UAE - What to check when buying second hand?

[chrisl]

Originally Posted by Anthony

TLDR: So the moral of the story is, by double clutching, I made my clutch last more than twice as long as most people with the same car, even though I beat the hell out of it otherwise.

Double clutching won't do a thing to make the clutch last longer. Proper rev matching on downshifts and relatively gentle starts are what make a clutch last (and the vast majority of clutch wear is in the starts). Double clutching saves wear on synchros, but it is really not necessary on any modern car.

(And that quote wasn't being serious - it was making fun of a quote from F&F 1)

[strat61caster]

Check out the rear tires, that will tell you more about how it was driven than anything else, mainly how many of those 10,000 kms were done sideways.

Doubt you'll have issues though, sounds like it was bought as a toy and just wasn't as interesting as the owner thought it would be.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by chrisl

Double clutching won't do a thing to make the clutch last longer. Proper rev matching on downshifts and relatively gentle starts are what make a clutch last...

Isn't rev matching part of double clutching?

Whatever you want to call it, this is what I do when I down shift, say 4th to 3rd:

Release gas and push in clutch pedal
Shift to neutral
Release clutch pedal
Blip throttle to rev match
Quickly push in clutch pedal and shift to 3rd gear
Release clutch pedal

So whatever you call all that nonsense, that's what I've been doing, and my clutch lasted way long than everyone else's that I know of.

[chrisl]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Isn't rev matching part of double clutching?

Whatever you want to call it, this is what I do when I down shift, say 4th to 3rd:

Release gas and push in clutch pedal
Shift to neutral
Release clutch pedal
Blip throttle to rev match
Quickly push in clutch pedal and shift to 3rd gear
Release clutch pedal

So whatever you call all that nonsense, that's what I've been doing, and my clutch lasted way long than everyone else's that I know of.

You can't double clutch without rev matching, but you can rev match without double clutching. Doing so would go something like this:

Release gas and push in clutch pedal
Shift lever from 4th to 3rd
Apply throttle to bring engine RPM up to correct engine speed for 3rd gear
Release clutch

Doing it this way won't cause any more clutch wear than the way you described. It will wear the synchros faster, but that's usually not a problem on modern transmissions.

[Anthony]

Doesn't blipping the throttle in neutral with the clutch engaged get the clutch and flywheel spinning the same speed?