Dear Tom and Ray:

OK, guys, it's time for both of you to sign up for Clutch 101 and 102. I just read your response to "Susan." You told her to leave her transmission in Neutral and her foot off the clutch pedal when stopped at a light, and you told her not to rest her foot on the clutch between shifts. Otherwise, you said, she would be wearing out the clutch-release bearing Your statements to Susan are all wrong! Most manual transmissions today, and for the last 10 or 12 years, have a self-adjusting clutch system. To accomplish this amazing feat, the clutch-release bearing is running all the time no matter what. Second, the clutch-release bearing today is much larger than necessary. These clutch-release bearings are designed to go one million cycles (pushing the pedal down one million times). So people can feel free to leave their foot on the clutch pedal today at stoplights with no negative repercussions. Now you may ask, how do I know all this stuff? Well, I sold the bearings to Detroit for many years. I ate, drank and slept these bearings, and sweated out the OEM test programs. Are you ready to issue a correction? -- Phil

Ray: Well, not quite yet, Phil. You're right that the vast majority of brand-new cars are coming off the assembly line with self-adjusting clutches, but we still see 20 or 30 cars a month in the shop that do require clutch adjustments. That means there are millions and millions of non-self-adjusting clutches still on the road, including the one in Susan's car (and a lot of other Japanese cars sold in the '80s and '90s). And each time she pushes in the clutch pedal, or rests her foot on the clutch between shifts, she IS wearing out the clutch-release bearing.

Tom: We're not saying it's the end of the world. In most cases, the clutch disc wears out first anyway, and when you replace that, you replace the release bearing at the same time. But if you have a car without a self-adjusting clutch, you should leave your foot off the clutch pedal when you're not actually using it to change gears.

Ray: Ten years from now, when the vast majority of cars on the road have self-adjusting clutches, we may change our blanket recommendation. But because most people don't even know whether their clutch is self-adjusting or not, we think the safer route is to recommend that everybody lay off the clutch pedal when they're not actually changing gears.

Tom: So if you'd be kind enough to make a note in your calendar to call me 10 years from today, Phil, and remind me to make that change, I'd be very grateful.

Ray: But make sure you call in the afternoon that day. He's got a plumber coming in the morning.

Stop the madness! You can stop driving like a knucklehead, and you'll help your car in the process. Learn how your driving habits can harm your car in Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1997 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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