I downshift, but my cousin swears that you do not have to in our cars (he is a mechanic ) he said we have trannies like VWs where you do not HAVE TO downshift but can if you want to?

 

you really dont need to in any car.............just remeber, its easier to wear out brake pads and change then it is to change a clutch. (y put unnessary wear on the clutch?)

 

You are supposed to leave the car in the gear it is in until the car is coming to a stop, then you take the car out of gear. Don't leave the car in gear with the clutch in while you wait for lights either.

 

that doesnt hurt anything as long as its pushed the entire way in......nothing would be engaged.

 

It's doesn't hurt anything major, it's just wear and tear.

 

wear on what?

 

I can't remember.

Someone else might know.

 

when you press the clutch pedal in its still using the bearing, master and slave cylnder, etc. Either way brake pads = $50.....clutch = $400. you do the math

 

Well you will have to step on the brakes either way, so why downshift?

 

wont that fuck the flywheel?

 

Nothing fucks up the flywheels. The flywheel is the last thing to get fucked.

 

fuckety fuck fuck fuck ^^^

if your going to coplain about having the clutch pressed in at stoplights with it in gear your better off not starting it then you dont have to wrry about clutch, tires, gas, oil.. anything

 

Sometimes when Im really bored and in like 3rd or 4th i'll just pop it into neut. then, when i have to accel again, go back into the proper gear.

:going to hell:

-Alex

 

So NOBODY DOWNSHIFTS?!?!? Weird I was always told you should...My world is crumbling lol

 

I downshift all the time; its fun as hell to hear my muff+CAI kick it hard and blow past some granny in her accord wagon barely able to discern the concrete wall she's about to splatter into

Whether or not its good for my tranny? :idk:

;o

sometimes I just pop it into neut though, cause Im coming into traffic too quickly and I just use my brakes.

-Alex

 

do like my bro in his 95 accord. The cars 10 years old and an automatic but he ups and down shifts and has done this for the past two years he has had the car. Honda trannies are hard to wear out either way you go you should be ok. I have even heard of guys spraying nitrous through the gears if it can handle this abuse I don't think downshifting will hurt it.

 

Here's a decent discussion with some interesting information:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1819467

 

how bout rev matching it...that's fun....heel toe of course....

 

downshift to keep yourself in the optimal rev range or else you'll be overworking your engine...i.e if you suddenly slow down from 50mph to 20mph you don't leave it in 5th and start accelerating from 20mph...your engine will be overloaded if you do that...dunno wtf your mechanic is talking about...has nothing to do with trannies...but this is my take on what you're trying to explain by your post

i don't know why everyone's talking about brakes either..unless i misread the post somehow

and on the case of downshifting and trannies, revmatching can help out your engine and synchros as well

 

theres nothing like a perfectly matched downshift! so much fun...

 

just go buy an auto and you wont have to worry about it

 

OK, I'm confused, an automatic transmission shifts down as you reduce speed. I've driven manual treansmission cars for 30+ years and have always used the engine to help slow down,and downshifted to the appropriate gear as driving conditions require. I did have to replace the clutch in my OLD Accord at 150500 miles, is that excessive wear? I don't think so...also my brakes generally lasted much longer (70,000 miles+) The old Accord is now at 247000 miles still on it's 2nd clutch and fourth set of brake pads, a friend bought it and drives it the same way.

The clutch, engine, transmission are designed to drive in that manner...ask an engineer....

I'm not talking about popping the clutch, or hard driving as in racing, I'm talking about normal day to day stop and go driving. If you want to race, you better do something with the drive train to harden it or you'll be replacing parts all the time.

My 99 3.0CL is an automatic of course and I do miss shifting a lot, but I love the car so I'll put up with the auto...

Just MHO