Clutch safety switch. Take my advice!

davidf

davidf

Illustrious Member
Joined
14 May 2007
Messages
11,224
Location
Beaumont, Texas
So I pull up at the gym and get a front row primo parking spot. Everythings perfect. The suns shining, car is spotless, my 5 hour energy shot's kicking in hard. 1.5 hours later, :frown:car won't start. Soooo embarassing. As I'm about to panic I glance down and see the droppings of a rubber grommet. Damn, I know what this is. Call the wife, brings my tools, I crawl under the dash in front of everyone. A total PITA if your not 60 lbs. Moral here is, if your car is early like mine, it's probably a good chance your turn is coming. Buy a new grommet or bypass the safety switch altogether. It is no walk in the park in a parking lot.
 
davidf said:
So I pull up at the gym and get a front row primo parking spot. Everythings perfect. The suns shining, car is spotless, my 5 hour energy shot's kicking in hard. 1.5 hours later, :frown:car won't start. Soooo embarassing. As I'm about to panic I glance down and see the droppings of a rubber grommet. Damn, I know what this is. Call the wife, brings my tools, I crawl under the dash in front of everyone. A total PITA if your not 60 lbs. Moral here is, if your car is early like mine, it's probably a good chance your turn is coming. Buy a new grommet or bypass the safety switch altogether. It is no walk in the park in a parking lot.
Click to expand...

Great find! This has happened to me twice in my Nissan.
 
mrbozo1 said:
Next time just bump start the car and drive it home to be fixed there. You will notice I wrote bump not jump start the car?
Click to expand...
It will not bump start. Clutch has to be fully depressed to activate the switch. With the grommet gone, pedal will not touch the switch.:frown:
 
davidf said:
It will not bump start. Clutch has to be fully depressed to activate the switch. With the grommet gone, pedal will not touch the switch.:frown:
Click to expand...

The switch on the clutch is only there as a safety and does not allow you to engage the starter unless the clutch is fully disengaged. To bump start the car you put the car in 2nd or 3rd and have some one push the car, only has to go as fast as a quick walk, while you sit in the car with the clutch pressed in. Once the car is moving at a 2-3 mph pace you let the clutch out, with the car in gear the engine will bump over and start. Thus the term bump start. In this procedure the starting circuit is not involved.
 
Last edited:
mrbozo1 said:
The switch on the clutch is only there as a safety and does not allow you to engage the starter unless the clutch is fully disengaged. To bump start the car you put the car in 2nd or 3rd and have some one push the car, only has to go as fast as a quick walk, while you sit in the car with the clutch pressed in. Once the car is moving at a 2-3 mph pace you let the clutch out, with the car in gear the engine will bump over and start. Thus the term bump start. In this procedure the starting circuit is not involved.
Click to expand...

I tried bump starting my NSX many years ago and no matter how much I tried it would not fire. I did have a dead battery (although I didn't think it was that dead). After a boost, it started and ran fine.

My old first gen Legend could be bump started pushing it on level ground about 5 feet! I never worried about a dead battery.

Miner
 
Yeah, same thing happened to me (with the clutch pedal interlock stopper thingy). I was getting some parts for another car and had to bump start the car to get home. I just had a couple of guys push me back out of the parking spot (slightly down-hill, so no difficult) and popped the clutch in reverse.

The upper switch plug is nearly impossible to get a hand to unless I was doing it really wrong. I think I dislocated a thumb at one point before I finally got a new stopper in place.
 
R13 said:
Yeah, same thing happened to me (with the clutch pedal interlock stopper thingy). I was getting some parts for another car and had to bump start the car to get home. I just had a couple of guys push me back out of the parking spot (slightly down-hill, so no difficult) and popped the clutch in reverse.

The upper switch plug is nearly impossible to get a hand to unless I was doing it really wrong. I think I dislocated a thumb at one point before I finally got a new stopper in place.
Click to expand...

