Whats your method when you downshift

OhioYJ

Going in sequential order is just placing unnecessary wear and tear on those synchros, sliders and gears, if you don't plan on staying in those gears anyways. If you are just downshifting to come to a stop (on the street), don't do that, drivetrain parts are expensive, brakes are cheap.

Ideally you would quickly blip the throttle to bring the RPMs up where they should be in that gear, while the clutch is in, and put it directly in the gear you want to be in. Get good enough at matching RPMs you can shift smoothly without the clutch entirely. I don't recommend this, but knowing this might get you home one day in a clutchless car (FYI).

Nithmo

Actually, that's not true at all. You induce less stress on the transmission components- especially the synchros, by shifting down sequentially. It's much harder on the synchros to go from, say, 4th to 2nd, as opposed to going 4th-3rd-2nd. What that does is allows the transmission speed to stay in line with the vehicle speed. I know I'm not explaining this 100%, but suffice to say, what you're suggesting is that normal shifting of gears will result in transmission failure. That's not true. The car prefers it.

Those that are saying to just clutch in and put it in neutral when coming to a stop, are correct. There is nothing wrong with that, whatsoever.

Personally, I always sequentially go down through my gears, even if I have the clutch in and I'm coming to a complete stop. It isn't necessary at all, but it's a fun little habit for me.

I come from the Honda world, where the 6MTs and some 5MTs are notorious for the 3rd gear synchro to die prematurely. One way to help reduce this from happening is rowing down through all the gears. I've yet to meet anyone who has had transmission issues if they rely on that methodology. Of course, the GM synchromesh friction modified transmission fluid also helps a ton. Those two combined result in transmissions that last a very very long time.

My TL has a 6MT as well, and it had a bit of the 3rd gear grind occurring when I bought the car (used). It still occasionally continued even after changing from Honda transmission fluid, to GMSMFM. Since I've gotten into the habit of sequentially going through gears a few years ago, I seem to never grind anymore.

OhioYJ

The syncrho is just there to slow things down to to help the slider engage the gears. It has friction material on it for a reason. I see no reason to wear the friction material on other gears unnecessarily, not to mention those gears sliders unnecessarily. Especially as the syncros are cheap, the sliders are the expensive parts generally in every transmission I've rebuilt.

What I'm referring to a slider, is the sleeve here (this isn't from a 370z transmission, just images I had handy, It's from a Jeep transmission):



It would be what the shift fork actually is moving to engage the gears:



So while you maybe trying to keep things spinning the same speed and help things line up, I'm still of the opinion you're placing unnecessary wear on components that didn't need to be enaged in my opinion.

To each their own though. It's likely it may not matter one way or the other, and the transmission will live "long enough" either way I guess.

Hungry4Real

Wow, didn't know I was going to receive a lot of input on this topic and everyone's response is much appreciated