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this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Ooh, thought of another. I once saw a gentlemen driving down the mountain who must not have known that riding his brakes all the way down would cause them to overheat and fail. He was free rolling and honking his horn, weaving in and out to avoid hitting people. Sheer panic on his face.
Fortunately, he had the wherewithal to steer up one of the emergency offramps. I caught up to him a couple mins after he passed me. He was standing, leaning against his car, and just breathing. He was not a white guy, but somehow he still looked so pale. Glad no one got hurt with that one, that could have easily led to one or more deaths if things had happened just a little differently.
That seems more like a crazy situation caused by an honest mistake rather than a person doing something crazy, but I upvoted anyway.
Wait I never knew that you could overheat and fail if you rode it down the mountain. Holy shit
Yep, you want to do engine braking. That's when you downshift and the engine slows the car. Even with an automatic transmission, you can downshift to 2nd so long as you're under 50mph or so. You want to be slower than 20 before shifting down to 1st gear.
If you ever have a chance to drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado, 1) it's gorgeous and 2) they have a stop halfway down where park rangers will check your brake temps with an IR thermometer. If you're too hot, they make you sit there in your car for a while for the brakes to cool off and they give you tips on engine braking. Lots of flatlanders driving in the mountains for the first time and learning lessons the hard way.
Wow that's crazy. You have taught me a valuable and potentially a life saving lesson today. I really appreciate your knowledge here.
So I have an automatic so how do I keep it under 50 or 20 without using the breaks?
My dodge will engine brake if I use the cruise control. Down near the bottom (or far side) of your shifter you should have a low gear that isn't first. You can shift into it under 50 and let off the gas, your car should slow down. Test it's rpm range on some flat ground first by accelerating to around 50... On the mountain is not where you want to first try it.
At minimum, shift out of overdrive into regular drive.
I have a versa so I'll have to take a look at that later
You can use your brakes to slow down to where you can then engine brake, you just don't want to use them for miles all the way down a mountain.
Once you're under ~50 and you shift down to second, your engine does the work. It will keep the car slower. Maybe you need to tap on the normal brakes here and there, that's fine, but you shouldn't have to keep them pressed the entire time.
I also had no idea, even thought it’s completely logical. I just never would have considered that.
My wife's family did that once and the ranger was apperently shocked at how cold the breaks were from very effective downshifting
If I were a ranger at those stops, I would totally turn it into a game based on make and model, which state they're from, and judging the driver.
"Soccer minivan from Illinois? They will have no clue how to drive in mountains, their brakes will be hot"
"Ice cold, dude, I'm up by three, next Coke is on you"
Yeah when (normal) brakes get hot after a certain point that loose significant breaking force up to the point where they just fail completely. You usually should notice it before failure through when the pedal starts feeling soft and squishy.