ok boys and girls most of us were taught to use engine braking to slow down the car when driving stick. Its a habit for me, i am just wondering how many other people here use engine braking. Now there has been some discussion on how engine braking wears out your clutch, i think thats non sense i 've put on about 90,000km on my old civic si and i engine brake at every stop and the clutch was still fine when i sold it. Keeping in mind that when i do engine braking the revvs are always below 3000rpm, usually around 2500. My conclusion is that if you use engine braking your clutch will be fine as long as you keep the reves low enough. For those of you not familiar with that term here is an Example: i am goin 60km fourth gear (2800rpm) i see red light so i brake and at the same time shift to third and slow let clutch, this will cause rpm to rise and car to slow down, repeat the same for second gear, don't really do it in first cuz no point. Just wondering if anyone else here do this and if they do how has it affected their clutch

 

It's a fact that everytime you slip the clutch, you wear the plate. So downshifting DOES wear the clutch plate down.

That said, I do it to save the brakes from warping or for hill descents.

 

The clutch wear is very minimal compared to when upshifting.

When you upshift, and especially on a launch the cluch has to withstand, as a load, the entire weight of the car.

Whe you downshift, the clutch has to withstand, as a load, the torque of the engine, which isn't all that high at 2500.

But if you want to be really picky about this, heel-toe, and you will get virtually no wear on the clutch.

 

 

i m not at the level it... if it's a good day.. it might work! heheh

but would double clutch and rev match gain the same results?
thanks.

 

what i am saying is that when you engine brake in normal everyday driving the clutch wear is so minimal that you're not risking shortening the life of your clutch significantly, my mechanic told me that an oem clutch under normal use should last atleast 100,000km, if you sit in a traffic jam everyday it should still last around 80,000km. Provided you are driving "normally"

 

I too always engine brake. No bad clutch habits, but no heel-and-toeing either.


Got rid of my old '96 Neon at 188,000 km (113,000 miles), clutch OK. (I learned stick on this car, and the clutch lived through it!)

Current 2000 Civic Si has 105,000 miles, clutch still OK.

(I'm just hoping it lasts 'til the '05 TSX comes out!!)

Sauceman's comment makes me feel better. Hope he's right!



(btw, 1st post, thanks to all you guys for all the great info!!)

 

Welcome here, DGH.

You need not worry about clutch issues if you're driving normally. I've never burned stock clutches earlier than with 350,000 km wear on them.

Only clutch I burned in a hurry was a crappy Centerforce Dual Friction (took me 4 months), but then again, it could have been in part my fault, but it definitely doesn't come to the heel of a stock clutch as far as endurance is concerned, and grip was at best mildly improved.

 

This is the first car I have really become adept with heal toe downshifting.

It's not too hard, and pretty fun, once yu get a hang of it.

That said, the TSX doesn't do a whole lot of engine braking. Not enough engine to really slow you down. Rev's to easy.

 

:sqnteek:

Well I guess it all depends on what gear you're in.

 

And what the RPM is....

My engine brakes just fine.

 

I am used to braking with much larger displacement engines, that do significantly more "engine braking".

What I mean't is that the rather small engine of the TSX really doesn't slow the car as much as they do.