I read a post a while back that asked if it was ok to put the car in L then change to 2 then D.. cause u get a better take off..
From what people said it seemed ok.

My question is, is it ok to down shift. Say your doin 80 then u click O/D off then slap it into 2 for engine braking..? Ive never chucked it into L while moving, i know thats bad. Sounds painful to.

Anyway, Ive been doing this for the past year or so thinking it was ok, and i was saving my brake dust :confused:

Ive been meaning to ask someone if this is aiight or if im wearing out my engine or transmission..

Thanks

Well it seems to be designed for it because it allows you to put it in 2 while going 80km/h

L is a different story though, I'm pretty sure its locked out unless you press the button in, and as a general rule, dont change it into a mode which requires a button press if your going as moderate speed. lol

I do it all the time saves my break pads. My usual rule is if im going down a hill and i wanna keep at 80 i go to 3rd, 60 go to 2nd and 40 1st. so i try to avoid shifting into 2nd much above 60k and so forth...

If you (or me) try and select L when really moving, it wont do anything. Ive tried it just stayed in 2. Its a safety thing - cant be too good for it though. Imagine if the safety didnt work? That would suck.

When im in cruises I like to manually shift my auto. So much better

yeah my ks verada does the same when its above 30, if im goin slower than 40 then it will go in "L", im not sure if it stuffs the gearbox, but i do once in a while to save my brakes from wearing, and the gearbox is still A.O.K

I would think that if you keep your tranny fluid in check and you don't go over board with down shifting, you should be fine.

I would think that being an Auto, your torque convertor would take up a lot of the initial impact of the down shift. So if the manual box can take it, your auto should too.

when I mean keep your tranny fluid in check, I do mean it, if you keep down shifting and run your tranny on High revs all the time, you will burn your tranny fluid sooner than usual.

Ahh good, looks like im not the only one doing this :D
Yeea i always downshift sensibly, meaning i dont chuck it into 2nd when i wanna slow down from 120 and rev it up to 5g

What Rusty said is pretty much the same rule i use, cept i dont go down to 1st. If i try, even at 40 or 20, the car halts suddenly, doesnt feel too good. so i avoid that.

Also, a while back.. (before i started doin this) whenever the car came to a stop, when it changed into 1st gear, it would halt suddenly, similar to what i explained above. But after i started down shifting, it doesnt do that anymore.
Coincedence? or is it related somehow?