As RedCelica said, brakes are cheaper than clutch jobs. Minimize the amount of time your foot is on the clutch pedal.

In any gear that I'm in when approaching a stop I typically brake till I'm at close to 1000 RPMs. Then I press the clutch just long enough to put it in neutral. I never idle with the pedal depressed.

I don't downshift when coming to a stop unless I'm doing a lot of braking and I'm concerned about overheated brakes. Others will disagree but it is easiest on the clutch to only downshift when slowing down to make a turn or to get more torque, but not to stop.

I have 329,000 miles on my car and my original clutch. If I clutched like most others I would not have made it this long.

 

HOLY COW! I hope to take my S to the 300k club and still be smiling along as I drive.

 

Also, when i downshift i 'blip' the throttled in neutral/as i bring the car into the lower gear. I do this because from my understanding im helping the synchros out. Is this true?

 

You do not want to ride the clutch. Even in downshifting. I like to blip throttle during double clutch. But, only when the gear is in neutral, foot OFF clutch --- between gears. You should be only stabbing at the clutch pedal, during each gear change the whole time. Even into neutral to double clutch. Hard to explain, but this video kinda demonstrates this kind of clutch use. Check out the foot work. Esp on downshifting.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2ZqP-Hnvc

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Someone should stop listening to Toretto.

 

Ok... educate me. Not a fan of Fast and Furious.


Thanks!

 

Why are you double clutching?

 

It's the way I learned. In my mind, makes downshifting easier. Habit from old BMW 2002 Gymkhana days. Not implying that you HAVE to double-clutch to rev engine between gears. Just that I release the clutch, when momentarily in neutral, to rev engine and tranny together. Before shifting.


Yeah, with today's synchromesh technology, prolly a dated thing.

 

There you go

 

And double-clutching really impresses the optional passenger seat female! Double-clutch tranny shifting, that is.