Another way to save . Leave your car in neutral. cars with manual transmission .
 

The technique :

Desired speed and leave the car in neutral.

By leaving the car in gear slows and you have to accelerate to maintain speed .

Leaving the car in neutral slows 3 or 4 times slower .

City at a speed of 40 km / h (24 mp/h) works great.

By road also works well if not exceeded 100km / h (62 mp/h)

On the road with a slight drop and the longest in gear loses speed.

On the road with a slight drop in neutral is gaining speed.

Do not turn off the engine to use less fuel if you leave it in neutral. The power steering and brake assist is lost.

Pros :

The car loses less speed when not accelerating.
These less time accelerating.
Less consumption. I'm not sure .

Cons :

It is not recommended to use it if there is traffic .
Speeding downhill can be dangerous.

Did anyone try?

Yes, we do this quite often. It is called engine off coasting aka EOC. When you want to carry speed, coast (with the engine running or off) and if you need to slow down, use the engine, as this shuts off the fuel to the engine. With a manual transmission, just bump start it.

I think my car is in neutral engine off more then in gear.

Lol herberpower, that technique seems vaguely familiar

What Dave said!

Im not worried about power steering and brakes.
My car doesn't need power steering it was an option. //cut//belt//
A quick bumpstart and you have full foot brake and engine breaking POWER!!
If it is an emergency you can always throw it in 3rd and slow down super quick!

This really works and I would probably get like 30MPG if I couldn't go in neutral!

Thank you for the advice, herberpower.

Today I was really surprised at how fast engine braking works. I threw the car into D3 and went from 40 MPH to 25 in a matter of seconds! I've also been coasting a ton lately and noticed that at 40-45 MPH a Civic can coast for a long time on flat ground unmodded (if there isn't a headwind I would have gone much longer).

I turned off a couple of times the engine, and dangerous to me in halting similar.

I'm not used to brake without the booster .

after reading a dirtydave makes me want to try some mechanical mods in my car.

Here a car like normal conducion dirtydave has a consumption of 26.1 MPG or worse , not of 45.5 MPG.

These days I'm driving using the deadlock .

I drive at night with the lights , fan heating, mp3 radio , and a little while the thermal window.

the temperature is 48 ° F (8 ° C )

I 'm looking at the battery, the battery is running out of charge, comprove battery and was in 12,38V

My car will not charge the battery to idle well . the idle is 800 rpm.

Do you think the idle up to 850 or 900 rpm solve the problem?

Charge the battery with a charger .

Hi herberpower!

I have to ask! What's a deadlock?

If you shut the engine off your car SHOULD still provide brake assist for at least 2 or 3 brake pedal applications before the vacuum runs out of the booster!

Unless it has a leaking vacuum booster or a check valve somewhere in the system!
( I don't know if your car has a vacuum pump or what kind of system it has)

It also sounds like your car could use a new alternator if 800 rpm is not enough to charge the battery. Sometimes a diode (or diodes) will fail, killing a phase in the alternator so it will only start charging at a higher rpm!

Im assuming deadlock is cruise control?

"deadlock"

It is a mistake in the translation .

I mean stop engine

normal driving I do not see the danger. driving with the engine off in descents, grabs my car more speed , the car in front slows down and that's the danger, which gives the feeling that does not brake enough or runs out of brakes.

if the drop is large you have to brake a few times, and no need accelerate the engine, with the same slope grabs more speed .

here are many mountains .

I have to try if the alternator works.

Not so. First, even with the engine off, you should have enough reserve vacuum for several brake applications - plenty of time to start the engine again. Second, with any car (or even largish truck) you do not need power steering at highway speeds unless you are extremely weak.

But the big flaw here is that if your car is at all modern, it will have DFCO, which means that it will use no fuel while decelerating/coasting in gear, but will use fuel if it's idling in neutral.

Not every modern car has DFCO mine doesn't. Check your scangauge when you are going down a hill in gear vs neutral. Don't forget safety is first!! Fukk Fuel economy if its not safe!

If safety really was first, you'd never get in a car in the first place. Or indeed, leave your fortified, climate-controlled, radiation-proof bunker :-)

The question is whether it in any way decreases safety to coast in neutral rather than in gear, and as far as I can see (which includes quite a bit of practical experience) it doesn't.

I've been testing the car these days .

in neutral, I turned off the engine and tried the brakes , I braked 3 or 4 times and it worked well .

the other time prove the brake scared me , it was downhill , the car in front , brake and I approached too quickly .

I have no ScanGauge .

my car has obd2 .

is turbodiesel engine with indirect Coagulant injector mechanics.

I think not serve anything, mechanics Coagulant injector has nothing to measure .

I have been measuring the battery voltage .

always with dipped beam or main beam .

I put the fan heating to maximum and turn the thermal window, to have a high consumption, relenti begins to 13.2V and after a few minutes I get to 11.9V , then in gear began in 13,2V and rose to 13 , 7V fast , later he stayed at 14V . climbed no more .

an hour after stopping the engine battery was 12,72V

other prueva with the lights off and it all off, a idle being 13.8V and 14V remains , in gear stays between 14V and 14.2V

I think the alternator works well .

With many cars, you get one (or two) times to press on the brake and get normal assist - but then you need to turn the engine on again.

For YEARS I drove cars with no power steering, no power brakes, no power windows, no power seats, no power mirrors and no power. :D

Me thinks some of you are just weenies. Lol!


