Driving in neutral

4mica

4mica

Active member
when driving , if you put your car in neutral down hills and such does it make a major difference in saving gas and such ? anyone have any proof ?
 
If the faster the engine is moving the more gas it uses. You wont notice too much but it does make a difference. By putting the car in neutral you will wear out your breaks faster though.
 
Well if your car is in neutral then its just idling, which should use less gas than if it was in gear and engine breaking.
 
When in neutral the car uses a lil bit of gas so that the motor doesnt choke

if youre in first gear (or any other) and youre going down a hill, just hit the clutch it uses less gas
 
Modern engine uses NO fuel when coasting in gear... meaning leave that shit in gear, you're using more fuel putting it in neutral.
 
No, leave that shit in gear and DON'T hit the clutch. If you push in the clutch it's idling just like if you shifted into neutral.

To the guy that said more RPM's = more gas that is incorrect. It all comes down to how much throttle you use. If you were in 5th gear and going 25 the engine would be chugging along and you''d have to use a lot more throttle to accelerate than if you were in the correct gear and had the engine speed where it is more efficient. You know?
 
I was talking about general rule of thumb. The thread creater was talking about coasting down a hill so he would save gas popping it into neutral.
 
so you're trying to tell me that instead of putting my car in neutral and coasting 10 miles down this canyon i drive twice a week i should leave it in gear? i don't see how that would save gas when the engine is running at 2500 or 3000 rmp in 5th compared to idling at 900 rpm the whole way...
 
brainiacs.....its called the GAS PEDAL. if you arent pusing on the GAS PEDAL in gear or out of gear you arent using extra gas.
 
The new Camry automatically shifts into nuteral after 5 seconds at idle (Stoplight) they claim it will increase fuel economy by 8% i do this at evrey light before get there every time i slow down.
 
If you got a newer car thats got fuel injection instead of a carb you can save a ton of gas by going in neutral and then turning off the engine.

Some people do it eveytime they can, like when coming up to a stop sign, red light or down a hill. Everytime they are coasting on idle basically, its called hypermiling and they claim to get double to MPG the cars are rated for. check it out
=related

 
if you shift from drive to neutral watch the rpms, they actually go up cuz your car needs the engine to run a little faster so it doesnt choke out. so actually if you keep it in drive and just dont hit the gas at all technically it would save you gas per say. but honestly i dont think it makes that big of a difference
 
I take my car out of gear every chance i get, stop sign in the distance, red light coming up, any kind of a slope...
 
seems like there can't be anything wrong by doing that. i feel like if it really was bad someone would have some good evidence by now as to why not to do it.
 
there was a top gear episode about hyper mile-ing

something with turning the engine off on down hill grades
 
shutting it off?

that just wears down your battery. and with the car off the alternator isnt even worth having so your battery probably dies at least twice as fast. and i forget how much but doesnt it take jus as much fuel to start an engine as it does to drive like 10 miles?

i just leave it in gear. saves the engine battery brakes and probably some other fancy wingdinger
 
yup, cuz the gas pedal opens up valves to put in gas, if the pedal isnt being pushed, to open up those valves, no more gas is goin in,

plus driving in neutral is illegal
 
I don't know what kind of hill you guys are driving when you put your cars in neutral to go down hills. All I got to say is when driving in the mountains, your going to kill your brakes instead of down shifting while going down hills, and I would say, you would be spending more money on brake pads than saving on gas.
 
my mom has a prius and every second your pressing the gas, more gas is being used, just down put the gas on and that will be just as legit.
 
My dad can get 70 miles to the gallon driving on i70 coming from the mountains in his chevy aveo. It only cost 8000 new too...It looks terrible but just coast a ton and it makes up for it.
 
exactly. Throwing it in a lower gear will save you the most money because it'll save you the breaking.. on a manual it might wear out your clutch a tad faster though.. but to whoever was going down the canyon that's your best bet. Throw it in 3rd and go. Depending on your gear ratio you wont' go faster than 60 or so..
 
and don't be stupid. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR CAR unless you know what you are doing. People die from this. Your steering locks up and your brakes aren't nearly as effective. Eric_D's mom's friend drove off a cliff and died while doing this.
 
Your steering doesn't lock up. You just don't have power steering anymore. You can still buy cars that don't have power steering and that is how they are all the time. The brakes are not as good though that is true...
 
SERIOUSLY DONT TURN OFF YOUR CAR you still have you power braking after you turn the engine off, but only for a little while, then the brakes suddenly lose all effectiveness.

I learned this the easy way in a traffic jam when I was on a downhill, had to pull the parking brake to not hit the guy in front of me, close call.
 
You just turn off the car, then turn the ignition back to on (but don't start it) so the steering doesn't lock up. And obviously this isn't something you'd do if you're gonna have to brake or steer much.
 
yes. it uses MORE gas to coast in neutral because the engine needs to supply a little gas to keep the engine running. if it is in gear it requires ZERO gas to keep it running. so if you're going down a hill you're better off just taking your foot off the gas and coasting in gear than popping it into neutral.
 
Exactly. Coasting in gear and using your engine brake is much better than rolling and uncontrolled acceleration. As for everyone turning off your cars, you should all have a good look at your owners manual before you give terrible advice to people and claim it saves money..hell you are better off doing to destroy your brakes its cheaper then a new catalytic converter. No need to repeat the obvious safety issues with coasting while its turned off. As for the RPM discussion, how many times your engine revolves per minute is obviously going to be different from when you have the clutch enganged and when you disengage it. That doesnt mean the fuel CONSUMPTION is different.

Think about it like this, everyone remembers a tricycles? Well the pedals are like a gear that is always in. Well when you pedal it, you use energy, but if you go down a hill the pedals (gear) will move on its own, just because in a manual tranny you can take the pedals off ( put it in neutral ) doesnt mean you are using and less energy (fuel) to make the vehicle move down the hill. The vehicle in nuetral will coast further, but the difference wouldn't matter in a driving situation since you still need to keep your speed up unless your one of the dumb fucks that enjoys 20 below the limit on a sunny day.
 
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