Hey all,

I'm trying to figure out if I need a new clutch or not. About 3 weeks ago, I was stuck in stop'n'go traffic on the highway, and was mainly using only 1st gear. During this stop'n'go, I accelerated a little quickly, but my car just bounced up and down and wouldn't go anywhere until I shifted into 2nd. This only happened a few times and then went away.

About a week later, it happened again, however only once.

Just yesterday, I started getting an odd burning smell when stopped in traffic. Also, I should mention that I can keep the car moving while in 1st gear going very slowly, without having the clutch in or gas down..I always found that strange that the car would never stall like any normal manual car.

If anybody can help me figure this out I'd really appreciate it.

 

It sounds like you are well over due for a clutch. As far as being able to leave it in gear and it will roll with no throttle, this is normal on these and many other cars. It is a part of the ecu's map called the "stay alive" function. It tries to keep the car from stalling. Kind of a handy feature in real slow traffic!