In situations where I'm not the first guy at the light, I'll decel with the brake and whatever gear I'm in until the revs come down , then clutch, put it in neutral, clutch out and use the brakes to come to a stop. If I'm the first guy at the light, I'll still slow down the same way, but I'm more apt to leave the car in 1st and hold the clutch. I was rearended by a drunk back in 97 when I had my GTI. Luckily for my younger brother in the back seat, I saw the guy wasn't going to stop, had a clear intersection, and got the car rolling before impact. My brother wouldn't be around if my foot would have been on the brake instead of the gas.

The earlier statement about fatiuge and cycles is correct. In fact for a spring, it is exactly that which kills them. Time open or closed doesn't matter. Its the number of cycles they see prior to failure. For the clutch disc and synchros, if you look at your average commute, and removed downshifts you didn't HAVE to make, you will get longer life out of both of them when compared to identical driving habits with downshifts through each gear as you come to a stop.

As far as whether or not parking the car in neutral or 1st is better for the tranny, it doesn't matter. The clutch doesn't know the difference between gears. Only that your foot isn't on the pedal. Might as well leave it in 1st for a little added protection in case you bump the e-brake or forget to set it, etc.

Chris

 

I'd be inclined to think that a tranny's life would be measured by a "torque/hour of use" type of metric rather than how many shifts one performs. A shift can be smooth and easy on the internals of a tranny or it can be jarring and hard on the internals. Even when you are in neutral, the input shaft is spinning at engine idle speed and the output shaft is spinning at wheel speed, so transmission internals are in use. Sure, there may be a miniscule amount of additional stress to the gears when downshifting, but I would doubt that amount of force is anywhere near as much as a ham fisted shift when you dump the clutch on a gear when the engine is spinning too fast. Again, it all boils down to technique and how much mechanical sympathy is being exercised.

Ever since learning to ride a motorcycle, I've been in the habit of downshifting as I come to a stop, but I almost never put her into first until I am stopped. I leave it in gear until the revs are below 2 grand, then downshift to the next gear...often times never downshifting into second unless I'm making a turn without stoppping. My clutch sees additional wear from this, but I'm smooth on the upshifts, so I'm not worried about it. FWIW, driving my Civic in this manner, the clutch was still good at 95K miles.

Chris, mechanics that I trust have told me that leaving a car in first gear while stopped puts wear on the throw out bearing. Having said that, I leave my car in first when stopped if there is any "out", such as a shoulder or clear road ahead, for me to drive into in the case of an emergency.

 

The stuff written on this site about rev matching on 1st gear with the WRX is correct. I tried it my myself and it works!

Here's an example... when coming to stop for a red light and it turns green before you come to a full stop, it's often difficult to shift into 1st if the car is still moving. I give the accelerator pedal a small nudge to rev the engine once and throw the 5-speed into 1st before the revs fall all the way off. The WRX then shifts into 1st without balking.

I'm not sure what speeds are involved here, but it's in the neighborhood of 3-5 MPH. But, the important thing is that I don't have to crawl into the intersection by clutch-slipping the car into 2nd gear.

I've been driving manual transmission cars exclusively for the last 37 years. Nice to learn something new.

 

Blipping/rev-matching is key to down shifting into any gear. Saves quite a bit of wear and tear. I never down shift on the street any lower than 3rd. Rev match to third, use engine breaking to assist pedal breaking at about 2000-1800rpm clutch in, shift to neutral, come to a stop. At a stop sign I'll rev match to first for a quick take off. At a long light or any considerable wait I'll leave it in neutral to save a little wear on the throw out bearing and pressure plate springs.

 

i just downshift to 2nd and come to a stop... i was tought that u should ALWAYS be in gear. as for the waiting at red light... it depends on how long i have to sit there for