Real world gas mileage?
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Or you can do the "smart" thing and drive the both :stickpoke:
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Moved you over to this thread.![]()
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It is not hard to do, Get up to speed and while coasting downhill with the foot off the gas hit the reset button.
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Don't need a hill. The way I do it is get up some speed and then put it in neutral.
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You can do that too, I noticed in your photo that you were in 3rd with the cruise control set.
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That's not me. Got that pic from further back in this thread--I think it was PolarBZ. But I have had mine read 99.9 in neutral.
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D with foot on brake. Lots of times I will put both feet on the brake pedal.
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lol, in terms of gas milage....
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Either way is not going to make a difference in your mpg.
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While Hypermiling I will threw my car into "N" while coasting up to the red light light as that lowers RPM's, but as Jeep5253 stated it would have no effect while "stopped" as your RPM will be the same regardless of which gear you are in.
Another reason to keep it in gear is that you may need to move quickly for some emergency and the few seconds it takes to remember to put in into gear from "N" might be costly to you.
Another reason to keep it in gear is that you may need to move quickly for some emergency and the few seconds it takes to remember to put in into gear from "N" might be costly to you.
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I do the same thing when I will be first at the light, and sometimes I forget to put it in drive and then when the light changes I step on the gas and it just revs up. Gets some weird looks from the people beside me.
rangehat:
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I have done that too in my smart, but I do pick up 2 to 3 MPG by shifting to "N" when approaching a red light and coasting up to the limit line.I do the same thing when I will be first at the light and sometimes I forget to put it in drive and then when the light changes I step on the gas and it just revs up. Gets some weird looks from the people beside me.
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At one point I read (Car & Driver?) that shifting into neutral is not only potentially dangerous for the situation you outlined above, but actually counterproductive to gaining MPG's based on the fact that newer engines and auto transmissions monitor several inputs (speed, gear, air, etc.) and then adjust fuel patterns to suite. When the car "senses" you let off the gas pedal while still in gear, it cuts the fuel supply to save you the MPG's, and relies on the vehicle's kinetic energy to maintain speed. However, when the car is in neutral it will continue to "feed the ponies" while you coast, so to say, thus resulting in ever-so-slightly lower fuel efficiency, even though the RPM's were lower.
I'm still not entirely convinced that this is how it goes down in real life, but it does sound somewhat feasible, at least on paper.
In regards to D vs N at the stoplight, couldn't N be just a hair advantageous since the transmission fluid would be allowed to spin freely through the torque converter, as opposed to the fluid attempting to rotate the turbine when in gear?
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By shifting the N while costing to a stop you can see the tach drop the RPM to 1,900 in my smart. If I stay in gear then the RPM will run around 2,800 approaching the same stop light. I am sure that the 900 RPM difference has to burn more gas even if for only a short distance. Like I mentioned I noticed the difference in may last fill up where I went from 37 to 39 MPG.
Not sure about the transmission wear but that still works in my favor if it is true.
Not sure about the transmission wear but that still works in my favor if it is true.
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I believe the RPM difference is because when in gear there is a load on the engine even if you are not giving it any gas and when in neutral there is no load on the engine.
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