Originally Posted by XJRS Owner

I installed a modified clutch pedal that is longer and allows your heel to remain in contact with the floor board. Makes clutch control much easier when getting close to the top where it starts to engage.

With the regular clutch pedal, your foot ends up in mid air at the point where the clutch begins engagement, and unless your foot has some support (like the floor board) control of the engagement is difficult. Clutches that engage nearer the bottom of the travel are easier to control since your heel is on the floor board at that point.

Any way, that's what I concluded as to why these Astons are more difficult to launch smoothly than your typical manual.

Originally Posted by XWCGT

From what you guys are saying, i think the problem is in all of the V8 vantages. its not normal, but a strong clutch and a low 1st gear , all compound the issue. like i said, i can dump the clutch, with and without PSM, (or whatever its called) and its fine. I can really feather the throttle with low rpms and with a slow start, its smooth too. (but you have to be very careful). BUT, a normal start at a stop light, is a little rough. it grabs after a few feet and buck you .(almost stalling the engine).

what was suggested, was to start out in 2nd, and that actually works, but will wear the clutch more. what also was suggested was to avoid 2nd. the 2nd gear shift is rough, but thats not the issue here. its rough due to a large rato change from 1st to 2nd. 4000rpm shift drops to near 2000rpm and with the engine RPM electronics, high mass clutch, the RPM falls slow, so you have to wait and then shift. 2nd - 3rd, and 3rd to 4th and onward, are effortless. As was suggested (and i dont do this) you can go from winding out 1st to 4th without issues and avoid shifting all together, but keep in mind, thats a huge RPM drop and it can wear out the 4th gear synchro if you are not waiting for the RPM to drop for a clean meash. it will feel clean, because the synchros are now slowing the engine down.
2nd is a tad too tall for all level stop and starts, but if rolling, taking off in 2nd is doable. remember reverse is somewhere between 2nd and 1st ratio wise and is very smooth. that should have been 1st gear ratio (my opinion 8:1 total ratio, is a perfect 1st gear ratio , and 10:1 gets a little tough for smooth starts with a racing type clutch , or one that is grabby like the AM)

same for downshifts. a blip of the throttle is good to keep down synchro wear. otherwise, the raise of rpm to match in downshifts, is done only by the synchros and eventually , they will wear out. and give notchy shifting in about 20 to 50k miles on the drivetrain.

so it sounds like everyone is having this issue, and my clutch is not glazed or coming apart. Ill have to deal with it.

Originally Posted by XJRS Owner

With the regular clutch pedal, your foot ends up in mid air at the point where the clutch begins engagement, and unless your foot has some support (like the floor board) control of the engagement is difficult.

Originally Posted by Ganz

After reading al the threads on clutch issues, I still have two questions on clutch wear:
These questions pertain to an ASM and not a manual, and I always use the paddle shifters.
1. Does the maximum clutch wear happen when you are pulling away in 1st gear and not so much when you are on the move and shifting between other gears?

High gear, basically at and above 1:1 gear ratios will cause the most wear. Lower gears like 1st, 2nd..etc will put some wear on the engagement or when slipping to start the roll, but not as much in comparison to higher gears that are above 1:1 ratio. It's why most cars with a clutch on the way out will drive fine in 1st/2nd/3rd/ and start to notice slippage in 4th/5th/6th..etc.

2. Does it make any difference if you are in first or in neutral when idling at traffic lights?

Not really, the clutch is still going to be disengaged in neutral because the ASM/TCU doesn't know when your going to command a gear to take off, so clutch is held disengaged. By selecting neutral on the 6-speed, there's an actual gear position for N, it's not like on a manual shift where-as you just leave it out of gear horizontally on H. The neutral gear position is right below reverse gear slot. So every time you shift to neutral on the 6-speed, the ASM commands neutral gear slot.
The 7-speed is little different, the neutral gear slot was used to apply 1st gear, which added room for the 7th driven gear slot. The neutral position is like an actual manual trans and just stays on the horizontal axis of H.

Originally Posted by Ganz

@Irish07@VelocityAP Thank you for the clarifications Chris. Your time and effort is much appreciated.

1. I asked question 1 above since in this video from BamfordRose (1' 25" mark), they say the most wear happens as you are pulling away and not when on the go, and hence I got confused.

2. And regarding 2, when I am using the paddle shifters, you are saying it makes no difference when idling, if I leave it in 1st , instead of shifting to N by pulling both the paddles together?

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Ashman_E

Can someone help me understand why being in Neutral at a stop is advantageous from a clutch perspective?

It seems to me that clutch wear happens when the clutch speed and the engine speed are not matched. This should only happen when pushing the clutch pedal in (as the engine maintains speed and the clutch starts to slip and slow) or letting it out (as the engine maintains speed and the clutch slips as it starts to get up to the engine speed).

When you're sitting at a stop, and you have the pedal pushed in, the clutch is disengaged from the engine, so there shouldn't be any wear at all, regardless of what gear you're in, correct?

I can maybe see shifting into neutral to coast down to a stop from driving, therefore skipping over all of the gear downshifts and associated clutch engagements/disengagements. But just shifting into Neutral once stopped seems fairly pointless to me as far as clutch wear goes.

Am I missing something?

Originally Posted by Irish07@VelocityAP

If it was a manual trans, the benefit would be to save the lifespan of the slave cylinder..has nothing to do with the clutch. If the clutch was touching while disengaged at a stop, would be a sticking clutch(worn out?) or warped flywheel or faulty slave. Nonetheless, it’s to try and save the slave cylinder.

Originally Posted by Irish07@VelocityAP

If it was a manual trans, the benefit would be to save the lifespan of the slave cylinder..has nothing to do with the clutch. If the clutch was touching while disengaged at a stop, would be a sticking clutch(worn out?) or warped flywheel or faulty slave. Nonetheless, it’s to try and save the slave cylinder.