"saving" a stall.. good or bad?

ilag1 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-02-2003, 11:17 AM

hello

im not too good w/ tech speak so ill do my best w/ a layman description, anyway, i drive an e36 stick and my friend was driving it the other day, and he's not very good w/ stickshift.. so on multiple occasions the car would stall (not enough throttle).. but just as the engine was about to die he'd put the clutch in very quickly and the engine would not stall (even though it was clunking and was less than a second from completely dying) and it would keep running. my question is whether or not this is worse than just letting the engine stall? i figured that the car would more or less be "designed" to stall.. at least once it gets to that point.. and mashing in the clutch to prevent it while its halfway through stalling would be bad (plus it didnt sound very good... hard clunking and then the engine would be back to life). so is this really bad for the car or better than just letting it stall? thanks.

J Clark · #2 (**permalink**) 07-02-2003, 11:21 AM

dunno. i suppose its equally bad, but i base that on nothing at all.

when im in traffic, i get lazy with the clutch and sometimes start to stall, but do the save thing too. so lets hope its not bad

ComeOnNow · #3 (**permalink**) 07-02-2003, 11:35 AM

what your friend is doing is normal....

ilag1 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-02-2003, 11:58 AM

well its not just wen u dont put enough throttle and the engine feels 'rough', but while its stalling and literally a split second before it dies and the engine is clunking that the clutch is mashed in and the stall is prevented.. its not where its slightly rough and u can put a little more throttle in or push the clutch back in. it sounds/feels reaaally bad/wrong.. just wondering if its actually deleterious.