Relaxation of highly vibrationally excited 1,2-, 1,3-, and 1,4-difluorobenzne (DFB) by collisions with carbon dioxide has been investigated using diode laser transient absorption spectroscopy. Vibrationally hot DFB (E';approximate to 41 000 cm(-1)) was prepared by 248 nm excimer laser excitation followed by rapid radiationless relaxation to the ground electronic state. Collisions between hot DFB isomers and CO2 result in large amounts of rotational and translational energy transfer from the hot donors to the bath. The CO2 nascent rotational population distribution of the high-J (J = 58-80) tail of the 0000 state was probed at short times following the excimer laser pulse to measure rate constants and probabilities for collisions populating these states. The amount of translational energy gained by CO2 during collisions was determined using Doppler spectroscopy to measure the width of the absorption line for each transition. The energy transfer probability distribution function, P(E,E'), for the large AE tail was obtained by resorting the state-indexed energy transfer probabilities as a function of Delta E. P(E,E') was fit to a biexponential function to determine the average energy transferred in a single DFB/CO2 collision and fit parameters describing the shape of P(E,E). P(E,E) fit parameters for DFB/CO2 and the previously studied C6F6/CO2 system are compared to various donor molecular properties. A model based on Fermi's Golden Rule indicates that the shape of P(E,E') is primarily determined by the low-frequency out-of-plane donor vibrational modes. A fractional mode population analysis is performed, which suggests that for energy transfer from DFB and C6F6 to CO? the two key donor vibrational modes from which energy leaks out of the donor into the bath are nu(11) and nu(16). These "gateway" modes are some of the same modes determined to be the most efficient energy transfer modes by quantum scattering studies of benzene/He collisions.