After driving my f.friend's manual Jetta, I find myself using the overdrive button in my ES to downshift a bit. Is this BAD for the tranny?

 

as long as your rpms stay in a safe zone, its ok. you are using your "engine brake."

 

Right, it's certainly more fun than just breaking, I just wonder if overtime it'll have any negative effect on the tranny.

 

There's slightly more wear on the transmission rings and whatever else is in there you're just causing the tranny to slow down a bit.

The car is made to do it and think, the car downshifts from 3rd automatically anyway every time you stop just at a lower RPM point with a computer telling it when to downshift.

I use O/D 2nd and 1st to downshift sometimes. Gate shifting is fun, just hard to do in an automatic becuase how fast if shifts varies on things such as how old or how hot the tranny is. After a day of driving hard it can get pretty laggy.

 

I engine brake often....i miss a standard. I find it helps when you come upon a radar trap and you don't want to give yourself away like when hitting the brakes in a panic. Engine braking = no brake light illumination. It has helped a few times.

Just take care of the tranny and it will take care of you.

sj

 

OK in Japan, land of the rising sun and Toyota, if you take a driving course to get your license, they actually teach you to use your engine brake. I dont know to what extent they tell you to use it (every time? vs only in certain situations), but using your engine brake to stop should be learned and used by EVERYONE, imo. Plus, downshifting in big semi trucks sounds GREAT!