okay, this has been something that has been bugging me for a while now, i think it is a neat capability of my tc, but i'm not sure if it is normal, abnormal or luck, but my tc, a 2005 supercharged manual transmission tc can idle in gear with the clutch released and pull itself forward like it was an automatic transmission car in "D" with your foot off the gas and brake pedal.

i first realized this when i was stuck in stop and go traffic leaving a crowded sports park, and i was getting tired of 1st, 2nd stop, repeat. so out of curiousity, i left the car in second, and wanted to see how low my rpms would go before the car stalled out, and amazingly, it didn't. the car began idling and moving along at 4-5 mph in 2nd gear without a single problem.

later on i began experimenting with my car approaching stoplights at intersections. i'll downshift to 2nd, watch my a/f gauge go to "---" and the car will slow down, then at just under 1000 rpms, the a/f gauge will come back to about 14.7-15.3 a/f and start idling forward and not stall.

yesterday i tried doing this in 3rd gear, and it still worked, about about 7 mph, it was struggling a bit, but it wouldn't stall out, i was shocked.

i can do this in 1st gear too, i can even slowly let the clutch in without giving the car any gas, and the car will start moving forward and not stall out. makes stop and go traffic not so scary if the car can just idle along with traffic and not need to speed up and slow down over and over again.

i showed this to kanundrum, and he said his tc absolutely couldn't do this, so i'm wondering if maybe some part or combination of parts is making my car able to move itself in gear solely on the idle program.

parts i think are responsible are the light weight crank pulley, and light weight flywheel which allow the engine to spin more freely with the reduced rotating mass. also the polyurethane motor mounts maybe keep the engine brom bucking and torquing when it is about to stall, so it has enough power to keep moving the car. or maybe the 9.5 psi pulley and the supercharger made the car strong enough that it can make enough power at idle to keep moving the car without stalling.

i also tried this with a friends 2005 bmw 330i sedan and it could idle in 2nd gear without stalling, but it was really struggling, while my tc puts along even up moderate hills in 2nd gear.

so is my tc a freak, or can anybody else's car do this?

 

every tc can do that. atleast mine can. Its the ratio of 1st gear vs the weight of the car.

 

i could do this, but it stalls, well... only in 1st gear....

haha...

have you tried like 5?

if it works, wow your car is really a freak.

 

Its gotta be a combo of supercharger and lightweight pullys. cuz i'm N/A with no pully's and it certainly stalls when i try that.

BTW you got some nice numbers with the SC haha. must be fun.

 

If it is idling to low, like the MAF is dirty, their won't be enough RPM to idle drive. But 1000 RPM and our first gear is a high torque gear. I used to do that in my toyota 4x4 all the time, I still catch myself doing it now in traffic jams.

 

i can do it too just gotta let the clutch out real slow

 

i can do it too lol my neighborhood is all hills and i was trying to see how steep the hill would have to be for my car to stall but i gave up once i got to the top of my street

 

nah, idle is about 700 rpms or so, and it is funny, sometimes the car feels like it is idling rough, but i check he tach, and it is completely still, but the motor mounts and suspension bushings make the car shake a bit more.

and it actually idles much better than it did when it was n/a and before it had the motor mounts and such, it actually used to hunt up and down between 500 and 1200 rpms regularly. now i come to a stop and it just goes straight to 700 rpms and stays put.

 

i can do that too...i just leave my car in D lol...how i wish now that i had a manual tranny

 

well, to me it is like...if all manual transmission cars can do this, why do people complain about stop and go traffic and clutches? just let the car crawl through traffic like you have an automatic.

the car has plenty of pick up to pull away at lost speeds in 2nd gear.

 

mine does

 

My car does the same, but i only tired it in 1st gr while i was going over a speed bump. Also i drove my friends golf which was turbo and his does the same thing... I'm guessing its normal...

 

Sometimes you have to come to a complete stop.

 

mine does, and all I have is a GFI...

 

mine stock egnine MT and i can do it in 1 & 2.....good ol' tC Torque!

 

It's normal, just like everyone else's tC, including mine.

 

wow thats neat! i cant do that with mine. it stalls in first and second.

 

yep pretty much normal. and i found that out the same way you did! in stop and go traffic

 

good ol' stop and go traffic....

 

thats actually kinda how i learned to drive stick. i would just let out slowly on the clutch in first until the car started rolling and i would let out all the way and let it roll before stopping and trying again. i use second gear to roll around in parking lots all the time because i find that first is kinda jerky when im just crawling around.