rep'd.

Stupid 10 chars.

 

I haven't done it, but dropping the transmission out of the fit seems like it'd suck.

 

Solbrothers is too damn funny! gets repped for perhaps unnoticed sarcastic humor.

 

FitFreak can never be FitFreak without SolBrothers.

SolBrothers speaks the truth.

 

MOTHER****IN RIGHT. the lulz: i do it for them

 

that was the first and last clutch/flywheel i will ever replace. *i say this, but im a cheap mofo, and i love getting my hands greasy, so im just lying to myself*

 

Downshifting to prevent overheating your brakes (using the transmission to slow the car down) can instead overheat your transmission. Be careful.

I do it sometimes, but avoid doing it on a steep downgrade for any given amount of distance.

In my Integra, I could feel the heat in the center area under the shifter (between the driver/passenger). I'm not sure if you would feel it in the same location on the Fit.

 

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Do you know what a Catalytic Converter is, and where it is located?

Do you know what Transverse Mounted Engine means?

 

You were 'coasting' downhill with the clutch fully depressed and let it out 'periodically' to slow down with the gearbox in 2nd or 3rd. Naturally you were burning up the clutch, using it as a brake.
Next time leave it as high a in gear as it takes to hold speed. (with a closed throttle. you will save gas too). And use brakes as needed. Remember, brake pads are so much cheaper to replace than clutches.

 

ouch

owned.

 

Brakes are cheap and nowdays extremely good, Hawk for example, and will slow a Fit far better than transmission. Unless you use that cheap offshore stuff.

 

A catalytic converter is a muffler filled with Platimum coated or adsorbed on the open structure inside the muffler so that exhaust gas must pass thru and be very in contact to 'burn' leftover harmful hydrocarbons and nitric oxides and thus release minimum harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.

A transverse engine layout is where the engine crankshaft is sideways and lined up aimed at the wheels. An inline or normal engine layout has the crankshaft laid front to rear of the vehicle.

 

er, sorry , no.

The transmission isn't what's slowing you down, it merely alters the amount of torque that the engine sees. The gears rotate in the oil anyway, and downshifting makes little or no difference.

The engine provides the braking effect because of pumping losses - the force needed to push air in and out. All you are doing with the transmission by downshifting is making that engine spin faster and increasing the pumping losses to provide extra retardation.

Yes, you are still converting your kinetic energy into heat, but instead of heating up your brakes, it is heating up the air inside the engine which is then expelled through the exhaust. Some heat is lost into the cooling system.

But before you go "well then doesn't that mean I'm heating up the engine?"

No it doesn't. The cooling system dissipates the heat very effectively because the amount of heat generated is a lot less than the heat generated when the engine is producing power.

Now about your catalytic converter, that appears to be heating up when you use low gears going down a hill. (and it isn't the transmission in an Integra, that's just where the gear lever is. There is a linkage connecting that to the actual transmission which would be in front of you in a lHD car.)

I'm not sure why it would be getting extra hot when you are going down hill, but unless the car is out of tune I wouldn't worry.

Automatic transmissions heat up when you use a lot of torque - like when you are hooning or towing. They are normally cooled by the radiator coolant, but an external cooler helps a lot for towing. The reason they heat up this is because there is normally a 3% or so difference between the input speed and the output speed through the torque converter. This difference is lost in heat. A lock-up torque converter improves fuel consumption in an automatic by removing that 3% difference.

This is not an issue in a stick shift unless you abuse it by riding the clutch, and for much the same reason. Imagine the effect of a disc sander on a block of wood, vs the block of wood rotating with the disc.

Downshift away and have no fear, but don't ride the clutch, and my apologies for the lengthy post.

 

Lengthy but informative

 

misinformationfreak.net

 

very simple rule of thumb my dad always told me, "Brakes are a sh*t load cheaper to replace then a clutch" so put it in neutral and use your brakes, that is what they are used for, i mean you will always have to down shift but it will kill your engine and it will start to cut its life down.

practice pushing the clutch in and gas to match the rpms before down shifting, you will get better with practice.

 

While you are sitting at the lights, yes. Not going down a hill. Panels and lives are even more expensive than clutches.

Engines do not wear faster by travelling down hills in gear. They are designed to do it. Evidence - any modern automatic will downshift under the same circumstances (I did say modern) Would they do that if you were supposed to use neutral? They would just shift into neutral by themselves, it's much easier to program.

This -for going down hills. But you aren't using the clutch/engine to slow down. You are using the engine turning faster in a lower gear to keep from speeding up. You use the brakes to slow down and change gears to match rather than using the gears to slow down.