I'm a noob and I have this habit of shifting into neutral instead of downshifting when coming to a light. Is there something wrong with shifting into neutral when doing this? And what's better about downshifting?

 

You should either be bracking (user control) on the acelerator (user control). Never in neutral (No user control). You want to control the car, and not just be along for the ride.

 

i dont see anything wrong with it, especially if you are prepared if something might happen. its a bunch of extra work to keep downshifting to a stop. the most likely to be used pedal is the brake anyways. howmany times have you been slowing down to a light and needed to accelerate away from something?

or you could do it just for practice.

 

saves brake pads and rotors

 

I tend to downshift when approaching lights, because the light might change and I'll want to accelerate.

I tend to just slip the car into neutral while approaching a stop sign, because I know I'm going to have to stop.

If the brakes should fail, at least in gear you have some compression braking, while in neutral you are completely hosed. But there are a lot of situations where you are completely hosed if your brakes should fail, and it is better to just make sure they don't.

 

and cuz I like the way it sounds.

mg

 

You are just putting extra wear and tear on several components as far as I am concerned by downshifting needlessly through the gears when you KNOW you are going to stop. It gives the passenger a rough ride, puts more stress on your mounts, your PP, clutch, etc. Now if you do it 'perfect', most of these negatives are eliminated. But if you are doing it 'perfect' as in smoothly w/ a version of heel/toe, it will take you much longer to slow down compared to just normal braking with the car in nuetral. Driving aggressively and crusing through the neighborhood are two completely different scenarios. Obivously if you are pushing the limits you need the car to stay in gear, and if you are pushing the limits you probably don't plan on getting out of 2nd anyways, regardless of what you are doing on the twisties or on the city.

There is NOTHING worse than some idiot manual gearbox driver who shifts from a high gear all the way down for EVERY stop constantly making the car jerk around. The bad part is you don't notice it nearly as much. I sit there getting thrown around while the engine chugs and the gearbox surges while he tells me it's 'good for the car'.

 

A lot of us older guys learned on english sports cars. Downshifting and rev matching come second nature. It keeps oil where it needs to be saves on brakes and keeps you in positive control. It doesn't hurt your motor, in fact, I think it's good for it.

Just don't slip your clutch when stopped on a hill to keep it in position. That eats clutches. Use your brake then not your clutch.

fltsfshr

 

Downshifting = using no fuel, braking on the engine and not on the brakes and brakepads, being in control, ready for a green light or need to move fast...

Shifting to neutral = using fuel, no control, having no revs to give the secundary components (brakes, servo...) extra power, not so easy for the ECU to learn that it may go to rest for a while...

 

Certainly if you're using the engine to decel then you are saving some brake pad/rotor wear, but it is negligable. I won't even touch any comments about using the clutch to brake the car against an idle engine to save brake pads.

The point of downshifting while slowing down to a light is 1) (as mikegarrison mentioned) to be completely in control of the vehicle in the case that you need power available to you (as you would in an auto) and 2) so that you are in the appropriate gear if/when you want to accel.

While there is really nothing wrong with just shifting to neutral when decelerating, the S2000 is by far the easiest car to revmatch/downshift of any car I've ever driven. Other than the two reasons above, I do it because it's satisfying to be able to perfectly revmatch and smoothly downshift this car.

All in all, I find that I downshift no further than 3rd if I end up stopping, maybe second if the light turns green at the last moment and I'm still rolling.