View Single Post
Old 04-17-2010, 03:10 AM   #5 (permalink)
bgd73
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: maine
Posts: 758

oldscoob - '87 subaru wagon gl/dr
90 day: 47.06 mpg (US)
Thanks: 21
Thanked 18 Times in 14 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by ranterc View Post
my drive to work is typically very good oportunity for hypermilling , its very early(5:30ish am) , little traffic , and the lights are timed perfectly .. basically i hit one red light (2 max) then if i keep a speed less than 45 i can get to work without coming to a complette stop.. (aprox 8 mile drive)

the way back is a different story.. its rush hour.. if i take back the same route there is alot more traffic , making it very hard not to constantly hit the brakes and the lights are timed differnetly , when one turns green the next will turn red etc..

so i typically take a differnet way home .. local streets a bit of zig zagging .. not as many red lights but instead plenty of stop signs..no where near as much traffic so i dont feel the pressure of going faster than i want..

I think this is the one that will be more efficient as far as mpg's go..(i will know for sure once i get a hold of a SCII)

i'm new at this and trying to find a method that works for me.

I've been doing alot of reading here the last couple of days..i've learned that my yaris will cut fuel once i let go of the accelartor..but i also read that usuaally at about 1100 rpms it starts burning about the same fuel as when in idle (if someone can confirm that to be true that would be great, because the rest of this thread is based on that belief).
So, on my way home there isnt much space for getting into higher gears. . what i find happening is that it will go into 3rd .. but very soon after its time to lett off the gas..so i do..then i feel the engine breaking but its very minimal since it was bearly into 3rd.. then it just stays at about 1000rpms or often a bit under (so i assume fuel cut has stopped at this point?) for a bit longer than i think it should..same for 2nd gear.. .
so the question here is .. is it safe (for the transmission) for me to manually change gears down to get it back into that engine breaking state?

or is it "engine breaking" regardles if i feel it or not?

Would it help Mpg's to do this?

or have i completely misunderstood what i've been reading about decelaration.
you should always feel engine braking. if you do not want shifting asll the time, keep it in second.

today the little car 3 speeds auto used to be 3 speeds auto and gigantic v8s...of course in the v8 realm, it is torture. the little cars can thrash around easy in the city.
just do what the older cars did...some even had shift kits
  Reply With Quote