engine braking is perfectly safe. i have to do it multiple times during my trips to school and back from school (mountainous region)

 

A brake change can be done yourself for maybe $50 for the pads whereas a clutch job will most likely have to be done by a mechanic for $400+. Which would you rather pay? I just throw it into neutral and coast to a stop.

 

Brake pads are cheap and can be replaced in about an hour.

A clutch job on an Integra is a royal pain in the ass, and is many times more expensive.

Use your brakes in daily driving, and compression (aka "engine") braking on long descents when there's a legitimate risk of brake fade due to heat build-up.

 

Exactly. It's not that using compression to slow your car damages your engine, it's when you do it WRONG you will wear things out. If you have any question about what is the RIGHT way to do it, as with anything else, don't do it.

 

Last three posts say it ALL! I used to "engine brake" all the time until a wiseman helped me understand the expense ratio between brake pads and clutches. I still "engine brake", but much less frequently. I've got 80K on my teg and will probably get another 20K before my first brake job cometh. I hope my clutch doesn't bite me too soon.

 

I use both resonably, I dont use it excessively, I'll just downshift when it gets to the point where the engine is dipping below 1500 rpms. It helps slow the car a little bit and it is in gear if I want to get going all of the sudden again.

But when I'm not feeling lazy I heel-toe like you n00bs wish you could do hfawk:

 

I'd rather replace my brakes than my clutch

 

Fist off who cares about being easy on your brakes, and sacraficing your clutch, the clutch is a billion times harder to replace...

Also i think downshifting is bad for your engine because your engine is changing speeds to fast, its just as hard on it as revving your engine.

If your do it right i think its ok, but like if you do it wrong ie let the engine go to idle during the shift, and then release the clutch really fast ramming the engine to 4k in 1/3 of a second, i think THATS bad...it also has to put some stress on your timing belt to have the engine change speeds to quickly...

But just like upshifting, if done right, its fine

 

I compression brake all the time... but I know how to rev-match. Clutch in, throttle blip, clutch out. It's simple once you're used to it.

 

Nope. It won't hurt your engine unless you over-rev.