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I do - but that doesn't make it right... :-)
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Posted by WMiller (more from WMiller) on Fri, 9 Sep 2005 02:18:45 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: The Downshifting Debate, Sebastian, Fri, 9 Sep 2005 00:18:27
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I downshift quite often - I use it to kick in the turbo on the highway, and when coming to a stop - even on flats. When in San Francisco in my old GTI-VR6, I did downshift when going down some of those scary hills you got there...

Downshifting is a conscious choice to use the engine as a brake, rather than using/in addition to using, your actual brakes. Things to think about because of this:
1: This doesn't cause huge wear and tear on the engine - unless you're downshifting so bad that the engine redlines routinely.
2: It DOES cause clutch wear. Depending on how often, and how dramatic (see 1) your downshifts are, you will burn through your clutch faster. My experience with my '01 SE is that the Saab clutch was not designed for... abuse?
3: It will negligibly save your brakes.
4: I don't think it will save gas - in fact if you're engine revs to increase, you could arguably be using more.

Short story long - minor downshifting won't hurt if you aren't doing it at every stop. If you feel like letting up on the gas or using the brakes would be "the right thing to do" when slowing down, you're probably right. :-) If you do downshift at every stop, you're adding wear (and subtracting life) from your clutch. Of course if you listen to that stupid shift light on your dash - mine is SID'd off - you may save gas, but use more clutch - so...

Note - I blew a clutch in my '86 LandCruiser doing an aggressive downshift (4 to 2 - STUPID on my part). After getting reprimanded by the eccentric German mechanic my family used, he explained to me why what I did was not wise - and then I learned how (physically) painful it is to replace a clutch in an '86 LandCruiser...

posted by 24.206.1...

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