Yahoo practices its usual stellar journalism. I had expected better than base fearmongering from Popular Mechanics, though.
Quote:
There are those who refuse to be shaken from the practice of coasting downhill in neutral to save gas. This is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. Let's set aside fuel economy for a moment. Coasting downhill in neutral is illegal in most states. And it's dangerous in all states. In neutral, you have no way to accelerate to avoid a hazard, and if the engine stalls, you have no power steering or vacuum boost for the brakes. If the hill is steep enough to call for hitting the brakes to keep you from gaining speed, they're more likely to overheat—and overheated brakes lose effectiveness until they cool off. They'll probably do that right around the time the police show up to take the accident report.
Here's the surprise: There's no trade-off between safety and fuel economy in this case. Leaving the car in gear while coasting downhill actually is more efficient. Why? Blah, blah, blah DFCO ...the engine consumes no fuel at all while the vehicle is coasting downhill.
In contrast... idling in neutral down a ˝-mile-long hill consumes fuel for 30 seconds, for a total of about 0.32 ounces of gas. Popping the car into neutral actually wastes gas.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but that's what data are for—replacing good guesses with solid facts. Watch the data, and over time the savings will take care of itself.
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So let me get this straight, Popular Mechanics: If my engine stalls, my car won't work well and that's dangerous at speed. Of course if my brakes do happen to work while my engine is stalled they'll overheat and kill me. Which they won't do if the engine is running because the brake booster acts to cool the pads, right?
I'm sure that a search of Popular Mechanics will show at least one or two
solid facts about
engine braking. Nice job, guys, and thank you so much Yahoo, for giving this crap a wider audience. Yes, it's good to put out the word that people can save a lot of gas on their own. It's better to hire a writer and do some research.