Quote:
Originally Posted by JL8Jeff
There's no way that's true. When I'm heading to the river and I hit the downhill portion leading up to the traffic light I coast an easy half mile or more at 45 mph with the engine at idle. If you downshifted you wouldn't even make it to the light without having to give it gas.
Brakes are a lot cheaper than clutch jobs but don't forget that downshifting is putting a sudden surge to your engine which loads it up a bit and causes more engine wear than coasting does. In the long run, I'm sure downshifting causes more wear, maintenance and costs than coasting does. But it would probably take at least 150K miles to really find out so I doubt we'll be able to prove anything. It's really just a driving style thing. I bet most of the people that downshift have a cutout or Loudmouth exhaust as well.  |
engine breaking turns your engine into a compressor. engine breaking at 5K uses less gas than idling at 1K. it's just the way engines work.
If you don't want to stop as quickly engine break in a higher gear.
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Last edited by ryanfx; 06-11-2009 at 05:21 PM.
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