UPDATE 1/30/2012
After 500 miles of driving I am getting 62mpg. I haven't filled up yet so not exact. No permanent damage but don't recommend cruising in Neutral in CVT.
UPDATE: 1/10/12
After a test ride (3mi) I got 53mpg. Longer test ride to come.No damage done.
To any CVT (prius/insight) owner who is reading this DO NOT shift into neutral while driving.
For completeness below is the service manual for the CVT transmission.(remove spaces)
2shared(dot)com /document/ 2CGK1mbn/ cvt_transmission(dot)html
I live on top of a big hill and wanted to figure if I could cruise to the bottom in Neutral in my 03' Insight CVT. So I put the car into neural and turned the engine off then 1/2 way down the hill realized that the brakes were very mushy, so I put the car into Drive and tried to turn the engine on.
It wouldn't turn on, and I didn't know if I could stop at the bottom so I took a side street which goes up hill, and after it stopped turned it on. Started up fine. But now I am only getting 25-mpg at 25mph; my mpg has dropped 40-50%.
I don't hear any strange sounds when I drove it back up the hill. Assists and regen both work as the should.
Does anybody know what is causing the low mpg? (my 15mi avg. of 60- has already dropped to 53 in 1 mi.
Are the brakes locked up? I assume there is no ABS when the car is turned off?
Also the brake light came on 1/4 down the hill. Parking brake was off.