting still. Seemed to work well in all my manuals. My '92 pickup did have a bushing that wore out, causing it to pop out of first gear.

On another note, I had a Lancia that had a nylon part in the linkage break, and no parts were available. My temp fix of tying it together with the hem ripped off a t-shirt lasted a good 9 months, but it required a certain technique to get it to go into 1st gear (a slap to the left, then a well-timed slap forward, not too hard, just enough to let her know what is expected). I later had to use that same technique when valet parking a beat-up Ferrari that had a wonky linkage.

 

Reviving this thread. Happened to me twice in the last few weeks. Coming to a stop at red light, pushing the clutch, moving into neutral, waiting for the light to turn green with the foot on the brake. Push the clutch, engage first, but it won’t go in. Didn’t think about engaging second snd coming back to first, just launched in second. Will bring this to my dealership at the next service.

 

It's normal. Shift into another gear or double clutch in neutral then back into 1st. Sometimes things aren't lined up.

 

I thought double clutching was using the clutch to get out of gear, then using the clutch again to get in gear (e.g. double clutch while driving). Obviously, when coming to a stop, I have to use the clutch to get out of gear and into neutral. Then clutch again to engage first. Not sure how I can double clutch to go neutral. Anyway, almost a year on the truck and it happened twice in the last few weeks. Just found it odd. Never happened in 16 years with my Corolla (316000km original clutch), 10 years with my Yaris or 5 years with my Mazda 5. Will try it the tricks to avoid starting in second, but will tell the dealer anyway. Just in case.

 

That's pretty good luck to never have it happen with three different vehicles. My four previous manuals all had it happen on occasion (over 10 years), including my 2020 Tacoma, so I've always assumed it's something that happens on every manual. I don't think the dealer can do much about it, sometimes things just don't line up on the first try. Like others have mentioned, either clutch-in shift to 2nd, and back to 1st, or shift back to neutral, clutch-out, clutch-in and back to 1st. Has worked 100% of the time on every manual I've owned.