Start car without pushing the clutch in mod!!!!!!!

I'll add to Jack's uses (not really A4 related but...). When the clutch cable on my '83 Jetta 2dr broke (middle of my shift delivering pizza in college), I was able to continue to drive the car. How, you ask? Starting it in 1st gear (as in, igniton off, start to go) to get moving and matching revs to short shift (no grinding allowed).

That car went through a lot, it was pretty great. Still like the looks of the A1's. - Al

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With the intrusion of electronic "safety" gadgets I wonder how long it will be before an average driver will no longer be able to drive a '61 Beetle without consulting a driver's manual. We can thank automatic lights, rain-sensing wipers, distance-sensing cruise control, ABS, stability control and reverse proximity sensors, just to name a few, for the dumbing down of the average driver and gradual and dangerous reduction in the skill required to operate a motor vehicle.

But that's just my humble opinion.

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Yeah, but todays cars are safer in general these days, wouldn't you agree? Why else would manufacturers and government regulators go throught the time and expense to implement these simple little life saving things such as DRLs, shift-locks, airbags, anti-skid, etc?

It has never phased me that everytime I go to start a manual car my left foot automatically hits the clutch. I learned to do this at age 16, way before any car I drove had this "idiot switch". This is common sense, not a matter of control of your rights and freedoms. /images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

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While we've made some wonderful advancements in crash safety, we've yet to improve upon the most important element of operating a vehicle - the human one. For all practical purposes people today recieve no more driver training than they did in 1961 - is it any wonder they think we need another electronic gadget to save us from ourselves?

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While we've made some wonderful advancements in crash safety, we've yet to improve upon the most important element of operating a vehicle - the human one. For all practical purposes people today recieve no more driver training than they did in 1961 - is it any wonder they think we need another electronic gadget to save us from ourselves?

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There's just no way to eliminate accidents and car crashes, no matter how you educate drivers. Isn't that why most of us bought VW's, for their higher standard of safety than other economy cars at the same price? Not because we've admitted to being bad uneducated drivers, but to protect ourselves from others out there.

So what is there to complain about when there's a gadget or system designed into our cars that has a completely logical and safety conscious purpose??

Like I said, this clutch start thing isn't a violation of human rights and freedoms, but to each his/her own.

Egg-zachary.

If cars had big spikes on the steering wheels, instead of fluffy airbags...

How do you think driver attitudes would be affected?

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that means you can't leave your car in gear when you start... It is there as a safety feature so you don't kill your starter.

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It's a legal issue. It has zero to do with the starter.

What's next? Spring brakes so when the cars off, it locks up so it can't roll away? Chasing your car down the street and jumping in to stop it has caused more broken teeth, face gashes, twisted ankles, etc. than wild runaway cars because you started it in gear, I would guess. It's an endless road. You can't fix stupid.

well said FLYTDI "you can`t fix stupid" nough said.

well, at 178k miles my car has performed this mod to itself!!!

my car has performed this mod to itself

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Wow, that's one smart car you got there! lol

One more reason to have the clutch switch removed. Remote vehicle start.

It was mentioned above and I agree that it would be nice to add a second switch to the circuit. Wire it in parrallel with the OEM clutch switch. With the new switch closed the car will start without depressing the clutch. With the aux switch open the car acts normally. You could us a small momentary pushbutton switch if your concern was moving the car out of a dangerous situation. That way the car would always act as VW designed unless you push and hold the little switch. Then you could turn the key to motivate the vehicle...

Adam

My oldman has a "clutchless" start button in his '03 Tacoma.. I absolutely love it..

The only thing that this mod would affect would be the cruise being disabled when you depressed the clutch. Other then that I really can't see anything else.

jasonTDI said:

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that means you can't leave your car in gear when you start... It is there as a safety feature so you don't kill your starter.

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It's a legal issue. It has zero to do with the starter.

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You're absolutely right.I believe that it was back in the early '80's several people drove their cars through garage walls claiming that they were depressing the brake pedal rather than the gas pedal.There was at least one death.This 'issue' had to do with the Audi 5000 if I'm not mistaken.
Everyone here knows that the braking system has nothing to do with the gas pedal,but ambulance chasing lawyers convinced dumba$$ juries to rule against Audi again,and again.
That's why we have these stupid 'safety' devices on VW/Audi vehicles......
I just disabled that clutch depression nonsense about an hour ago on my NB........

