Riding the clutch in a yaris

[Amdkt7]

There is no harm to the clutch when you down shift, but always, you must keep your foot off the clutch. A little bit of pressure on the clutch will allow slippage to occur, which is what will cause clutch wear. Burnt clutch plates smell bad. Never heard of anybody smoking a clutch while going down hill, but I guess it could happen. But, were you using the brakes too? Was it an extremely steep hill, lots of breaking?

Again, the clutch should always be either all the way in, or all the way out (now, there should be a bit of slippage during your first gear pull out, that is normal wear and tear).

re-reading your post I understand it better. You were talking about elevation change. I don't know what you mean by 30'. It does sound like it was your brakes. Good thing you had down shifted. You might have burned up your brakes completely if you had not.