Plucky

Hi all,

I use the tiptronic manual shifter very often In my '09LX570. It’s becoming a daily habit and my driving style for mainly two reasons:

1- Very fun to drive and feels sporty.
2- Trying to increase brakes life by reverse shifting at high speeds or even low. Example, running at 120 km/h on the 4th gear and then reversing to gear# 3rd and 2nd and 1st. Thought this helps the car stop with minimum usage of front/rear brakes pads. ( brake pads of LX570 is not that good, it wears very fast.

Now, I’m wondering is this going to affect the transmission or any mechanical parts on a short/long term ? some friends are telling me “of course this will harm your vehicle when reverse shifting at high speeds, because you’re putting loading the car weight on the mechanical joints and/or transmission !”

I’m seeking an expert opinion or any one who has experinced a problem of that kind.

Thanks in advance !

CRB

Your friends are correct. It will definitely put added strain on your transmission. Just keep in mind brakes are much, much cheaper than transmissions. If it breaks under warranty I'm pretty sure that you'll get it fixed by Lexus though. Are you planning to keep it out of warranty?

Alaska

There is no free pass. The more you use the transmission the faster it will wear out. The more you use the brakes, the faster they will wear out.

That being said, when you drive a stick shift, it is common practice to downshift as you slow down (that's what I was taught at driving school). However, I have never downshifted all the way to 1st. By doing so, I suspect you'll be putting a lot of load in your final shift (from 2nd to 1st).

Plucky

Thank you CRB and Alaska for you resposes. Appearntly i'm over using this feature in my lexus. Well i guess i'll try to use it when neccessary.

Another technical opinions would be great

Thanks a lot

black570

In general, you should only downshift when your speed is in the range of the lower gear. Meaning that a downshift should not result in revving up the engine excessively.

I used to do this for fun as well when I drove manual transmission, but I wouldn't do it in my LX. I imagine the LX transmission is very expensive to repair.

Downshifting saved brakes mainly when driving down a slope. Constant braking during downhill driving heats up the brakes and lowers lifespan. It should not affect lifespan by much in level driving situations.

Finally, the LX brakes are good. My car has 62K KM on it. I replaced the pads only once at 40K. That is fantastic lifespan. Also, the brakes pads are not that expensive to replace if you have them replaced outside the agency. When I did the 40K replacement, I bought the pads from the Bahrain agent at half the price, and had them replaced by a good independent mechanic. The whole thing cost me SR500. AJ wanted SR2000, believe it or not.

Plucky

Thank you Black570 for sharing your experiance and advice. I couldn't agree with you more. In my case I've replaced the front brake pads once at 30K at AJ and now rear ones started to produce noise with vibration. I liked the idea of purching the brake pads and replace them out side Mr. AJ

Looks like i"ll buy me a small car for driving to work to take some load off my LX, i'm thinking Gensis coupe

Thanks