What s the best way to use the exhaust brake? This is my first Diesel and I have a 40ft 5th wheel. Do most just turn the engine brake on or have it on auto? Thanks

 

There are two setting Manual and Auto. Manual will apply the exhaust brake any time you take your foot off the throttle.
Auto will try and hold the speed you were at when the Auto enabled. ie. if you are going 50 mph when you double punch the button. It will apply exhaust braking at speeds above 50 and not apply braking at speed below 50.

I typically use the Auto Braking more. I crest a summit. slow to the speed I think I want to move at on the down hill grade and apply the Auto Brake button. To give an example, On I-80 coming into Salt Lake, You have a 20 mile long downhill grade. Upper sections are 7% and lower sections are more of 3%. As I cross the summit, I slow to about 55 mph, Push the button and take my foot of the throttle. Truck will coast as speeds below 55 mph and it will apply exhaust braking at speeds over 55 mpg. I may gain a little speed , maybe 60 mph in the steeper sections. and it will slow me to 55 as the grade eases.

I do not combine the exhaust braking with Cruise control, Cruise control will apply wheel brakes anytime you start to creep above the set speed ( 55 mph in example) And I've had my brakes over heat on serious grades from the truck applying wheel brakes more than just letting the exhaust brake do it's thing. ( It literally pop'd up on dash saying brakes were overheated and it was turning off my cruise). The truck will gain speed as the exhaust brake works. You may set it at 55mph and with steep grades/heavy weights, the exhaust brake may let it creep up to 60-65 mph. Which on a 70 mph freeway, I don't worry about.

Remember your exhaust brake works best with RPMs. Don't worry about it running at 3500 rpm. You get hardly any exhaust braking at 2000 or lower rpm. Tranny will automatically downshift and put the engine in higher rpms to hold the load.

 

Run mine in the "on" position only and use tow/haul.

With the 4.30 gearing it helps a lot.

So far my truck has 63K miles and brakes are only showing marginal wear.

 

Just to expand on the auto setting. It will try to keep the truck from exceeding the speed you were going when you lift off the accelerator or brake pedal. Not just the speed you were going when the button is double pressed.

 

I just wish the truck did not apply brakes when on cruise control. Running a 2 lane hi way with the brakes coming on every little hill.
wonder if it’s possible to turn it off somehow?

 

Very helpful information. Thanks everyone.

 

Another factor

i used my engine brake a lot when I first go the truck when new

my first trans drain and fill was pretty scary…worst looking fluid of any vehicle I owned.

stopped using my engine brake and the next drain in fill looked great.


so.. while you will probally save brake pads with the engine brake..don’t expect to not impact transmission pad wear. It’s much cheaper to replace brake pads than transmission pads.

 

The Ford exhaust brake really needs some engine RPM to work well.
typically you will need a little service brake application when in tow/haul mode to get the transmission to downshift, for the exhaust brake to really start to work.
You can also put the transmission into manual molded and manually downshift to get the engine RPMs up to get full use of the exhaust brake, you can also just push the " - " button on the shift lever to lock out higher gears.
I never use the "Auto" settibg ilon the exhaust brake.
key point, the engine needs mid to upper RPM range for the exhaust brake to really work.
The truck will do this automaticly but you need to apply the brakes to get it working good.
Or you can manually downshift and do it yourself

 

When towing, I just leave it in tow/haul and ignore the engine brake button. Tow/haul engages engine braking when you put your foot on the brake pedal anyway, and it will hold a gear going downhill just fine.

 

mine at 63K with heavy towing and cross country towing. pretty good on mine with using tow/haul and exhaust braking

 

OK, I'm kinda old, but i've been trying to wrap my head around this.

The exhaust brake does damage to the transmission?

I'm just not getting the correlation.

 

Because engine braking transmits the braking force through the transmission therefore through various clutch plates. If they are slipping a bit, and likely they are, this results in wear in the transmission versus the brake pads. But, I have no data to support this is occurring during engine braking.

 

Yes…exhuast brake increases trans plates wear

the plates use friction to transfer power