With the traffic and roads I take, I often find myself in about 3rd gear (or 4th). Anyway, when approaching a stop light I have been just popping the clutch into neutral and braking the rest of the way...ok ok..i have decided to use double clutching from now on because I guess my original method isn't too healthy for the car...anyways, I double clutch say from 3rd to 2nd (and so now my RPMs are really high) but I cant' really tell if this is slowing down the car??? I always end up using the brake a lot to slow down somemore...am i doing something wrong?? a lot of posts in the archives talk about people saving their brakes by downshifting all through the gears and just letting the enigne brake for you...I want to learn this too but am a little confused...<p>Please advise =)<br>Jimmy <br>

I rather replace my brakes three times than my clutch once. Yeah, double clutching will not wear on your clutch, but not that effective to brake either. I do it once in a while to get into a corner at high rpms, so I can shoot out at the other end. Other than that, use your brakes, that's what they are for.

<br>Even with a good driver downshifting puts twice as much wear on the clutch as upshifting in similar conditions. Double clutching is nicer to the tranny on big downshifts, but not necessary otherwise until about 200K miles unless you beat up the syncros.<p>I use the brakes and put in the clutch at 1500 rpm. I only downshift if I am going to use that gear to accelerate without stopping. Brakes may not be a lot cheaper than a clutch (hi-perf pads&rotors), but it's not in the shop nearly as long either. A hard driven Audi can make it to 200K on the original clutch as long as you don't slip it too much or run through the gears both ways all of the time. <p>Todd W

To begin with, there is a wear and tear issue, which others have already brought up. But more importantly (at least to me) is that there is a performance issue. Your brakes were designed to slow/stop your car and they do a fine job, so it doesn't make any sense to use the engine (which was never intended to stop a car). After all, you could open your doors and let air resistance and tire friction slow your car, but should you? No.<p>If you want to keep your RPM's up while braking, learn how to heel-and-toe downshift (are others calling this "double-clutching", are they the same thing? serious question). I won't go into an explanation of what that is, because you may already know, but there is an excellent book called Bob Bonderant on High Performance Driving that is widely available and it has a detailed explanation/justification and has a good photo primer. Also, you can practice this technique in your garage, so as not to be a menace to society or your synchros. Good luck!

Fast stop: use brakes<br>Longer time to stop: let off gas, downshift through gears (sometimes with braking)<p>I always keep my car in a gear/RPM combination that permits rapid control of <br>speed (accelerate or decelerate by letting off the gas) when needed (e.g., <br>light changes to green; in an emergency). I never coast with the car in neutral.<p>86 Audi 5000S 114,000 miles (original clutch - never worked on)<br>-

(If I am correct) double clutching is much simpler than heel and toe, it is simply:<br>- press clutch<br>- put in neutral<br>- release clutch<br>- press gas to rev engine<br>- press clutch<br>- downshift<br>- release clutch<p>As opposed to heel and toeing you do all this in one step which is HARD. The point here is that you rev the engine in neutral and clutch up so some internal tranny components gain the speed of the engine mainshaft, resulting in smooth downshift - or what the heck.

In his book "Speed Secrets : Professional Race Driving Techniques", Ross Bentley says you downshift to increase torque to the engine to ACCELERATE.<br>(It's an AWESOME book, btw, it has simple straightforwards tips on improving your racing technique. I'm reading it before I head back up to Thunderhill next week to see if it makes a difference...)<p>Still, I'd rather replace my brake pads than the engine or clutch...<p>-Phil

Take a look at http://home.earthlink.net/~rponiarski/shifting.htm <br>It's a BMW page but has some good exercizes for practicing your technique.<p>On-track time at a drivers school is also recommended.<p>kosta

I alway thought it as-<p>double clutching or double de-clutching: things to do with the left foot.<br>heel & toe (or ball and ... right side of the right foot) - things to do with the right foot.<p>Add in some coordination with the shifting hand and WALLA, you have a smooth transition from one gear to a lower gear.<p>My 2¢<br>Bert

Heel & toe allows you to rev the engine to downshift while simultaneously breaking (heel on brake petal, toe on gas). I can't do it with the petal spacing on the A4 - an anyone ??<p>The way I do an A4 downshift is simultaneously brake & clutch - then, when you've de-accelerated enough to do it - quickly release brake, tap gas - then go back to brake & release clutch. Obviously dont do this if you gotta slow up quickly!<p>BTW, this isn't double clutching - which is virtually unnecessary on the A4 or any modern manual as the synchros are very good (although in theory I believe you can cause less wear). If you want to learn to double clutch - drive an old dump truck with shot or no synchro - I did for a summer & thats where you learn ...<br>

On my A4q dump truck, I must double clutch to get into 1st when in an AutoX. Try it yourself. 4-5K rpms...when entering 1st gear. Feel the resistance when you don't double clutch. That's your syncros working overtime! Double clutch it and you'll have a smooth transition.<p>- Josh<br>- '98 A4q 2.8<br>- '72 911T

Thanks for the double clutch info. Yes, it does seem mostly unnecessary, but maybe I'll give it a go when I'm bored. <p>I too have never been able to heel and toe very well, despite having driven cars that car mags claim have "perfect pedals for heel and toe shifting". Maybe my flippers are deformed or something. My best attempts have been with the toe-on-brake, right side of foot on gas effort, but this often times leaves the nose of my car doing a sort of pogo towards the corner as I try get the right braking. I usually use the "cheater" method as described by AndyN. sigh. More practice in the garage for me, I suppose.

4k dowsnhifting? Geez! does it redline in the next lower gear? I have to double clutch to get into second sometimes, first whenever I have any forward speed.<p>The pedals are not set up for a good HT, at least for my 11.5's

:-)

The first one is an old driving habit, I haven't driven a car with ABS on ICE or snow so this may be redundant.<p>I was told that it was bad driving to brake on a motorway/freeway, this implies that the stopping distance is too short. Additionally, activating brake lights can cause overbraking from following drivers resulting in a unneccessary slow in traffic(domino effect?), by slowing using the gears the car slows without alarming the following driver.<p>Alan.<br>

I encourage all A4 drivers to learn how to effectively downshift. There are many benefits. As far as killing your clutch, done correctly I argue the wear is minimal. I drove my 1990 Audi CQ to 197,000 miles and sold it last month with the original clutch still well intact - and I downshift all the time. Don't be scared away from downshifting thinking it will kill your clutch (again, the key word is correctly - 'match revs') ...<br>

<br>nt

Open your door and drive that bad boy straight into the asphalt. It'll stop your car dead in it's tracks. Better than ABS, I swear...

"activating brake lights can cause overbraking from following drivers resulting in a unneccessary slow in traffic(domino effect?), by slowing using the gears the car slows without alarming the following driver."<p><br>As long as they're paying attention, and not driving too close. Sometimes you need to alarm them!<p><br>Regards,<br>Dean W.<br>

I haven't had problems double clutching/heel toeing pretty much anything I can get my feet on. That includes my previous car ('94 Mustang GT) which many people said was impossible. I thought it was easy...great, quick engine response. My old Audi 90Q was a pain, in that the engine took forever to spool up. The A4 is similar to the 90q, with regards to engine response. Nothing comes close to the 911. Tap the gas, and the motor will hit 7K, if you're not careful.<p>- Josh<br>- '98 A4q 2.8<br>- '72 911T