89 Toyota Tercel

[SiegeMachine]

So I've become interested in the topic of Hypermiling. I'd like to get into it and I have read extensively about it. Now I've read there are some things you need to know about your car before you are able to do it. One of my issues is that I'm unable to find out if my vehicle can be flat towed, and does shifting to neutral with my automatic transmission actually cause extensive wear?

I haven't been able to find much literature on hypermiling with a 89 Toyota Tercel automatic w/ Carb'd engine. Is it able to be flat towed?

I would like to try pulse and glide, or using neutral to coast to stop signs and etc but will shifting to neutral with my automatic transmission cause me more problems than it is worth in gas savings? I know I can't do hypermiling as extensively as if it were a standard being able to kill the engine with a kill switch and popping the clutch to get it started off momentum again along with a proper neutral.

Mainly my question is... Is it safe to pulse & glide (not entirely, but pulse to speed then put into neutral) with my 89 automatic Toyota tercel w/ carb

[Daox]

I've personally never found P&G to be much good in an automatic. The main enemy is the torque converter. The higher the load on the engine, the more efficient it becomes, but the greater the losses through the torque converter. I generally just drive conservatively with automatics and find it not too hard to achieve 30% above EPA rating.

[bluejoey]

Yup. On my '95 Tercel, which is also an auto, I experimented with both P&G and DWL and found that DWL offers equal or better results to P&G with less traffic disruption. With instrumentation, you can monitor MPG, MPH, and engine load to find a good balance, which basically means minimizing engine load (translated as foot pressure on the throttle) while holding a particular speed range (e.g., between 20 and 30 mph). I do pop into neutral and coast whenever I'm approaching a stop or going downhill.

[SiegeMachine]

Yea I didn't think so, the savings would be miniscule. I already try to drive conservatively and can (naturally) save gas this way but I was just trying to see if it was possible to get any more out of it but I think I'm limited by the cars technology. I wanted to get some gauges but none seem to be compatible with the age of the car.

[rdtony]

Pulse and glide is effective but you already have a very fuel efficient machine.