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Besides, downshifting on ice, or anywhere for that matter, when engine revs are too high for the gear is a very bad idea, as you induce what they call in racing "compression braking".
Any downshifting for braking purposes shouldn't be necessary on a level road.
I never downshift unless I need the gear for something---to take a turn, out of a curve, going down a long hill, to pass someone, or if I'm way too slow for the gear i'm in---but in normal city driving---I never use the transmission as a brake, no.
Generally you don't use downshifting for HARD braking unless you're racing of course, or you need that lower gear to do something else.
But driving at 45 mph, seeing a red light, and slamming it into 2nd to slow down is just brutalizing the car for no good reason IMO.
thanks
-p
Today I got my car back from the shop after replacing the battery and alternator to the tune of $380 w/tax. My Corolla is an '04 LE, and will be 7 years old in about 3 months.
I'm reeling at the bill and fear that I was taken to the cleaners. I went on line to find prices for the above mentioned parts and saw a variety of prices. So I don't know. Saturday morning the engine didn't turn and made a rattling noise, which made suspect that was coming from the alternator. I called my mechanic and after describing the situation he said it's the battery. I didn't quite agree but kept quiet as I didn't want to give him any ideas about replacing more parts than needed. Well, he checked the system and found the alternator to be draining the battery, which he said was in bad condition in the first place. I know I should've replaced the battery a while back, especially after the winter we had in NY. However,
the mechanic didn't say anything about it when he serviced the car in December '10.
Any replies would be appreciated.
Battery - $100.00
alternator - $200.00 for a genuine OEM alternator
My left leg gets tired after an hour or two of stop and go traffic.
Why speed up that process with a lot of extra shifting?
Besides, downshifting on a slippery surface is about the worst thing you can do, as you get "compression braking", which is the same as 2-wheel braking---not a great way to stabilize the car IMO.
I'm very familiar with engine braking, how it works and when it needs to be used.
I made no mention about coasting in neutral.
My shifting style closely matches Mr Shiftright's and I don't think he mentioned coasting in neutral (beyond a few yards) either.
I've driven manual shift vehicles for over 30 years and I think you've made some unfounded assumptions about "my case" in order to further your agenda.
Of course, in a few more years I suspect that the clutch pedal will be as obsolete as the starter crank handle or windows rolled up by hand.
-also any suggestions to get rid of all the rattles and creeks the car makes when i hit bumps? for a new car it makes alot of noise!
thanks
-Paul
My wife's 05 corolla LE, 70K miles has the following issues
#1 clock spring needs to be replaced, confirmed via enhanced code scanner at my buddies shop. no problem, understands what needs to be done
#2 lean bank 1 cel code, mechanic advises to replace, not clean the maf sensor. If needs to be replaced, no issue, understand what needs to be done, can do this myself.
#3 Most concerning and upsetting is the P0741 cel code. ECU replaced under recall a few months ago, code and cel comes on and off every so often over the past few months. Car drives perfectly, no shift maladies of any kind that I can feel at this point.
I have done a tremendous amount of research on this issue and there is no concrete direction as to how to handle. Some people say simply change the tranny fluid, 2 different tranny shops say that will not help at this point, they say fluid change alone would need solve the problem. 1 tranny shop says replace selanoid, 1 says torque converter. Both are expensive repairs that ARE NOT GUARANTEED to resolve the issue. The two shops that this is a very hard code to diagnose and repair due to the many culprits that can be causing the issue. They inform me, speed sensor, selanoid, torque converter, internal tranny damage, or wiring or connector issues can all cause this issue and that several hours are needed to try and hunt down the issue, again, with no promise that the work done will fix the issue.
What I would love to know is if anyone has experienced this problem after the ECU recall, how did you handle it. What did you fix to resolve the issue finally.
I have read nightmare stories of people replacing many different things and the code still comes back up, after sometimes, spending thousands of dollars on tranny repairs, etc etc.
I don't have the money to blindly fix things hoping that it get fixed and def don't have the money to replace 1 thing after another until it's resolved.
I really need some help here and hope someone can point me in the right direction.
After further discussions with the two tranny shops, both were highly recommended by personal friends, that if I don't have the money to diagnose and do several repairs, should 1 repair not solve it, to trade the car and don't look back.
It's a shame at only 70K miles, well treated car, well take care of, not absued, to have all 3 issues, one of which seems to be a big problem. We have only 8 payments left and would hate to have gone through all of them to have to get rid of the car.
Upon researching this issue, I see tons of owners with this same issue but yet to find any concrete info on how they resolved the issue, many of whom spent large amounts of money for the code to only come back up again, sometime days after replacing full transmissions.
Begging for some help here, PLEASE...................................
Part of the list of items under the recall was the P0741 cel code. This recall has nothing to do with fixing or replacing tranny components from my understanding and even if it did, that portion of the recall we would have been well out of warranty. The ECU recall only was for 80K or under I believe.
Toyota did infact replace our ECU with a brand new one and I verified that on the national toyota board.
Based on my research and feedback from others on that board, the new ECU in the car is most likely NOT the cause of this new problem, just coincidental that I have the same code that was partially covered by replacing the ECU in the first place. This problem is more widespread than I originally thought, go into google and type in P0741 corolla and you will be quite surprised to the amount of people who have this issue, again, can't find a concrete resolve. Many people have done different things to have the code come back after spending quite a bit of money. It's quite scary actually.
May I know how much should it cost to get the new ones ? Only the front brake pads.
He is giving me an estimate of around 430$.
they are charging a substantial amount for the Caliper service as well which is actually making it too costly...
I have a 2009 Corolla.