The Audi5000 sounds right. I recently (well, in the last few years) saw that, and it they also included the Jeep (Cherokee? I think it was the Grand one). The consensus that they seemed to reach was that where the tranny tunnel got so big, the pedals got pushed over, meaning that the gas pedal was now more where the brake used to be. So, in a panic situtation, people tended to keep pushing the "brake" pedal. Chrysler did tests, with the vehicle rolling, it would always stop if one were to hit both pedals--not too many vehicles (especially back then) could overpower the brakes altogether. At least not new.

Haveing this switch disabled does not affect the cruse cut out when the clutch is depressed. Each function is done by a totally different switch. My switch also broke itself, and it doesn't affect the cruse control at all.

-Jason

I've had two clutch interlock experiences.

I once lent my Scirocco to my brother. His girlfriend (who never drove a manual before) started the car without depressing the clutch. It started right up and went through the garage door before it stopped by running a snowplow into the wall of the garage. $800 damage to the car, $2000 to the house.

The clutch pedal on my Quantum once broke in half (metal fatigue after 300,000 miles of use). I was 50 miles from home. I would put the car in neutral and shut it off coming to stop signs and traffic lights. I then put it in first gear and used the starter to get rolling and used clutchless shifting to get up to the appropriate gear. It got me home. I'd always been dismayed that I would not have that option on my '04.

Given my one positive and one negative experience in not having an interlock switch, I'm going to jumper the switch. Don't forget that it is one more thing that will leave you stranded if it fails; I've had a similar type of switch (cruise control interlock on a clutch pedal) fail in the past.

213.133.115.5

squeegee_boy said:

I've had two clutch interlock experiences.
The clutch pedal on my Quantum once broke in half (metal fatigue after 300,000 miles of use). I was 50 miles from home. I would put the car in neutral and shut it off coming to stop signs and traffic lights. I then put it in first gear and used the starter to get rolling and used clutchless shifting to get up to the appropriate gear. It got me home. I'd always been dismayed that I would not have that option on my '04.

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I had a similar experience in 1990 with my 78 Toyoat Pickup. The clutch master cylinder developed a leak and it lost all its fluid so the clutch pedal was dead. I was in downtown Detroit for the Gold Cup races. So, given the choice of staying there or heading for home, I chose to leave. I used the starter to pull the car and get moving. All I could do was keep my foot on the gas to power through the bucking.

Once I got going, shifting was easy. As long as you get within a 100 rpms or so of the shift point, you can literally push the stick into the gear, thanks to the synchros. So, I made it home no worse for wear and replace the bad parts. I would hate to see what wold have happened if I had a "safety interlock" (i.e., a device meant to protect idiots from their own stupidity and piss off those who know what they are doing...).

just did this mod in my jetta..... i like it!

The euro golfs dont have this feature, its hardly a vagcom thing?

Starting procedure for manual tranny was ALWAYS...Push the clutch pedal then crank the engine.
Too many automatics have caused brains to turn to mush.

So bored you needed to resurrect a 7 year old thread? Automatics might not be the only thing that turns brains to mush...

Not bored.
VW "features" continue to confound us.
Sometimes a jumper causes other problems that are VERY expensive to fix. It's good to see what others have done and what happened to them.
PS. The simple jumper didn't work...and it's raining like hell.

We can start another thread on using Pee in the exhaust for clean air.
Won't that be a fun thread?

Thanks for posting this, after reading numerous threads I was beginning to think I was the only one annoyed with this depress the clutch thing.

You are all correct, we in Europe are only beginning to see this "Safety feature" now, I knew Japanese cars had it and thought it would drive me mad but as I don't come across many by choice, so I was able to forget about it.

Then I bought a top of the range VW Transporter a few years ago which had it and thought I could just disable it. I asked on the Ross-Tech forum and got a load of 'smart ass' replies but basically refusing to tell me how to do it as it was 'against the law' of my country apparently...helpful, when have I ever worried about that. Anyway I didn't keep it as long as I thought and the replacement van just 6 months newer didn't have the feature, strange I thought but I was much happier without it and probably bonded better withe the vehicle as well.

