|
I always bump start unless I know I will be coasting up to a red light, where I will sit with the engine off. If you pay attention to what is going on, and have the car in gear with the clutch already depressed, and hand on the key, there is not really any delay, as stated earlier. Most of the time, if I am the first car stopped at a light, I have my car started and moving before the person next to me realizes the light turned green, and it is not very hard to time the start by watching the cars in front of you as they begin to take off. As far as clutch and starter wear practicing these techniques, I personally don't worry about it. The original starter on my car lasted for 16 years, even if that amount of time got cut in half with the new starter, it's still easy to replace, and only cost $90 dollars, the fuel saving would still make it well worth it for me. The wear on the clutch I think is pretty minimal also, when I bump start it, I let the clutch pedal out to the point where it just starts to grab, then I depress the pedal, I do this very fast, and it smoothly starts the car, then I tap the throttle to match the engine RPM, given the speed I am traveling, and the gear being used, to smoothly get back into gear and drive on. Also just to share some insight on how long a clutch can last, mine is original and has 155,000 miles on it, I keep thinking it won't last much longer, but it is still functioning just fine. Back when I first got my car I drove the s**t out of it to, regularly dumping the clutch at high RPM, and being pretty rough on it with downshifts. So at least in my experience, it will take a fair amount of abuse to wear out a clutch.
|