Random thoughts about braking

[Loren]

I never downshift with the intention of slowing the car. I do downshift to keep the revs up so that DFCO stays engaged and uses no fuel. But, if you're talking about a hard stop, it's clutch in and hard on the brakes.

With an automatic, you might feel the car downshifting as you brake, but with such a wimpy engine (at idle) behind it, it's not likely to be a problem. I think you'd be at more risk by trying to rapidly shift to neutral because you could accidentally find reverse, which would not be pretty. (did that once when I was 16 and driving a car that wouldn't idle in gear... fortunately, I wasn't going very fast)

Best bet: If you're making a quick stop, forget about the gear lever and just concentrate on BRAKING. If you have a manual transmission, clutch in. Simple.

(where things get interesting is on a race track where not only do you want to slow down rapidly, but you also want to downshift to a lower gear at the same time to accelerate out of the turn that you're slowing for... but that's another story)

[ddongbap]

Originally Posted by Loren

I never downshift with the intention of slowing the car. I do downshift to keep the revs up so that DFCO stays engaged and uses no fuel. But, if you're talking about a hard stop, it's clutch in and hard on the brakes.

With an automatic, you might feel the car downshifting as you brake, but with such a wimpy engine (at idle) behind it, it's not likely to be a problem. I think you'd be at more risk by trying to rapidly shift to neutral because you could accidentally find reverse, which would not be pretty. (did that once when I was 16 and driving a car that wouldn't idle in gear... fortunately, I wasn't going very fast)

Best bet: If you're making a quick stop, forget about the gear lever and just concentrate on BRAKING. If you have a manual transmission, clutch in. Simple.

(where things get interesting is on a race track where not only do you want to slow down rapidly, but you also want to downshift to a lower gear at the same time to accelerate out of the turn that you're slowing for... but that's another story)

HEEEEEEEEEEEL TOEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you guys want to rock the techncials, turning on anything that draws electrical power on your car, can worsen your gas mileage.


Btw, I remember popping my moms van, with the column shifter, into reverse at 60 mph. It just stalled out, and took itself out of gear. I put it back into D, and all was normal again.