Speaking of AAA, our local chapter newsletter (Syracuse AAA includes
Ithaca NY, where I live) had one of those helpful, informative driving
tips articles that usually say stuff I already knew (and maybe didn't
want to know). One of these little tidbits informed me that I should
not downshift to use engine braking to assist the brakes, except maybe
on long downhill runs when the brakes might overheat, because engine
braking wastes gas.
Is this true? It always seemed to me that if my foot was off the
accelerator pedal, it didn't matter if the engine was going faster than
idle; it would use only the same amount of gas as it would if it were
idling. Is it perhaps true for some cars and not others, like electronic
ignition or fuel injection vs. standard carburetion? I know there are
people on this list with answers to this question. (Probably several
conflicting answers, like Click and Clack Tappet. Don't you love NPR's
Car Talk program? --another thread, as this list weren't busy enough!)
A few days after I read that, I happened to be near the end of a line of
a dozen cars on a long downhill. I used second all the way down and hardly
needed to touch the pedals. I could see that most of the other drivers were
using their brakes a lot, some steadily, some intermittently, and by the
time we all got to the bottom I had to drive through clouds of steenking
brake smoke! In.....sane.
-Christian Haller
Acknowledge-To: <CJH@CORNELLA>
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