Shifting to neutral w/o clutch

I've read some mixed opinions from various forums regarding this. When rolling up to red lights/stop signs in 3rd or 4th gear, I have a habit of letting the engine brake until the RPM's match a low enough rev that the gear slides into neutral with no effort. In my mind, I do this to save wear on engaging/disengaging the clutch. I know it's minor but small things add up over time (especially something as frequent as clutch use). I'm reasoning that if it slips out of gear w/ no effort it's perfectly safe since there's no load between the engine and transmission, at least that's how I make sense of it in my head.

What I want to know is whether or not this is damaging or unnecessarily wearing any parts. What are your thoughts?

 

As long as you are not forcing or grinding no harm no foul. Most truckers never use the clutch except to change direction or get it in gear when stopped.

 

I do that too. Rev matching on downshifts also help

 

I power shift my F350 from 3rd to 4th and let off throttle and slip out of gear all the time.

My 88 and 99 Toyotas with 5 speed took all the abuse I gave them for 170k + miles.

 

I do it from time to time.
But my clutch has 130,000 miles on it I've put it thru some shit although on a regular I'm not hard on it. So idk. Choose your battle I guess. Good luck.

 

good question as I do this all the time and never thought twice about it... Same reason I thought it might give some extra life to the clutch

 

It's not making any crazy noise or offering any resistance, so I just assume it's not harming anything. Then again, just because I don't get negative feedback doesn't mean it's not bad for it. Maybe it wears on the synchro bearing??

 

Truckers do it because the big truck gears are "straight cut" where they can upshift as well as downshift. As long as its at the right rpm i don't see an issue with it. I'm not sure on the taco trans but a lot of newer cars have a carbon lined synchros where one forceful move can remove the carbon lining. I've always been under the assumption that its fine as long as you don't mess up

 

I do it all the time, 130k on the clock.

As long as you aren’t forcing it out of gear and there’s no load on the cogs, I don’t imagine yer hurting the whirley bits. But I’m a simple minded bumpkin who don’t know much about nothin.

 

Had a '71&'76 Mercury Capri. Blew the clutch up on the '71 and drove it 2 weeks before fixing it. If you match the rpm change between gears, it'll slide right in. When downshifting, blip the throttle to a little higher than what the rpm change would be.

I'd also do this in the other Capri and the '94 ranger. Just bc I could. I say if it's not grinding, it's not a problem.

 

I use the clutch on my 08 simply for taking off and going from 1st to 2nd. With a blip of the throttle you can downshift just fine and upshifting is a breeze. Like they said as long as it slips right in there shouldn’t be an issue. 110,000mi on the clutch I bought the truck with. And still feels as strong as when I bought it.

 

I've got 184k on the original clutch and never do this. I always clutch in and out when changing gears or pulling it out of neutral. So I don't think you're necessarily saving the clutch and possibly putting extra wear on the synchros. I'd rather put wear on the clutch (a replaceable wear item) vs the synchros (I have no idea if those are easily replaceable).

 

Can you walk me through how you shift out of gear without using the clutch once you're rolling? As mentioned in my original post, I only slip it in and out when I'm low-speed rolling; I can't begin to think how to do this at regular get-up speeds.

 

You want to go into neutral as your coming off the throttle. It should take little to no effort. If you wait till your completely off the throttle there’s to much of a bind on the transmission as your in an engine braking scenario. I hope that explains it well enough.

 

While my Tacoma is an automatic, I've owned many MT vehicles (including my current Corvette) and always done this... never had a problem.

 

Thanks, I'll have to give this a try. I am fearful of damaging things though because I'm a clumsy MF

 

It might take a few tries to get it down but if it’s something you’d prefer to do go for it. I wouldn’t try to mimic anyone’s driving style unless you feel like it’s an improvement over your own. Do what your comfortable with and just enjoy your truck.

 

Same here @ 159k

 

Before you try, watch the rpm change on the tach when shifting, it may be the same change for each gear, it may not. That will get you in the ballpark of where the engine needs to be for it to slip into gear.

Timing... Practice popping it into neutral. You'll see where in letting off the gas it pops out easiest. Your letting off the gas, letting it drop to the shift point so you can side it in to the next gear and step on the gas again

It's easier imo to downshift. When in neutral, blip the gas to a little higher than what the rpm change would be and it slides right in.

Like anything, it takes practice. If i can do it, you can...

 

Thanks, yeah I've been able to fumble my way through it a couple of times. I'm having more trouble pulling it out of gear into neutral [to prep for next upshift] rather than rev matching into the next gear; just easier to blip the throttle and apply light pressure to find where it'll slide in w/o resistance. Just finding that sweet spot b/t foot on accelerator and foot off accelerator.

For whatever reason, 2nd to 3rd is giving me the most trouble pulling into neutral. 2nd gear seems to have the tightest grip/smallest window. It's also awkward and clumsy doing all this in traffic because it's not the smooth transition that utilizing the clutch offers (guess that's why they saw fit to include a clutch, eh?). Nonetheless, practice makes better (not perfect in my case) so I'll keep playing with it. I'm not trying to make a habit out of it, but it's a technique I'd like to be somewhat proficient at in case the need were ever to arise... also just to impress people because that's what really matters in life.