As to the original post; I've been coasting in neutral (clutch in) for as long as I can remember. It SUBSTANTUALLY increases coasting distances and has probably been my most effective tool for increasing my average mpg's. :turtle:

I'd love to see a comparison between coasting in gear with fuel cut vs. coasting in neutral for a set distance/time; say 1/2mi coast coming to a stop (an easy feat to manage in daily driving). Use the 'neutral coast' as the baseline since the coasting distances are so far. For the 'fuel cut'; coast down to a set speed (maybe 1/2 your original cruising speed?) and then maintain it so as to arrive at that stop (1/2mi away) in the same amount of time as the 'neutral' test (to help eliminate 'average speed' as a variable; you could coast the entire way but the 'fuel-cut' car would take a LOT longer to get there) I'd be really curious to see which is the more efficient coast-down method. :thumbup:

I do not quite enterderlo .
My level of English is poor.

I have no way to prove it , I can not measure consumption.

I 'm testing the neutral , I tried turning off the engine idling in some places, in some places works well in other sites with large declines or curves, it is dangerous.

When I'm in neutral with the engine off is better:

Can we give the key to start the engine.

Do you put a high gear , release the clutch in , start the engine, and switch to a shorter gear.

What is better?

the key to safe EOC (or any driving, much less eco-driving) is looking and thinking ahead. You should never run out of brake vacuum because braking shouldn't be a surprise- it's the driver's responsibility to restart before running out. Other things like power steering are in the same category- if you might suddenly need it, you should have your engine on anyway.

Come on, CAPTAIN. A car with a non power system is probably easier to steer than a car with a power system that is currently unpowered.

I agree with Fat Charlie on the fact that Power Steering is really hard to use when it is unpowered vs manual steering. I've tried both, and the Manual Steering isn't that hard to use, just takes a little more power. But unpowered Power Steering takes all of my strength to turn the wheels slightly!

:turtle: OH yes..., this I have done many times, drive my car/van or truck with engine in neutral and coasted many miles this way!

PROBLEM IS that driver HAS to be VERY quick at the controls and a connossieur of traffic!
Connossieur of your OWN vehicle and what it can do in PANIC stops and turns.

1. Problem with the alternator is that @ 800rpm's it is usually NOT enough to actuate the diode to engage charging
2. Problem with car OFF is that air in brake system is lost usually after 3-4 brake applications(as stated previously by other poster(s)).
3. Problem is being IN control and being able to re-initiate engine PREVIOUS to need, takes practice in open spaces without any other vehicles around.

Driving downhill is good in gear if accelerator is not engaged, VERY little fuel is used/if any, specially in your diesel.

herbepower, INSTALL a cutoff or kill switch on the gear shifter. MUCH easier and simple, instructions and members D.I.Y's(doing it yourself) have PICS. here. Good luck!:thumbup:

My statement was made entirely tongue-in-cheek. It is most certainly easier to dive a vehicle designed with a proper manual steering system vs. a power steering setup that is inactive (engine off).
I have driven both though, numerous times, and never felt 'unsafe'. Even in the old 3/4 ton truck I had with a faulty power steering pump (I removed the belt due to massive leakage) it was manageable at any speed beyond a crawl; parking it was a whole nother story though! :D
Still, what it boils down to though is if you feel 'unsafe' then it's not worth the risk to save the tiny amount of fuel EOC will save you.

This is part of being a competent (and courteous) driver. Seems obvious that one should drive differently when surrounded by heavy traffic, than a mountain road where the next car might be miles away.

Don't pump the brakes. Instead, just press lightly to match the degree of braking you need, and hold.

Shouldn't every driver just lightly use the brakes, even when the car is on? Personally I think running in DFCO would be better than EOC. If you think that within the time that the car is off you will need to use the brakes and then start up again, keep the car running in DFCO or neutral coasting until that point of DFCO. I wouldn't EOC in suburban driving where there are cars constantly turning in and out of parking lots (which is most of my driving) but I would do it on state highways where the speed limit is low and there isn't that much traffic.

Sure, but that's something different. I was trying to point out that power brakes only use vacuum from the resevoir to increase braking force. If you hold a steady pressure on the pedal, no vacuum is used, and very little is used if you just change the pressure slightly.

Sure, but that's something different. I was trying to point out that power brakes only use vacuum from the resevoir to increase braking force. If you hold a steady pressure on the pedal, no vacuum is used, and very little is used if you just change the pressure slightly.

Oh I'm with you on that. The car shouldn't be EOCing for more than 3 or 4 friction brake presses. If it is, then either you are moving through heavy traffic or you didn't plan far enough ahead.

My car's power brakes don't work that way, if I touch the pedal I can hear the "hiss" sound and the vacuum will be depleted within seconds.

I just learned how to control the car without power brakes and ABS, it's not that hard.

Could be you have a problem with your system, maybe a leak or cracked hose? I've never heard a hissing noise from any power brake system.

I dunno, it doesn't hiss when the brake isn't being pressed and doesn't use any vacuum that way. When the engine is on the brakes work just fine, pedal feel is pretty light.

It's not so much of a hiss as it is like the sound of a person breathing through a straw.

Sounds like something's wrong with the brake booster or the hose to it

Get that fixed and you should get at least a couple of pumps of the brakes with the motor off

I used to use one long, light braking action when I was driving the Black Widow, and very rarely did I run out of brakes. Once or twice I had to key it back on, but not once did it cause any kind of emergency stop.

You can also use the e-brake for assist if you have a handle, not a pedal.