CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

Technically, you're not using your transmission to do the braking when down shifting, the engine is doing the braking. It doesn't hurt it at all to do this either, just look at hybrids. The engines in hybrids do almost all the braking, only time it actually uses the brakes, is to recharge the batteries.

I got into the nasty habit of using heel-toe whenever I slow down, but never down shift into first gear, it's way too short of a gear to be even considered for slowing down. I'll usually down shift to about 3k RPM and get on the brakes pretty heavily, it's much better for the brakes to use them harder and shorter than to use them softer and longer.

Jan06xB

WOW you got 4 out of 5 things wrong!

Hard braking wears the pads the most and causes rapid temperature rise in the rotors which can thermally stress them and even crack them and gives them little time to cool when you are stopped. It also wears the tires more quickly.

First gear is just as good a gear to slow down with on really steep hills as any other gear - you can put more loading on a tranny with the gas pedal than by engine braking so engine braking doesn't really "hurt" the tranny - it only wears the back side of the gears and they are not as important anyway.

Engines in Hybrids don't brake unless you select engine braking with the shifter in the Prius - the braking "regen" action comes from the electric motor when the gas pedal is releases and more regen is applied when the brake pedal is pressed lightly until pressed hard enough for the mechanical brakes start to engauge. Also regen braking will not work if your battery if fully charged which can happen on long downhills while regen braking.

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

Hate the break it to you, but riding the brakes causes them to heat up more than rapid use. That's like saying it's bad for the car to romp on it every now and then. Yeah, using them rapidly could cause them to crack from the rapid heat increase, but thats only when the person using them has rode them 15,000 out of 20,000 miles. I've got almost 30,000 miles on my car, in Arizona, and my pads and rotors are in near perfect condition, never been cut or replaced. Most of the cars I've worked on, had glazed rotors at about 15,000, especially here in Arizona.

And the whole thing I was talking about with first gear, was that theres no point in down shifting into first when coming to a stop light or something like that. By the time you're at a reasonable RPM to down shift, you're already down to about 15 mph, so theres almost no point in putting the extra wear on the clutch.

Deathwish238

Yeah 1st gear is way too short...I never downshift to first when braking...

Jan06xB

Heat is created by conversion of kinitic energy of the moving vehicle into heat by friction. A car going 30 mph will heat the brakes with the same amount of energy if you stop fast or stop slowly. If you stop slowly there is more time for the brakes to be cooled by the moving air thus less temperature rise will occure as well as more of the heat can be absorbed by the center mass of the hub.

"Riding" the brakes is not what we are talking about so get your foot off the gas and brake pedal at the same time. As far as first gear goes I go down a 15 degree driveway that drops 90 feet in first gear but yeah stopping for a stop sign in first is a waste. And when you can go 163,000 miles on the same set of brakes and only half wear them out then talk to me about using brakes.