Engine braking or using Neutral and Brakes?
 

Which is best practice to save wear and tear on the car (thus repair bills):
slowing down by down shifting, using engine braking and brakes or
slowing down by putting the car in neutral and braking? Reasons?

I learned to drive a manual in a couple afternoons, and picked up some
details from this video series which recommends the neutral+brakes
method due to the "extra stress put on engine and drive line" by
downshifting and that it's cheaper to replace brake pads than an engine
or a transmission.

video produced by "Capital Dream Cars— Washington, DC’s
premier exotic car rental company as featured in The Washington Post,
Goss’ Garage, and SpeedTV.com."

With syncro rev its not much stress on tranny to downshift and engine brake. Because its effectively matching road speed to motor speed, the clutch wear should be minimal. This will also save the brake pads considerably. I had to get my rotors turned not too long ago, and the pads looked basically new after almost a year of driving.


edit: in the end, pads are cheaper than a clutch, but this is just my $0.02

Besides trying to look/sound cool, there is no legitimate reason to downshift while coming to a stop. You can leave the car in gear and just apply the brakes for the best fuel mileage, pushing the clutch just before the stop, or put it in neutral as soon as you brake. Whatever floats your boat, but downshifting is just a waste for DD. Unless you anticipate having to accelerate...

That is 1 of 2 reasons I rev-match/downshift when coming to a stop. If something happens and I need to get on the gas quick...I will already be in gear to do so. 2nd reason is rev-matching practice.

Right, but there is no need to row through the gears, even when anticipating acceleration. Just downshift to the appropriate gear when necessary. Practice is good. The OP summed it up perfectly already though, brakes are cheaper than a clutch.

That's what I usually do.

Everyone hit the nail on the head with this one, but I wanted to add my input. In normal stop and go driving, it is better to drop it into neutral and apply your brakes to slow down. By downshifting or even engine braking, you are putting added stress to the engine and specifically the transmission components. Will engine braking mess up your transmission or motor? Not likely. But you might get more life out of your main components by not using it as a normal means of braking.

Bingo. You also save a little gas as there is a 100% fuel cut while in gear.

is it bad to just brake and keep it in gear until your about to stop, clutch in and put it in neutral? thats what i do

That's not bad at all.

Brakes are for braking. I never shift into neutral though -- I like to be either braking or under power at all times. I definitely don't row throught the gears when I stop. Typically how often I downshift depends on the gear I started with and the length of the deceleration. In low speed stops -- say from stop light to stop light @ 35 mph -- I'll downshift once from 4th into 2nd once the rpms drop enough that accelerating from 4th would cause the engine to lug out. In long high speed slow downs like from 65-70 off a highway off ramp I might shift down twice ... once to 4th to achieve the correct access road or off ramp speed and then once again once the rpms have dropped sufficiently. There's not much engine braking going on since the RPMs are appropriate to the speed.

Exactly. I pick the appropriate gear to downshift to, and then use a mix of brake/downshift to come to the stop. I'm not sure I've ever seen or heard of someone "rowing through all the gears" when downshifting.

3rd gear is my usual downshift-to-stop gear.

Brake pads are cheaper than clutches and synchros. .02

the ultimate point right there.

True, but not very relevant. Anything mechanical is going to wear faster the more you use it, but the difference between changing the clutch at 40k miles and 130k miles is not going to be the difference between down shifting while slowing to a stop and coasting to a stop in neutral.

thats only relevant to how competent one is at shifting.

My point exactly

Downshifting like that is really only needed on heavier vehicles (like fire trucks). The reason is to prevent excessive brake wear (would only be good for approx. 10,000 miles or less), and prevent brake fade... For the Z, unless you are tearing up some back road, and need the acceleration, you should just put it into neutral and just coast to a stop... Hope this helps!

To each his own I guess. My point was that you're not really going to wear your clutch or syncros out prematurely with an extra down shift before you stop and keeping the vehicle under power is handy when dealing with shuffling cars on off-ramp stop lights or the lucky just turned green when you've almost stopped city driving.

Addendum: Strictly speaking if you remain in gear without disengaging the clutch and simply apply the brakes you are engine braking. I think this general notion is being somewhat confused with downshifting before applying the brakes. You'll notice that downshifting with syncro-rev on (or blipping the throttle) doesn't provide any engine braking so they really are independent issues.

Firstly, SRM does NOT save the synchronizers. Once you depress the clutch, the engine and transmission are NOT connected. If you shift to neutral, engage the clutch, THEN rev the engine and disengage the clutch and go into gear....sure that'll save some wear on the synchronizers (at the expense of engine wear).

SRM doesn't provide any engine braking within the first second or two after engaging the clutch, but if you downshift, let the clutch out and wait a second, then my Z does engine brake.

I just don't freakin worry about it. Half the time I put it in neutral, half the time I downshift, half the time I don't downshift while braking. Just depends on how I feel. It's not gonna matter at all in the long run.

Late,
Trav

???...Of course it does. When you downshift, Syncro-rev only manages the initial engagement and rev matching. Once that is accomplished you have normal engine braking, just like any other Manual transmission car..

Yes it does provide it after the initial rev match. I overstated my point.

I was trying to provide a contrast between downshifting before you even start braking thereby relying on mostly engine braking for that first initial speed reduction on one hand and using the brakes to slow your speed and then downshifting on the other. I think people were lumping those two scenarios into one and contrasting it with shifting into neutral and using only brakes to slow down.