I recently purchased a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport with 154K on it and was wondering if my shifting techniques were necessary or not. A lot of times if im coming to a red light, stop sign, or just simply want to slow down, I tend to downshift through the gears along with using the brakes to slow myself down. I dont let the RPM’s go sky high or anything like that I just basically do it to slow myself down without too much force on the brake pedal and basically to keep myself in gear in case the light decides to turn green before I get to it or whatever. Is this going to hurt a manual transmission with this many miles on it or is that okay to do. Ive driven tractor trailer a few times and this is what we do, thats where I get it from i guess. Became a habit. Any suggestions, comments, or feedback would be great! Thanks in advance!
As long as you tap the gas pedal such that when you reengage the engine and tranny the output of the engine is roughly the same speed as the tranny input shaft, you’re hurting nothing. You are, however, putting some extra wear on the clutch and the release bearing. Done properly the extra wear is minimal, but it’s still extra wear.
Don’t worry about it. If you do it properly you will get little additional wear. You may even save a little fuel. But then you are really not gaining anything to speak of and likely actually loosing more than you gain, but the difference is just not worth the trouble to bother with.
Now back to that If you do it properly. If you don’t you could be in for some expensive repairs. My suggestion is to not bother with the exception of long downhill grades.
The only time you really need to downshift is approaching low speed turns so you will be ready to accelerate when you are through it. Approaching red lights or stop signs it is a waste. Just coast down until you are near the intersection and then push in the clutch at about the same time you hit the brakes. If the light changes, just clutch and downshift to the appropriate gear for your current speed and need for acceleration.