Every time I have to come to a stop I switch to B. Many times I come to a complete stop without ever pressing the brakes. Saves on the brake wear. However, does that practice put extra wear on the engine? Should I stop doing it? Thanks.
I don't think that you will put appreciable wear on the engine, but you may wear out the shift lever early. :lol: I don't think that its the most efficient (mpg wise) way to slow the car. Did you read Hobbit's explanation of Bmode? http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/b-mode.html
I doubt you will harm anything by doing it, but you will loose some energy, and therefore get slightly lower mileage that you otherwise would. Remember, if you are gentle using the brakes, you hardly use any "friction" braking. Instead, you regenerate electricity and store it in the battery. For use when you accelerate when the light turns green. This process isn't 100% efficient. Most think it's probably around 50% overall, but that's better than dumping 100% of the kinetic energy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusOwner004 @ Sep 11 2007, 03:01 PM) [snapback]510800[/snapback]</div> Do use it when descending a long mountain pass. I like to wait until the SOC meter is almost full. Makes holding your speed without brakes easy. The engine does rev. like crazy, but that's normal, and the car will not allow it to overrev. The entertaining part is if you press on the accel. pedal the engine -slows down- during the engine braking mode.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusOwner004 @ Sep 11 2007, 02:01 PM) [snapback]510800[/snapback]</div> Its very useful on steep grades, but otherwise its not needed. I've used it a handful of times in 10k miles.
