Toyota Yaris 2018 clutch too precise

[Rahan]

Hello fellow toyota drivers!

I bought brand new Toyota Yaris in 2018 and still have it, I am a driving instructor so different people drive the car every day.

One major issue I've had I the number of stalls I get, daily almost every lesson. The biting point on this car is literally a hairline, 1 mm to high and stall! I always teach my pupils to set the gas first which typically is very sensitive as well! 

Now I would say I'm being fussy or not teaching well or all my pupils are bad but this is the 8th car I've had and I've never had similar issues with my previous cars.

I was wondering is this normal or this vehicle or do I happen to have a 'special' one? I've also had the clutch replaced with genuine Toyota parts and exactly same issue, for me it's fine but I can tell if I drive another car how unforgiving the biting point is on my Toyota. 

Is there any way to 'widen' the biting point if the is such a thing?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Yaris forum.

[Max_Headroom]

I have the 2019 and haven't noticed the biting point being any worse than my previous car which was a Corsa 1.2 petrol.

I do agree it needs a bit more revs to stop the revs dropping but i wouldn't call it hairline trigger, i assumed that it was down to it having 6 gears as the Corsa had 5.

[ICF]

I found the same thing when  I owned a manual 2017 Yaris. When I and my wife first got it we would stall frequently and it took a lot of getting used to.

[TonyHSD]

Hi, 

what engine is your Yaris? I think they are all the same and it’s typical for these cars.If you look at Aygo forum you will see there are few posts regarding the same clutch bite point , been too high and sensitive and frequent stalls. There might be also something to do with the drive by wire that ads up to the sensitivity and how the car drives. As seen, others has experienced similar things, for sure it’s not just you or your car. 👍

[Rahan]

Good to hear some people experienced similar issues, even I was stalling a few times but used to it now, Good point about the 6 gears, it's a 1.5 vvti ..even had an examiner saying to a pupil that this car needs some gas before you move as people always stall during test (nerves don't help)

[paul9]

I feel the pain of your students. After I got rear-ended at a roundabout by someone who didn't bother to wait for me to move before moving off themself, my instructor got a rental Clio. I hated that clutch with a passion. Such a snatchy piece of excrement. I seem to remember stalling it in second or third, moving downhill. My (old) Yaris has quite a forgiving clutch. I still hate Clios. If the students can master that clutch on yours, then they should be at home with any clutch.

[haelewyn]

31 minutes ago, paul9 said:

 If the students can master that clutch on yours, then they should be at home with any clutch.

As said, this type of clutch is very typical for an Aygo and even though they improved it in the AYGO X, it's still a special sensitive thing which gave me stalling on a few occasions.

Good that your students learn to drive a manual car with a bit of a tricky clutch.
It's the opposite of automatic. To learn to drive any car that is a wee bit difficult to manipulate is in fact a plus altough maybe some would prefer to have an easier car to start with.

The clutch systems of these Toyota's (and other brands) are known to get a biting point higher up once they wear.
I think your Yaris clutch can't be set or adjusted.
If one day you put in a new clutch, you will lose the higher biting point (compared to new) but not the aspect of it working on a 1 mm gap only.

[Max_Headroom]

I drove an Aygo X loan car  today with 3289 miles on the clock   the biting  point was in the dead centre of the full movement of the pedal, I didn't find it any more difficult to drive than my MK3

[Guest]

Have the learners get their left foot onto one of these.

A full 6.25" (159mm) friction plate, carbon release bearing and fully mechanical operation. No fancy hydraulics or cables anywhere near!

[bathtub tom]

I got rid of my last diesel 20 years ago, but I still stall my Yaris sometimes by trying to pull away at tickover.

[Max_Headroom]

35 minutes ago, bathtub tom said:

I got rid of my last diesel 20 years ago, but I still stall my Yaris sometimes by trying to pull away at tickover.

They do like a bit of a rev to get them going.

[Cyker]

It's really hard getting used to how gutless petrol engines are when you've had a turbodiesel for a long time!

 

[Max_Headroom]

47 minutes ago, Cyker said:

It's really hard getting used to how gutless petrol engines are when you've had a turbodiesel for a long time!

 

Turbo petrol's like the Fiestas are fine but the non turbos  needs to be driven like you have stolen them to get anywhere fast  😄

I knew this when i bought mine and dont thrash it i prefer MPG to getting there a few minutes earlier, turbo petrol's also have carbon build-up issues which is another reason i chose the non turbo.

 

[Cyker]

I would never touch a turbo-petrol - Turbo diesels are still very reliable and long-lived, but turbo petrols much less so, unless they're very lightly turbocharged. They tend to run rich to stop knock, but as you say that causes carbon buildup and also emissions and wastes a lot of fuel. On top of that, the turbos themselves are much more likely to fail early because petrol exhaust is so much hotter than diesel and they just get cooked.

The thing is with petrol, you have to make major compromises to avoid knock, but since diesel is completely immune to knock, turbos are just much better suited as you can just slap one on with no major downsides.

That's one nice thing about the hybrid - It's like having a turbo without the downsides  

(Albeit like a turboboost in a computer game, that runs down when you hammer it, and then you have to wait for it to charge back up before you can use it again  )

 

[haelewyn]

Don't forget that also turbo in combination with direct injection has something to do with poor reliability, especially with carbon buildup.

[Stevie J]

Mine bites fairly near to the top of the pedal travel, its strange really as the car has only done 30K miles, but my pensioner mother had it from 18 months old, and I think she may have ridden the clutch too much. I have stalled the engine a few times trying to not over rev the engine when taking up the biting point, but with the bite point so far up the pedal travel, it can be a bit hair raising when trying to do am uphill start pulling away at traffic lights, and very often I find the engine going well over 3000RPM as I dont want to stall it - I have been driving 33 years and have always found the clutches on Yaris's to be not that easy to use.

On my last Yaris, a 2006 Mk2, the exact opposite of what I have now was the case - the bite point was almost on the floor, about a few inches of pedal travel up from the carpet, and that car would often crunch trying to get in reverse. So going from that car to this one where the bite point is the other end of the pedal travel took some getting used to. These 1.33 engines being drive by wire, are very sensitive to the throttle pedal, and only a slight pressure on it can make the engine rev over 3000RPM. The bite range to fully engaged is pretty small, so yes, I do find this car needs a light throttle pedal response when pulling away, but too light and it will stall. It may well turn out I need a new clutch soon, but I hope not, as 30k miles on a clutch is not really that great, considering I had company vans in the past that I had from new, that I did over 100K miles in and still had the original clutch.