Engine braking in 2008 HR AT (diff from other posts)
 

Hi guys, I have a question about engine braking on 5AT. I know there have been posts about this in the past but I feel like my situation is different. My personal belief is that the wear on the transmission from careful downshifting is negligible, but I want your opinion to see if I’m misunderstanding something.

I use engine braking for every stop I make, not just downhill. I’m very careful about the RPM and the gears, so I always keep the rev jump below 3000 rpm to reduce sudden load increase on the transmission. I don’t downshift to 1st gear tho, I just put in neutral for the last 20kph. I do this for 2 reasons..

1) The 5AT transmission is clunky so when the car automatically shifts from 3–>2–>1 I can feel the car lurch ever so slightly which is annoying
2) the car downshifts quite late so the moments before downshifting the inertia of the higher gears keeps pushing the car forward so I need to push the brakes harder

The reason why I think the transmission wear from this is minimal is because of the following..
1) If you match the downshift timing to the correct RPM’s—even if it may still be slightly higher RPM than the car shifting automatically so there will be slightly more wear—it is still within a reasonable shifting range which I believe the transmission should be able to handle perfectly fine without much effort
2) the little wear that can occur will be on the opposite side of the teeth of the gears because the wheels will drive the engine and not the other way around. Because this side of the gear is used far less often, it will have far less wear to begin with so you will not necessarily compound the wear in the same place

what do you guys think of my logic?

I know people say “just use the brakes it’s easier to replace” but as I mention before, I like using the engine and brakes in harmony to stop as it offers a better ride with less fatigue. Thanks for your thoughts guys.