VaMP

I just noticed this. I was in 3rd and I could just pull it out of gear. It works in any gear only when your foot is off the gas, so no powershifting! It makes for cleaner and quicker shifts I think.... I don't know if this is normal, I've driven other manual cars that doing this would cause noises that would get you nasty looks in traffic. I'm not saying my car falls out of gear, because it doesn't, you can just pull it out of gear without clutching. I gave my mom a ride and scared her, "look ma I just broke a transmission'..... tee-hehehehe

wikkymaster

my friend also showed me that, however he says you can do that in any car, and sure enough his parents manual car did it the same as ours....

2006ArrivalBlueSS

It's a saftey feature much like the ability to shift to neutral on a AT without engaing the button on the shift lever or pulling it forward on sterring column shifters.

jzchev28

yeah nothing uncommen

DC52NV

i'm not sure if mine does that. never really tried it. i'm scared in trying it. lol

Nightcrawler

I don't think it's a safety feature. I think it's just inherent to a manual transmission. It would be a safety feature on the automatic though. You can shift just fine in a manual with no clutch at all by matching engine and transmission speeds aside from first gear.

2006ArrivalBlueSS

Yes you can but not adviseable with today's tranny's. I think I need to challenge you on the safety feature though. All cars should have the ability to shift into neutral without the assitance of foot pedals for emergency purposes (e.g. foot gets caught in the pedals or something like a bottle rolls under). I will do more research and see if I can back up my claim.

CobaltSS313

Yes i also noticed that you can shift to neutral without engaging the clutch...however is this bad for the tranny or not cause i dont know...i mean nothing happens when you do it but i just want to make sure

mchat

It's not bad on the tranny (at least not any worse than a normal shift), basically you're just disengaging the gear. Now trying to shift INTO a gear w/o using the clutch would wear out the syncros REALLY quick.

This is nothing new, you can do this with practically any manual transmission.

2006ArrivalBlueSS

It is not bad, just don't do it while your accelerating. That would be bad!!

Permafried-

I've done it a number of times when my hands and feet just really didn't want to work together (which seems to be the case a LOT lately). Just pops out a little harder than it would if you had the clutch in .

Permafried-

2006ArrivalBlueSS

Sort of like chewing gum and walking at the same time...happens to me all the time

player_1

as far as I know this been something you have always been able to do with a manual trans.
at least every one I've ever driven.
the oldest I've driven is a 76 "Renualt 5", & VW Beatle

zinner

I can shift 1 - 6 and 6 - 1 on my motorcycle with no clutch at all. I can usually do the same on a car with enough practice. It's just a matter of matching engine and road speed without the help of the clutch to smooth things out.

mtwal16

i can do it in my 99 vr6

mchat

Motorcycle is a little different too... most of them use a wet clutch.

Maven

iTrader: (1)

This is perfectly normal and inherent operation of a manual trans, and you can do it in just about any vehicle. The reason it slips out with your foot off the gas is because there is very low load on the gearsets at that time and they will disengage easily, if you even come close to matching revs or you push on the shifter long enough or hard enough you can shift back into gear as well, this is because of the synchronizers in the transmission, there job is to "synchronize" the speed of the two gearsets you are trying to switch between so that you dont have to do it yourself(double clutch) it also makes the trans quieter. the way the synchronizers work is like an extra little clutch they help speed up or slow down the gear you want to go into by rubbing on the gear to change its speed, these synchros are so effective that if you sit with your car idling in neutral and push the shifter to try and go into first gear and just hold it there the car will actually start to move and accelerate(slowly) until the shaft/gear speeds match and there is a low enough load on the gears for first to engage.(I wouldnt recommend driving like this all the time.)

The clutch's job is actually just to take the load off of the input shaft so that the force of the shifter will be strong enough to overcome the force of the gearsets reluctance to move(and of course to make it easier to engage first gear from a stop, which is really just a variation of taking the load if you think about my synchro experiment above)

While it could be argued it was a safety feature. it really isnt, the only true safety measure a manual transmission like in the Cobalt has is the clutch pedal switch so you cant start with trans engaged.

2006ArrivalBlueSS

What would we do without you Maven...please stick around as a member of . I find your technical knowledge about our cars completely indispensible

igloo

You Should Know That Experienced Drivers Can Shift Out And Into Gears Without Pushing In The Clutch. Its All About Timing And The Right Rpms!

Maven

iTrader: (1)

You should know that there is no reason to capitalize every word in a sentence.

DanM

Haha, nice.

I also hate people who don't use periods or other forms of punctuation in sentences it makes them so difficult to read because you dont know where one sentence ends and the next sentence starts does anyone here like chocolate?

tio

Does not really require that much experience. I grew up out in the sticks,we always had old cars sitting around the property. My Dad taught me to drive a standard in a field with an old 72 Toyota. His method of teaching was that you did not use the clutch at all (even to start). I learned how to start from a stop,upshift,downshift all without the clutch. It took two weeks to learn and I think I was 9 . Not that hard of a skill to master,but honestly,WHY??? If you want to drive without a clutch, buy and automatic and manual shift it . Wear driving gloves and a helmet and you can feel like a wildman

05SDI

zinner and igloo or correct.
While I was a poor college kid I had a Fiat x-19 One night I ran over an armadillo (sp) and the little bastard bent and cracked a hydraulic line in the clutch. To fix it cost more then I could afford at the time. I ended up putting about 5000 miles on the car with out a clutch. I would just start the car in first gear and then drive it normally matching RPM with road speed for what ever gear I wanted to go into. After a short time it was pretty esay. I would try and antisapte redlights and California stop @ stop signs where I could see other traffic. I'd ALWAYs look for a place I could drive out of and not have to start it in reverse. (starting in reverse was scary lol!) More then once I had to push the car backwards into a parking spot. So yes it can be done. I would not recomend it for the long term though.
05SDI

Nightcrawler

Just because you CAN drive the car without a cluctch doesn't mean anyone here recommends it! We were just discussing the workings of manual transmissions. Moving into the gears without a clutch will certainly strain your syncros more than clutching. And obviously starting out will put severe strains on your transmission with no clutch as opposed to using one!