Do you use engine braking?
Discussion
Modern vehicles are designed to be slowed by the brakes unlike the old drum brake vehicles from years ago
This is taught to learner drivers - stay in gear - use brakes to slow - dip clutch as much as necessary to prevent stalling - change to appropriate gear when ready to progress
Its so simple but many drivers fail to get it and for the life of me I cannot understand why
This is taught to learner drivers - stay in gear - use brakes to slow - dip clutch as much as necessary to prevent stalling - change to appropriate gear when ready to progress
Its so simple but many drivers fail to get it and for the life of me I cannot understand why
Yea, a little.
Although nobody gave me a 'heads up' about engine braking with rwd, an LSD and a slippery surface. That was interesting!
Nowadays I drive a diesel, which gets ragged, but not really rev'd. I use the engine to slow me down but not to the same effect as you would a petrol as the diesel doesn't like higher RPMs...
Although nobody gave me a 'heads up' about engine braking with rwd, an LSD and a slippery surface. That was interesting!
Nowadays I drive a diesel, which gets ragged, but not really rev'd. I use the engine to slow me down but not to the same effect as you would a petrol as the diesel doesn't like higher RPMs...
Mr2Mike said:
Bennet said:
I do, but I don't know why. As someone once pointed out to me, break pads are cheaper than clutches and gearboxes. So for normal driving, why would you?
Because that's a completely stupid argument, used by people that don't know any better. Brake pads have an abrasive cast iron disc grinding them away, so they wear every time they are used. Why do you suppose an engine is going to suffer extra wear simply by backing off the throttle?Some have managed 1,000,000 miles downshifting and never broken a clutch or gearbox. Well done.
Clutches and gearboxes do go though. If you downshift a lot in order to lose speed, and particularly if you aren't very good at it, it will undoubtedly result in faster wear and tear on both components - mainly clutch, to my mind.
In the Jag I pop it over to manual select when going down long hills and use the gearbox/engine to keep my speed where I want it. When approaching a roundabout or junction, let the car slow down naturally using forward observation. In my case brake pads ARE as expensive as a gearbox if I get through enough of them, £300 just for front pads and if I go heavy on the brakes the pads disappear in about 9000 miles.
Done this on all my auto barges for years, most I keep for 4 years and run up to 150k-200k never had a gearbox problem yet.
ETA and not in the TVR, just asking for trouble downshifting then using the rear wheels to brake the car.
Done this on all my auto barges for years, most I keep for 4 years and run up to 150k-200k never had a gearbox problem yet.
ETA and not in the TVR, just asking for trouble downshifting then using the rear wheels to brake the car.
I always use the most appropriate gear for the speed of the car so that if I need to accelerate (for some reason), the engine will deliver the needed power smoothly. I certainly do not roll up to a halt in a high gear and then have to dip the clutch to prevent stalling - this is definately poor practise.
But hey, I may be wrong and all you clutch-dippers may believe that you are correct! There are some people who think that putting the gearbox into neutral to slow down is also acceptable.
But hey, I may be wrong and all you clutch-dippers may believe that you are correct! There are some people who think that putting the gearbox into neutral to slow down is also acceptable.
People are talking about different things. The IAM folks may say gears for go and brakes for stop, but they also talk about avoiding the need to brake by lifting off early ("acceleration sense") and staying in a low gear around town so that they have plenty of engine braking when they do lift off. That's different to (for example) slowing the car from 60 by dropping it into third from sixth instead of using the brakes.
jamieduff1981 said:
C.A.R. said:
Although nobody gave me a 'heads up' about engine braking with rwd, an LSD and a slippery surface. That was interesting!
The same scenario with FWD is just as bad...If I'm slowing I'll work my way down the box with double declutched H'n'T shifts but the trick with that is to match the rate of deceleration of the engine so that there isn't any engine braking. It's undesirable since engine braking is variable depending on revs which can unbalance the car.
If I'm coming down a long hill I will use engine braking; so long as the correct gear is selected in good time and you don't have to execute a poorly matched shift on a steep hill there is little in the way of loading through the gearbox that will do any harm.
Try driving a Caterham without engine braking 
I think I did the whole length of the M6 without touching the brake once. With a 6 speed box, the revs are so high that lifting the throttle brakes the car so much that you just don't have time to touch the brakes.
I tend to heel and toe my way down the box on junctions regardless of the car though.
I think I did the whole length of the M6 without touching the brake once. With a 6 speed box, the revs are so high that lifting the throttle brakes the car so much that you just don't have time to touch the brakes.
I tend to heel and toe my way down the box on junctions regardless of the car though.
Yes all the time, also just lift off if I want to slow down a bit, I driving along behind a clown earlier that thought it was either on the throttle or on the brake all or nothing style, the ensuing light show was less than wonderful, actually maybe it was morse code for happy Christmas...
I tend to engine brake when possible, either by lifting the throttle or using a rev-matched downshift into a lower gear. I don't downshift without rev-matching as that is putting additional wear on the clutch that's not needed, so much so that you can feel quite a lot of braking effect in most cars I have driven.
I've never had any issues with a rear driven car doing this, though I've briefly locked a back wheel on an RGV250 motorcycle before I learnt to rev-match!
I don't find that most cars are as stable if you brake with the clutch depressed or the gearbox in neutral, there's always a certain lightness about the car which puts me on edge. I will roll along in neutral if I don't want to slow down on slight decents etc, but only at moderate speeds, up to about 30 or so at most.
I've never had any issues with a rear driven car doing this, though I've briefly locked a back wheel on an RGV250 motorcycle before I learnt to rev-match!
I don't find that most cars are as stable if you brake with the clutch depressed or the gearbox in neutral, there's always a certain lightness about the car which puts me on edge. I will roll along in neutral if I don't want to slow down on slight decents etc, but only at moderate speeds, up to about 30 or so at most.
davepoth said:
jamieduff1981 said:
C.A.R. said:
Although nobody gave me a 'heads up' about engine braking with rwd, an LSD and a slippery surface. That was interesting!
The same scenario with FWD is just as bad...If I'm slowing I'll work my way down the box with double declutched H'n'T shifts but the trick with that is to match the rate of deceleration of the engine so that there isn't any engine braking. It's undesirable since engine braking is variable depending on revs which can unbalance the car.
If I'm coming down a long hill I will use engine braking; so long as the correct gear is selected in good time and you don't have to execute a poorly matched shift on a steep hill there is little in the way of loading through the gearbox that will do any harm.
Using gears to slow down is just a shyte idea on ice regardless of the driven wheels.
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