I pressed the brake instead of the clutch by accident when starting the car the other day, and it started. I turned the car off when I realized it was the brake, and not the clutch that I had pressed, and restarted it without touching any of the pedals, and it started? What is going on?

(This isn't terribly bad, but I don't like having things wrong with my car)

 

It the switch on the pedal.

 

What?

 

There is a clutch switch on the pedal that you have to step on the clutch to engage. If the clutch is "up" the car shouldn't start. The switch usually just "pushes into place" through a small spring clip and they will sometimes move back (allowing the car to start, since it thinks the pedal is down because the switch is "closed"). You may nust need to push it back towards the plate on the top of the clutch pedal that it contacts (you'll need to lay under the cash and look...you will need to remove the plastic "beauty panel" under the dash and look towards the pedal assembly). You'll find it. It is either a bad switch or it moved. Good luck!

Kevin

 

There is no harm in leaving it like that is there? I love being able to start my car without pushing the clutch down (I never park the car in gear).

 

I'd not suspect that there will be any problems. I'm sure the ECM monitors it in some way or another, or I suspect it does. You may want to post in the tuning/ls1 edit section to verify that there is not some strange code that it will set, but I think you'll be fine.

 

There are vehicles that start without pushing the clutch in - older cars though. The only problem with that is that if the car is in gear and you don't have the brake pressed or teh ebrake on your car will jump forward and likely hit something - BAD NEWS. But all in all its up to you.