Hi,

I've had my G Coupe for about a month and just had a question about engine braking to make the brakes last longer. Is this something stupid and will it make my clutch wear out faster? I used to do this on my prelude and my clutch lasted for years and so did the brakes with no problems. Obviously I know the G is a different car with a different clutch, more power/weight etc that's why I am asking for some thoughts on this.

Thanks.

 

im thinking as long as you arent engine braking from 5k rpm youll be ok. also rev matching will help your clutch a bit

 

I use engine breaking at lower rpms or when i need to slow down faster as usual. All other times i would rather replace brakes on this car rather than a clutch. They are not as cheap as brake pads and alot more work. Plus you can match your pads and rotors depending on your application. I think the standard price for a stock flywheel is around 1k without labor. You cant resurface them either.

 

Engine braking is very useful on downhill descents and stuff, where you pick the right gear to maintain the speed that you want, but don't shift to engine brake while just driving around on the street, since it's going to wear down your clutch, and the clutch costs a ton of money to replace while brakes are a far cheaper. You can mitigate clutch wear by rev matching properly, but it's still going to wear. The G is like any other car, if you drove your Prelude like this for years, you know what you're doing and the G's clutch will probably last for years.

Brake pads are cheap (<$90 for Hawk HPS, for instance). Clutches are expensive

 

People do it because they think it sounds good but it's not good at all. Like he said. I rather replace the brake pads then a clutch.

 

I and the experts agree, this is the correct answer.

 

Rev match and downshift to be in the right gear to have the revs and power on the way out of the turn, and use your brakes to slow down and stop, not your engine.

You don't have a race car and team with a multi-million dollar budget, you aren't going to change the motor every couple races, nor are you even going to change the fluids every few days, so I don't think it's a good idea to drive your car exactly the way race car drivers do.

The oil you use has a lot to do with how much heat, stress, and abuse you put on your engine components, most importantly the pistons and rings (which are usually different materials). The oils that can handle it needs to be changed very frequently and the oils we normally use won't protect your motor enough.

And technically, if you rev match correctly, you shouldn't be putting too much extra stress on the clutch. Hard launching the car does a lot more damage than rev matching/downshifting. In fact, just driving from light to light may do more harm than properly downshifting.

 

+1.....

 

How does this apply to the 5AT cars? I constantly use the manual mode for upshifting when accelerating and downshifting for braking. But I never over rev. Am I increasing wear on the trans. by any great amount?

 

^^lol

 

Um, I'd rather replace my brake pads 2-3x vs having to change the clutch.

 

Just fine IMO at lower revs, say 3k and below, especially if you have rev-matching in your AT (not sure on 04 coupes), but again, not as a substitute for brakes.

 

Thanks for all the input.

I have the stock 19's on mine, from what I understand replacing the brakes and rotors can be really expensive on this car. Not as much as the clutch and flywheel but still.
I guess I'll have to be more smart about it now. Maybe just at lower rpm's or hard stops.