The upper switch plug is nearly impossible to get a hand to unless I was doing it really wrong. I think I dislocated a thumb at one point before I finally got a new stopper in place.

^^^^This. Yes it was impossible getting up in there. That is why mine is disabled now and that is that.:wink: Still, these little grommets get soft and crumble to the floor. Address this early on and save yourself misery later in a parking lot.
 
mrbozo1 said:
The switch on the clutch is only there as a safety and does not allow you to engage the starter unless the clutch is fully disengaged. To bump start the car you put the car in 2nd or 3rd and have some one push the car, only has to go as fast as a quick walk, while you sit in the car with the clutch pressed in. Once the car is moving at a 2-3 mph pace you let the clutch out, with the car in gear the engine will bump over and start. Thus the term bump start. In this procedure the starting circuit is not involved.
Click to expand...
Ok ok, I call it "push start". Again, you must understand, I've explained to so many how these are "Honda" products and have Honda reliability. Bump/push starting was'nt an option. This car had to start like a honda.:wink: FWIW, there are 2 clutch activated switches under there. Top is clutch safety, bottom is cruise control according to larryb.:wink: If you lose your grommet from the bottom {cruise} and have an after market S-wheel/no cruise, no real reason to replace the bottom grommet.
 
This happened to me as well, not cool. I tried to install new grommet, but I ended up taking it to the dealer to install. He said he took the pedal out to put it in.
 
Owali said:
This happened to me as well, not cool. I tried to install new grommet, but I ended up taking it to the dealer to install. He said he took the pedal out to put it in.
Click to expand...

If I went to the trouble of taking the pedal out, I'd just have someone tack weld a small plate over both holes and call it a day. I have no idea why Honda decided a plastic plug was necessary there...
 
I carry a bag of OEM plugs in the car just in case this happens while I'm out driving. For me it's not that difficult to get a hand in there and push that sucker in, but it still takes some fiddling! However, I'm liking the bypass idea to completely forget about this ever happening. How about a pictorial write up davidf (as easy as it sounds)?
 
chumch said:
Where do you access the wires?
Click to expand...
If you remove the black cover from the bottom, you still need to crawl under but you can unplug the switch much easier than anything else. I just snipped the plug off and connected the 2 wires. If you have no little kids that could poss. start your car in gear then this switch is not really nessarcary IMO.
 
junior40er said:
I would fix this rather than bypass it. It is afterall a safety switch.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if you drive an automatic on a daily basis, and the NSX on the weekend, it might be better to retain it in case you forget the clutch when you start the car in-gear. Your car/garage door/mailbox will thank you.

I didn't bother with an OEM plug, and actually keep a packet of small plastic body clips in the glove box for this express purpose now.
 
If the slave cylinder ever fails, and the switch is bypassed, you can put the car in gear, and hit the starter. The car will lurch but eventually will probably fire. And then you can drive the car shifting without the clutch so at least you won't be stranded. It's not exactly easy on the starter but it could get you home.

At least I used to be able to do that with carbureted cars; they'd catch pretty easily, which was dangerous if the car is started unintentionally with the car in gear - it can take off down the street! With today's ECU's, the engine needs to turn over a few times until the ECU recognizes it needs to be in "start" strategy, and feeds the appropriate fuel and timing.

Using this method got me home when clutch cable broke (please don't ask me what kind of car that was :smile:).
 
Kitaka said:
I can't visualize how this grommet stops the switch from engaging the pedal. Anyone have an exploded diagram to share?
Click to expand...

It's not really a "grommet" per se. The switch is actuated by a plunger. On the pedal, there is a plastic plug that fills a hole where the pedal would come in contact with the plunger on the switch.

If the plastic plug breaks, there's now a hole in the pedal which the plunger goes straight through (thus not depressing it and not triggering the switch).

picture_5078.jpg
 

Similar threads

myf16
2005 Tour de California diary
Replies
0
Views
3K
myf16
myf16
myf16
2004 Tour de California diary
Replies
0
Views
3K
myf16
myf16
Back
Top