I have an automagic '95 and I was wondering if engine braking is bad for the engine? I would assume it puts more wear and tear on the engine but is that all?

REALLY WANT 5SP MANUAL!

 

Since my I30 is my first stick shift car, I'm still learning how to smoothly downshift in order to slow down. If you do it right it should be fine for you car, however I would think that doing this on an automatic could possibly be harmful to the tranny.

 

this is my thought about engine breaking..... PUT IT IN NEUTRAL AND USE YOUR BRAKES

here's the reason why, every time you engage and disengage the clutch, the clutch plate is wearing out, and if you do it couple of times it's not a big deal, but consistent use will wear the clutch out faster. now money wise to have a shop replace the clutch is around 700-900 bucks, but if you use your brakes the wear on the clutch will be less and to replace brakes is more then half of the cost for the clutch, or you can do it yourself, it's easy enough. and just to clarify myself, I don't mean while the car is already in gear that's bad, because it's not, but the actual engaging and disengaging of the clutch is not that good, especially if you don't match the rpm's to the engine

Vinipux

 

On the automatic side of things/in response to the original post...why engine brake in an automatic? The only time you would be advised to do so is on a prolonged steep downhill, where your brakes might gradually overheat. Anything else in an auto is not advised - you shouldn't need a technical explanation of exactly why, just don't do it. It's definitely not good for the car in any way, or else the drivers manual would tell you to engine brake all the time. If you want to pretend you're driving a stick, it'd probably be cheaper/safer to go to the local arcade and sit down at a racing game Or find a friend with a cheap manual ride and rake it around to feed that need

On the manual side of things/in response to vinipux...you didn't make any distinction on the different kinds of braking one might do. If you were rolling to a stop sign or to a red light with traffic, etc, then I definitely agree with you - don't downshift, just drop to neutral and wear the brakes. However, if you're slowing down to make a turn 200 ft ahead, or if you're slowing down in traffic and can see the light ahead turn green, and you're going to have to accelerate before coming to a complete stop, yer gonna have to be in gear anyways....at that point, a drop to neutral will force you to double-clutch eventually at the point when you need to accelerate, thus not only wearing the brakes, but causing even more clutch action than if you were to just downshift.

 

fair enough, I was refering to a situation when you come to a complete stop, the situation that you mentioned is correct, as long as the slowing down 200 feet is not from 120mph to 20

Vinipux

 

hehe, true enough. There's no real good way to slow down from 120 to 20 fairly rapidly

After posting all that, I'm actually guilty of (slowly) double-clutching too often where I should just be engine braking...mainly out of laziness, and to kind of encourage me to replace my very-slightly-ailing OEM clutch. I don't want to try to apply the right amt of pressure to the gas to keep the car from jerking, so I always just pop it in neutral and back in gear when needed. Easy way to keep the ride smooth

Now if only I can get myself to stop instinctively doing that when I can finally replace the clutch...

 

yeah, I will most likely put the car in neutral to keep it from jerking, just makes my ride easier to handle

 

In an Automatic, just leave it alone. You will really shorten the life of your transmission trying to drive it like a manual. Downshift only when you are decending from the mountains or other long descents. Side note, my friend drove her 98 Civic auto like a manual (upshifting and downshift all the time). Her tranny went from smooth, to rough, to broken, in just 2 years.

In a stick-shift, engine breaking is fine. I just make sure that the revs do not exceed 3,000 RPM when I downshift into the lower gear. This saves your brake pads and makes life good. Then again brake pads last forever for me and they are relatively cheap parts that are fun and easy to change. But then braking earlier is probably the smartest thing to conserve your brakes and your transmission. As far as the clutch goes, I my family has 5 cars...all stick-shifts with an average of 120K miles on each car...all original clutches, transmissions, engines...etc. No slipping so far.

 

I agree with most - Use the brakes, that's what they're for. Brake pads are cheaper than clutches.

On a side note -

When you say double clutch, do you mean mearly downshifting and letting the clutch out or do you mean actual double clutching?

If you actually double clutch (not rev match, it's different), you will not wear out the clutch, but you will waste a lot of gas.

-Mike