Neutral then brakes. I only use engine braking for emergencies aka police on the side of the road or pulling a trailer and the green light changes at an odd time.

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Posted by AUTimbo

Member since Sep 2011

3373 posts

Posted on 3/2/16 at 6:02 pm to BoostAddict

quote:
Normally...Slowdown in 5th until the rpms drop to the appropriate shift point then down shift. But it also depends what I'm doing... if I'm wringing a car out, I'll start downshifting and let the engine compression assist the brakes a bit more.

This

Besides if it is a turning exit ramp after the overpass you will want to be in a lower gear in order to accelerate approx. 1/2 way through the turn. This sets the vehicle to the curve and allows a smoother, faster transition back to speed through the curve and back into the straightaway once you are clear of the exit.

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Posted by DownshiftAndFloorIt

Here

Member since Jan 2011

72804 posts

Posted on 3/2/16 at 6:23 pm to AUTimbo

The right way to do it is to use the brakes. Like someone mentioned earlier, not using your brakes can get you rear ended if you aren't paying attention.

But either way, if done correctly downshifting is no harder on components than upshifting correctly. Do either one wrong and you will break stuff.

Is the stick fighting back when you try to downshift? That's the syncronizers holding you out because there was too much difference in shaft speed when you tried to shift and the whole time they're holding you out, you're wearing them out.

Engine making jumps in RPM when you let out of the clutch? The engine speed was too far off of the transmission input speed and the clutch soaked up the abuse in getting them sync'd up.

A manual transmission is an extremely simple device in principal. If it feels like it didn't like something, it didn't. If it feels like it doesn't mind, generally it doesn't.

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