How bad, if at all, is engine braking for the car? For an automatic Type-S. Is it bad for the tranny? Or for the engine?

 

Brakes = $250
Transmission = $4,000 (unless it breaks under warranty then it will zero dollars but a lot of aggravation LOL)

You decide.

 

i down shift about 60% of time

sidemarker

 

it shouldnt hurt the trans....shouldnt ....

 

Engine braking is good - better car control, more decel.

As for the tranny, I've got (and always had) a manual. Not sure about the Acura auto tranny what with all the problems people have had.

When I sold my Integra and bought the CL-S, it had 97K on it and was 5-6K from needing the (original) brakes replaced - pads only too.

 

That's what it's made for. Use it, but don't abuse it!

 

Even Acura has it built in, automatically engine brakes when going down hill..

 

My last 3 cars have been manual, and I use it all the time. I've never had to replace brake pads, clutches or trannys, but then, I sold my last 2 cars at ~60K miles, so.....

 

I use engine brakes, better i used more in the sienna!

 

For MTs, you can use it as much as you want. So long as you know when NOT to downshift.

For ATs, ARE YOU FREAKIN NUTS!!!!!!! You wanna blow your tranny, go right ahead. That's what breaks are for, use them. The CLs are not big as trucks or RVs that need to be downshifted when going down hills and such to keep more control for a large load. If your trying to slow down faster from a higher speed, its more justified. BUT ALWAYS DOWNSHIFT WHEN BRAKING AT THE SAME TIME. Otherwise, goodbye engine and tranny.

 

Hold a sec, have you noticed that grade logic will downshift when you brake in a down hill? do you know that is stated in the maunal that you can dowshift to slow down... sure using the brakes at the same time is recommended.

 

i hesitate to downshift in high speeds due to the fact the in the SportShift mode the computer doesn't "blip" the throttle to match the engine speed between gear changes.

When I first got my car I tried downshifting a couple of times and I just found that it was too rough and jerky...almost to the point that it felt unexpected (especially since it takes a few seconds for the computer to tell the tranny to shift)

I personally try not to do it anymore because it seems so much rougher on the tranny.

 

I agree - It seems rough, Now I only downshift to brake when I see a cop on the side of the road

 

it shouldn't hurt the tranny, but u need to replace your clutch alot sooner.

 

There is no wear on the clutch if you heel & toe, or at least blip the motor to match drive line rpms to engine rpms. Never had a clutch wear out yet and on some of my cars that's 140-150K.

 

if you downshift using ss, there is enough lag time to blip the throttle yourself

 

yes, as long as you are matching the drive line rpm to engine rpm

 

Why would you blip the throttle on an automatic transmission??? It uses brake bands to engage planetary gear sets which don't need rev matching whereas a manual transmission needs a throttle blip to match revs to minimize syncrhonizer wear and engage the gear...

Is this just to minimize the engine braking "lurch"? If so, at what point do you blip it, if it doesn't allow you to shift into neutral? Or are you saying the during the lag time between shifts, no gear is engaged which allows you to "sneak" a blip in?

 

it's still tough because it's hard to tell when the clutch will re-engage. In a manual you know when you're letting go of the clutch pedal so you can time the "blip" right before the engagement.

I'm not saying it's not possible...I think it would be really really tough...

And who heel-toes in an automatic anyways...

 

the latter...in any case "sneak"ing in a blip is tough...read above.

 

You don't need to "blip" the throttle to shift in any car.

The whole blipping the throttle and double clutching are for pre-syncromesh transmission days. If you didn't double clutch and blip, then you were met by grinding gears. The synco's in a manual transmission take car of that. Sure, you can still do it (it saves wear on the syncros), but it's not really worth it.

As for autos, there's no need to blip. The tranny is a bunch of planetaries with clutches in between, and brake bands around. It's totally different than the manual, so blipping has no relivance to that beast.

The whole idea of sport shift is to upshift and downshift whenever you like. The computer won't let the car go into a gear that will redline it (you'll get a flashing number in the dash telling you it didn't agree with your gear choice). It's not going to put any more wear on your engine or tranny that hard acceleration does.

Every auto I've ever driven I've used the shifter to downshift for lights and let the engine brake the car. They never had any problems.

 

From the various GTECH same road tests -- adding in varying amounts of 100-octane to the 91-piss juice in CA -- I found that the preformance seemed to max-out with a 93-94 blend.


After years of crud Bimmer syncros, I double clutched and or rev matched and the tranny that I retrofitted was still getting “is this box new” comments from local mechanics 10-years later. My wife just shifted without rev matching and the syncros where pretty soft in first and second in two years.

So, it depends. If you can do it and it isn’t a hassle, it will save on wear and – yes, it’s not a requirement. I have a different opinion and really like to match on down shifts. I don’t like the “imbalance” caused by just downshifting (without rev matching heading into lower-gear curves).

Quote:

As for autos, there's no need to blip. The tranny is a bunch of planetaries with clutches in between, and brake bands around. It's totally different than the manual, so blipping has no relivance to that beast.

While most slushies are planetary gear sets, the CLS does not use a planetary gear set. There are three shafts and the inside of the gears have clutch packs composed of clutch disks and metal plates).

Yes – blipping is not required.

Quote:

The whole idea of sport shift is to upshift and downshift whenever you like. The computer won't let the car go into a gear that will redline it (you'll get a flashing number in the dash telling you it didn't agree with your gear choice). It's not going to put any more wear on your engine or tranny that hard acceleration does.

Every auto I've ever driven I've used the shifter to downshift for lights and let the engine brake the car. They never had any problems.

AS for the wear with SS or not – who knows. I haven’t seen any data that points one way or the other. However, the clutch packs are not exactly overbuilt and there is “stress” put on the SS when downshifting (sure isn’t like a SMG II)

 

Yeh... I forgot to add that older trannies just aren't the same as the newer ones.

Thanks for the correction on CLS tranny. I'm used to domestics which use planetaries. Of course, domestics are designed to handle a wee bit more torque (from a V8).