It doesnt wear that much on the clutch. Your retarded if you think down shifting will wear out you clutch. Unless your stupid and slip it like a bitch it wont wear out any different.

 

Nobody is saying that it wears out your clutch any faster. We are saying that is it just uneeded wear and tear on the clutch, tranny, engine, etc when all you really have to do is push in the clutch and mash the brakes a little.

 

I've always downshifted when slowing down and never had any probs....

 

I downshift sometimes when coming to a stop or when i need slow down some. But i mostly do it when i want to be heard by another car.

 

same here bud

 

I vote yes all the time.
Downshifting saves the brakes and has no adverse affects on the clutch
I've only replaced front pads because of a seized up slide pin.
And the car has 113k on the original clutch.

 

Ditto!

 

I downshift... Not all the time, but most of the time... I especially love it when its in gear, I blip the throttle and listen to the crackle...

as far as matching revs... I do that EVERY time.

 

It's a good routine to get into rev matching and downshifting every time. You never know what the screwballs around you are going to do approaching a stop sign or light. You always want to be in the correct gear and power band in those situations to escape a wreck. Like the clutch guy said, rev match and you won't break the hub. If you can feel the car lurch when you're down shifting, you're doing it wrong.
When you're slowing down on the brakes, your momentum will be shifted, you'll feel that lurch, you step on the clutch and go to neutral and you feel the momentum change, then you rev match and get into the lower gear, you let the clutch out fast before the rpm drops and you will feel only the same amount of momentum shift as you already had just slowing down with the brakes.
I'm a heavy duty mechanic. I've watched a video of an instructor who double clutched every gear. He rev matched up and down. If you're not using the clutch, you're not fully engaged in the gear.
I've ridden with a friend in his frieght shaker and he tried to get it into gear from a dead stop. After a few grinds I yelled at him to please use the clutch to at least get going.
He let me park the thing after he dropped the trailer. I used the clutch in every shift and it was smooth.
If you rev match, you don't put extra wear and tear on the synchros. You actually save them as you've done the job of matching the gear to the engine before you let the clutch out.
I had 64K+ miles on my C5 when my clutch went out. Bought the car at 27K miles. It was already dogged. Had trouble speed shifting to second. Sent it out to get rebuilt.
Clutch went bad at the pressure plate. Three of the spring fingers got stuck. When I loosend up the attaching bolts of the plate, they snapped back into place. I could have just replaced the pressure plate and reused my friction, as it was in that good condition. Very little wear compared to a new one. Flywheel and pressure plate too. Metal fatigue of the diaphragm is all that was wrong. Don't know if always double clutching made it wear out faster. When I double clutch going up, I don't have to rev match, just going to neutral and the lack of load on the heavy flywheel is enough to get if a few rpm higher to let go of the torque bind in the trans.
In a tractor trailer situation, you still have to blip the throttle, for the lack of synchronizers. Not the situation in cars.

 

You can engine brake in an automatic.

I used to use it when people cut me off all the time.

Just get out in front of them, downshift into 2nd at 70 mph and then watch them freak out when the back of your car flies at them without the brake lights coming one !!!

(JJ I only did that once and even Mahatma Gandhi would have done it to the over aggressive 16 year old girl in her 8 ton SUV.

 

as a SCCA junkie heel toe has become a habbit so now it's just a blip away to set up the exit.

 

So unneeded wear and tear will not wear out a clutch early

 

I rarely downshift, im a nuetral and coast kinda guy, just downshift when im in hard driving mode or being load, hehehe.

 

You mean loud?

 

I think we are confusing each other.

I'm talking about downshifting when coming to a stop at a redlight or stopsign.

Downshifting when going around turns or just driving around is fine.

 

So whats the diffence? Slowing down using the engine is the same no matter what. The only difference is one your coming to a complete stop and the other your only slowing down a little for a curve or whatever.

 

Though is it the same as far as effects on the disk?

As far as engine wear is concerned isn't the only real wear on the valvetrain.

Am I just a moron who doesn't know what I am talking about though. I can understand clutch wear no matter what. Isn't anything letting go and then touching it again going to wear it (even a little bit) as oppose to just leaving it there?

 

Yes same effect anytime you use the clutch. Unless your trying to launch it at the track.
It won't wear out the valvetrain any faster than the rest of the engine. It shouldn't wear anything out faster. Engines don't break from trying to slow down they break when your trying to go fast and normally driver error
This isn't real hard to understand it very simple concept of normal driving. They were made to do this stuff.
I personally don't use the engine in my car to slow down. It doesn't slow me down enough to use it. The brakes work a lot better. Unless its a panic stop and even then it seems like i'm down shifting to fast for it to be useful. My brakes work really good

 

So what's the point of downshifting when your coming to a stop. You are stopping.

No need to keep power to the wheels because you are gonna stop.

Downshifting so as to that you don't bog the engine is just plain driving.

 

i downshift 100% of the time. as long as the car isn't jerking when you let the clutch out you are fine. downshifting is part of driving a manual car. they go together like spaghetti and meatball