Then just recently we bought a 2015 Skoda Yeti (not sure if you get these in the US, small 4x4 SUV) 2nd hand for my Wife and despite pretty much loving everything else this feature still really annoys me. Having read some of the replies on here I can understand there's a kind of cultural difference, you are more used to automatics and getting used to manuals, we are the opposite. I always leave my car in gear and 99.9 times remember to take it out of gear before starting. On the odd occasion the car has jumped forward it's usually more of a bump against the kerb than anything serious, would be devastated if I hit my toolbox for example.....seriously devastated! I also had a feeling there would be a counter argument to the, added load on the electrical system argument and so there is, I would much rather replace a battery than a trust washer but that may just be me

Anyway thanks again for the info, I have not been on here much of late, must spend more time on here, deffinately been something missing from my life

Oh man this was a great read. These old threads are hilarious.

Oilhammer is right, the clutch thrust is carried by a dry thrust bearing. I have no such feature on my Cummins, have many a mile on him, and have *NEVER* had any issue.

Well, they build automatics for people who should not have charge of a third pedal...
cheers,
Douglas

I have yet to see or hear of a TDI or well built engine, like honda, Toyota/Lexus, porsche, cummins... ect... having a blown engine from a thrust bearing failure.
I'd think maybe at a million miles maybe, but other things take the engine down well before this. I dont see why it should be done dlfor this reason, sure it helps, but I dont think it's a good enough reason to.

I've seen numerous 1.5 and 1.6 VW Diesels with trashed thrust bearings (into the copper) as well as a worn thrust surface on the crankshaft. (Bearing thrusts are [or were] available in oversize for worn crankshaft thrust surface.) I cannot imagine that a TDI engine would be any different.

I've always kicked my tranny in neutral at traffic lights, drive-thrus, during traffic jams, etc., to lesson the wear on the Thrust surfaces and bearing.

I did install the starter switch on my Vanagon with the ALH engine. But, I soon by-passed it.

Like Oilhammer stated, if you think you'll have a hard time remembering that you eliminated the switch, well, maybe you ought to leave it alone!

Where are people "jumpering" this? It would be slick to use a momentary button to override the safety feature. That way nobody else would use it by accident...

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Don’t be stupid with the clutch; I like the momentary switch idea. I would do that; you could even wire it into a switch that turns on a neutral light. This is basically 1 step away from a remote start system at this point!


No joke, I broke a guy’s leg at AutoZone back in 2007 in Logan Utah with my Chevy S10
I wanted some help adjusting a holley 650 carb I got from them, (it had a sbc 350 swap in it)
I got in enough to put my right foot on the clutch; I thought it was out of gear. I remember checking the stick and it felt good. I was not sitting in the truck, I was standing outside it
The problem with the carb was a high idle issue like 1900 rpm, turns out it was a piece of crap stuck in the float
Anyways, I let my foot of the clutch and it shot forward as the guy was putting the hood up, he jumped up and it pinned his shin on his left leg between my bumper and some sapps bumper who was parked in front of me.
I, being a dumb 20yo, just ruined this guy’s day and possibly his mobility for being a fool and im going to jail I thought to myself!
I helped him as best I could (took my jacket off to keep him warm, it was inter and just above freezing outside, until the ambulance and cops cam. His wife and 1 yo son were on the way to pick him up from work and right before the ambulance came, they roll up and start screaming "OMG OMG OMG OMG" "YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND" The cops came up to me and I put my arms out, they said, NA, it’s a stupid mistake and the guy wasn’t pressing charges.
I literally wanted to die, seeing him in pain and her in tears. FML
Well as it turns out, I went back to see how he was after a month, store manager told me that he got a HUGE settlement from AutoZone's insurance company, like 6 figures. Gave the manager my number so he could reach out to me, a year later I got a call from him, he said, I can break his other leg if I wanted!

Just ask Growler his thoughts on disabling clutch switches...I think he ended up bench pressing a TDI at a GTG a few years back. Thankfully no significant injuries, but scary none the less!

Full disclosure, mine is disabled, has been for over 250k miles. Only issue I had due to this was I went out to start my car one very cold day at work. Unlocked the car with the keyfob, opened up the passenger door, reached in and started the car, went back inside and got distracted with something - came out 2 hours later and all my doors were locked so I had to break into my own car. The car didn't see the drivers door open so I presume it locked itself after a certain amount of time.

Mongler98 said:

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No joke, I broke a guy’s leg at AutoZone back in 2007 in Logan Utah with my Chevy S10

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Wow! There is no way I could beat that story if I tried! I am glad to hear things turned out positive for all concerned.