On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 01:05:14AM -0400, John wrote: > Not that worried about saving gas there. > > A long down-hill with an automatic transmission means using the brakes > all the way. Even if you're pumping & releasing, you can end up with > your brakes getting burnt up. > > I've done it in automatic transmission cars in low gear, but the didn't > provide enough engine braking. Still had to brake a whole lot & ended up > with hot, failing brakes at the bottom.
I've only had one car where the brakes ever got hot enough to work at noticeably reduced efficiency, and that was my old Morris Minor back in the 1970s (before disc brakes came into common use). Even towing and slowing a caravan through hilly Welsh countryside, or driving down the Mount Washington auto road back in the days when it wasn't paved all the way to the top, weren't any problem. And that was done pretty much using mainly the brakes, ever since a mechanic asked me why I'd even consider putting extra strain on the transmission to reduce wear on the brake pads. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
