Neutral at a stoplight?

I recall some threads discussing this when the Italia first came out. I believe the consensus was that it wasn't needed. I never did it for the 9,800 miles I drove my 2012.

 

I owned a 360 for seven years and logged over 65,000 miles. It was an F-1 transmission car and my original factory clutch was still good. I went through a fried sensor and also had to replace the F1 pump.

I credit my long clutch life to several things. First I has an expert Ferrari mechanic do a very careful programming which minimized slipping.
Second I always warmed up the car before driving. I think when the F-1 is cold, and if you are parked at an incline, you can wear the clutch excessively.

Sometimes I put the car into neutral while waiting at a light.

With the 458, I have 52,000 miles. I don't spend much time warming the car up.
But I do not generate high revs until the car is warmed up.

I never put the car into neutral at a light. (Of course If you lift your foot off the brake, the car will switch into neutral.)

No problems with my DCT. Since the system uses wet clutches, there is very little wear.

 

I believe the manual recommends shifting to neutral for long stops.

 

these cars go to neutral after a certain amount of time, my 430, 458 and ff all do this. I let the car decide

 

Not needed.

These Getrag DCTs are completely different from the old F1 boxes. The F1 is just an automated manual and some argue that the problem lies in the fact that they were not engineered to work as automatics from the start. The DCT transmission is designed to handle standstills and so forth as it was never anything else than an electronically shifted transmission from the get go.

 

NO need to do that friend !

 

I think Rod is correct. The mechanic who does all of my cars says te 458 does not need to go into neutral and if you are on a hill for a period of time it goes into neutral by itself.

It made me think if it goes into neutral by itself in certain conditions it must be better to pop into neutral. So I do it as an overkill. My 2010 458 has been near perfect and still going. I do it on my Lamborghini also.

Who knows, I surely do not. Ferrari maintenance and parts are expensive so I error on that side.

Best

Lee

 

The 458 Speciale owner's manual says that "during prolonged stops with the engine running, it is advisable to put the gearshift in neutral". Why not? ...gives me something to do

 

Yes, I shift to neutral, too.

 

In a stopped traffic jam, my car switched to neutral on its own after a while.

 

The car must be saying, "I have to shift to neutral; this isn't good for me." It seems to make sense then to shift to neutral at a stop light rather than have the car come to that point.

 

I was told by the service department to put the car into neutral when stopped.

 

Someone sent mail to Getrag (manufacturer) regarding this: Here is the answer

OK so I got an answer from Getrag today.
Basically its fine to leave it in drive mode as long as you have disabled "creep" mode by pressing the brake once stationary:

"Because, if the driver presses the foot brake, the DCT will reduce the clutch drag torque as much as possible. After the brake is released the clutch stays open and the vehicle will not begin to creep. To restart creeping or to launch, the driver has to touch the accelerator pedal. So, to stay in driving mode using the stand by control feature is no disadvantege to the fuel economy, but keeps it simpler to operate for the driver."

 

I do not.

 

The way I read it, you need to press the accelerator after being stationary to enter "creep mode". The answer never states that you need to push the brake pedal to do this. I quote "To restart creeping or to launch, the driver has to touch the accelerator pedal."
"After the brake is released the clutch stays open"
Again no mention of pressing the brake to creep - this wouldn't make any sense anyway.

 

I really don't think it matters - if you need a new clutch after 50k or 100k miles so be it.

 

Yesterday I heard a repeating beep in my brandnew 488 after stopping for more then a minute on a traffic light. It was a warning that the gear went from 1 to N automatically. Offcourse I had to press the brake to shift in 1 again. The operation manual doesn't mention any of this, and still figuring out this car got 200km till now.

 

I imagine leaving a DCT in gear for prolonged period while stopped may increase temperatures inside the mechanism. There is always some friction involved with meshed gears and with metals, higher temperatures increase wear. Temperature management is very important.

Also not sure if the DCT benefits from air movement while the car is in motion to dissipate ambient hot air but maybe it does.
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Now for a completely different point of view: I was taught to always leave a car in gear (with a manual, leave it in gear and pull the clutch in), so that in case the person behind you fails to come to a stop, you can pull away from them quicker. This is more important than the increased wear on the throw-out bearing.

May sound strange, but I actually did have someone run into me once.

Just to throw a different twist to the thread.......

 

Yes I have heard the same thing. With the F1 and DCT I would leave it in gear. With stick shift, I would not and be in N. Just my own weird habits. I think if you live in a somewhat busy area, its best to be prepared to move if need be.

I had someone drive right into me from behind and they got out and said they didn't see me there. I muttered something like "clearly you also didn't see the red light, nor the police car in front of me!" Well, at least we didn't have to wait long for a police report as the officer heard the crunch....

 

Same is stated in the 458 Italia manual, to which I comply to the fullest extent.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

If Ferrari deems that it is not necessary to put the car in neutral at a long stop, why does it program the car to do so after a so-called pro-long period (about 3 min.)? So there must be a reason. When it does go into neutral, there's this attention-breaking beep/chime followed by a message. I don't know about you fearless Ferrari drivers out there, any beep or message while the car is on or moving is alarming. For this very reason, I put my 458 into neutral after a min. or so at stop just to avoid this psychological 'drama.' The automatic neutral feature happens in Sport and Race modes. Can anyone confirm that it happens in the other modes as well?

 

Myself, I always go into N when coming to a stop, unless it's going to be very brief (such as 3 seconds or less). Most of the time, I actually go into N a second before stopping and just coast to a stop out of gear.

Yeah, it's a DCT but there are still clutch plates in there. The bottom line is the motor is turning and the wheels are not. The DCT clutch setup is similar to a motorcycle clutch pack. With my bike, I don't hold the clutch in at long stops, but rather take the bike completely out of gear - same idea with the 458.

I'm not sure how many clutches and broken pressure plates I had to replace when I was in my early 20's, but I can tell you from personal experience that it's much better to baby your clutch than to burn and glaze the surface of it.

The DCT gear box is a very good design from the research I have done, however; I believe the pre-selection of the next gear also greatly reduces overall clutch wear too.

Ray