Struggling with clutch control!

In what situations do you feel your clutch control isn't good? Starting off? Different gears and speeds allow different levels of forgiveness in terms of clutch control.

I'm fine with starting off when it's flat, when it's on a hill I really struggle as I panic. I don't know if the car is supposed to rev or not when I'm on a hill so when it does I freak out a bit and put the clutch back in which invariable ends in me rolling backwards and having to put the handbrake on and start again. When changing gears she says I have a delay like, I'll change, hold the clutch for a bit and then come up

On a hill it's a good idea to get the revs up before getting to biting point. When the clutch is brought up the revs will probably drop a little, at which point my instructor has told me to make sure the revs remain high before I move off as opposed to the car just being stable and not rolling. I take a while to set off up hills with my instructor as I need to concentrate on the revs before I set off unlike on the flat. In short, you need more power to set off up hill and therefore you need more revs. On my instructor's mini that's around 1900 on the rev meter if it's steep.

When you're changing gear on the move you don't need to worry so much, unless you made a drastic gear change which the car couldn't handle you're unlikely to stall. Even if you effectively dropped the clutch while moving it'd just be quite jerky, so you don't need to be so cautious and keep the clutch down, bring it up as soon as you've changed at a medium sort of pace (If medium makes sense, not really quickly but you don't need to put the same thought into it as you would starting off). If you're going the right speed for the gear even a relatively quick and careless change won't be awfully jerky, the only situation when you're moving that requires a lot of clutch control would be trying to ensure a smooth change down a gear when you're really going too fast. In my instructor's car a change down to first at 7mph would be smooth no matter what I did with the clutch, but if I did the same at 13mph I'd struggle to stop it lurching.

Hope I haven't been entirely incoherent

some good advice from the peeps before me but its mostly practice, practice and more practice...it'll be second nature to you soon, believe me
good luck

Hi, I've had 7 hours of driving lessons now and I don't practice outside of my lessons. I've done main roads, T-Junctions, roundabouts, gears, steering, parallel park, bay park, turn in the road and the occasional hill start. My instructor says I jump off the clutch and says I must slow down coming off the clutch and take about 5 seconds coming off the clutch. When I change gears and come off I don't stall, the car doesn't lurch forward and it doesn't rev like crazy so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anybody have any ideas? It's getting quite frustrating now as my instructor seems to be getting quite annoyed with me about it :/

Five seconds is a bit OTT, I had a similar issue when I started, my instructor told me to count to three as I brought the clutch up smoothly, which seems to be doing ok for hill starts, watch your bonnet as you get your pedals ready - the clutch should be up high enough for the bonnet to visibly rise, much more than it does on a flat road, and then you need to put plenty of gas on, otherwise you'll lose control! Just take it calmly, you'll get used to how it should feel after a few more lessons I don't have any practice outside of lessons either!

Okay thank you I was just getting worried because my instructor is getting kind of frustrated with me about it


Posted from TSR Mobile

dont worry about it; maybe your instructor is just a really impatient dude (got in the wrong business if he is )

Perhaps it's because you're a woman.

Ah, a troll. I forgot, having a penis dictates driving ability.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Evidently it does.









Just kidding. The reason you don't stall or lurch forward when coming off the clutch quickly as you're driving is because the engine (and car) has built up enough speed to the point where the you wouldn't be able to notice it as you're driving although it does happen.


To master clutch control, apply the handbrake, go into first gear and with the handbrake still on and just practice letting go of the clutch and applying the accelerator simultaneously. You will feel the car wanting to take off but it won't be able to as the handbrake will still be on. Do that a few times and you will feel the bite point.


In essence when setting off the accelerator and clutch should cancel each other out. This basically means that with the foot on the clutch it can't be on the accelerator (and vice versa) because the engine will redline (rev really high basically)

As you're setting off from a junction, you wanna bring the clutch up slowly as you slowly and gently put the accelerator down. The key here is to balance both of them so as one goes up (clutch) the other is going down (accelerator) both at the same time.


Hope that helps.

Ah okay thank you. When I set off, should I always use gas? My instructor has taught me to set off by shifting into first, finding the bite, handbrake off, bring clutch up slowly to gain some movement and then add gas later, everyone else seems to do it differently to that but the way she's taught me seems to work so I don't know if I should change it or not

Okay thank you I was just getting worried because my instructor is getting kind of frustrated with me about it


Posted from TSR Mobile

Doing this will just make you set off painfully slowly. Gas would be helpful


Posted from TSR Mobile

Youre only what, 7 hours in? Give it time and stop panicking!
On hills, what I've been told, is too make sure you can see the bonnet rise up. I know where you're coming from because I sometimes let the clutch out too fast and I stall. But it's only cause I panic.

But it'll get better with more and more practice.

Ah okay thank you. When I set off, should I always use gas? My instructor has taught me to set off by shifting into first, finding the bite, handbrake off, bring clutch up slowly to gain some movement and then add gas later, everyone else seems to do it differently to that but the way she's taught me seems to work so I don't know if I should change it or not