downhill driving!

M · January 17th, 2003 12:37 AM

yun din ang alam ko. even when driving a 'matic, you have to put it in L when going downhill to assist the brakes.

**chi** · January 17th, 2003 12:39 AM

engine break lang and watch initial d...:lol:

**jaspi11** · January 17th, 2003 04:19 AM

engine break ka lang

**vinj** · January 18th, 2003 12:06 AM

When you're going down a really steep grade, use 1st and 2nd gear. On minor to medium grades with not much curves (meaning you can go a bit faster), use 3rd gear.

With a matic tranny, turn of your O/D button and downshift to 1 or 2, depending on how steep the curves are.

You will use more fuel when enginhe braking then when staying in neutral but it can help you more by givng you more control of your car and keeping your brakes in check.

If you use engine braking on mountain roads, brake fade wont be much of a problem unless you're driving rather spiritedly, unless you've got really crappy stock brakes (like the ones in our Sentra) or your car is really heavy (i.e. Suburban, Expe, CLub Wagon).

If you want to improve your braking, you can upgrade your pads to better ones like EBC or Bendix Metal Kings. There are also brake fluids with higher heat capacities (RBF 600, DOT4.1) like Motul DOT 4.1 which you can get in Motorbike stores.

However, with regards to the Motul DOT 4.1, RS Sprint mentioned before in one of the threads in Nissanbayan that they absorb moisture easily then the regular DOT 3 fluids so you'll have to change your brake fluid regularly to keep your system clean from water. It wont be practical in a humid country like ours unless you really do track runs/hard driving and change your fluid every so often. IMO, DOT 3 will do OK in the daily grind.