Brakes & Rotors or Gas & Gears going downhill?

[ArlyDude]

I live in a hilly mountainous area and I always wondered what most people do going down big hill. Do you keep your car in gear at a high rpm so you don't have to brake or do you take her out of gear and apply the brakes.

If you use the brakes, then you're burning up brake pads and rotors.
If you use a lower gear, then you're burning gas and putting wear on the motor.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Brake.

 

[Russ M]

Engine brake,

You dont use any fuel engine braking, it is on fuel cut off.

 

[ArlyDude]

How does my motor run at 2000-3000RPM and not use any fuel?

 

[dansauto]

brakes are cheaper than motors, they teach you that in racing, never use your motor to slow you down. Durning my stint at superbike school they would pull you off the track if you downshifted and used the motor compression to slow you down.

 

[Ulysses]

Engine braking bad, brakes good.

"How does my motor run at 2000-3000RPM and not use any fuel?"

I'm sure you are burning a small amount of fuel, but nothing substantial. Your wheels are still turning, so your whole drive train is still turning, therefore your RPM gauge is still reporting the rotations, but you are not using fuel to accomplish that reading.

As far as worrying about wear and tear on the motor, it's more an issue of safety than it is wear and tear. If you're down shifting to use the compression of the engine to slow you down, then you are purposely NOT matching your RPMs and therefore purposely imbalancing your car. That can be compared to smashing on your brakes when what you really wanted to accomplish was a smooth braking pattern so your car doesn't dip.

 

[Ted Bigham]

It's okay to use your engine to slow you down. But if you need to slow down so quickly that it would require downshifting, then you should use your brakes instead. Of course once you've braked enough where the next lowest gear is in normal operating range, you should downshift into it.

dansauto is correct, especialy for performance driving...

brakes are cheaper than motors, they teach you that in racing, never use your motor to slow you down. Durning my stint at superbike school they would pull you off the track if you downshifted and used the motor compression to slow you down.

But letting your motor slow you down IN YOUR CURRENT GEAR is fine for going down hills or stopping at lights. There is really no wear and tear on the motor. Downshifting however is not so good for your trans.

 

[Bonkers]

If you're talkiung specifically viper - us the brakes. With the size of these stoppers only hills like Kilimanjaro, K2, ect are going to do significant damage/wear. If you are talking about hills steep/long enough to overheat the brakes then you can be assured the motor damaged would be far, far more extensive.