Coasting struggles

[gpfaster]

2001 Saturn sc1 keeps on rolling. I am having troubles judging my distances to get under 20km/h when rolling up to stops that I know are coming up. Most of my drive to work is rural with light traffic and rolling slightly hilly terrain, so i dont really have other drivers affecting me. Is this just going to be an aquired skill that i need to practise? Frustrating to be consistently turning fuel into brake dust.. any tips / advice are appreciated.

[JockoT]

When you drive the same commute every day, as I do, I found it just a matter of trying to approach at the same initial speed then lifting off a bit earlier each day until you get it right. No point in approaching at 50 mph today and 60 mph tomorrow, and hoping that lifting off at the same spot will get you to the hazard at the same speed. I don't mind if I find I slow down a bit too much. Just means I have to get on the gas a bit earlier, to clear the hazard. Better that than having to brake.
Don't be afraid to use a low gear to slow you down. This brings in DFCO, which is even better than coasting for fuel efficiency.
I don't mind braking as long as I am below 20 mph. 20 km/h is a bit low for me. But if traffic allows, the slower the better.

[gpfaster]

Makes sense. I'll modify what I'm doing and try less clutch in coasting more dfco. That alone will help for a couple of my turns and intersections. Will have some realtime instrumentation shortly so that will help me figure stuff out a bit.. Thanks for the input

[Fat Charlie]

Welcome to the fun!

Yep, everything's situational: with this car, I want to approach that light by cresting this small rise at this many mph. And then traffic, weather and lighting conditions screw everything up for you.

It'll be a whole different world once you get instrumentation. The only change I'd recommend is skipping the "clutch in" and simply using neutral as another gear. You'll be better able to focus on actual driving when your foot position isn't so critical.

[JockoT]

I stick the car in neutral rather than clutch in. My wife, a non driver, thinks the car has a 15 speed gearbox!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by gpfaster

Most of my drive to work is rural with light traffic and rolling slightly hilly terrain, so i dont really have other drivers affecting me.

Well, aren't you lucky!

That pretty much sums up my usual driving environment as well.

Is this just going to be an aquired skill that i need to practise? Frustrating to be consistently turning fuel into brake dust.. any tips / advice are appreciated.

The others are right: it just comes with time. You might even make mental notes of landmarks where you begin coasting before certain stops, and fine-tuning it each day.

After a while, when you get it dialled in, you'll become sensitive to external effects that change your coasting distance, eg: as colder weather approaches, your rolling resistance will start to go up. Or on wet roads or windy days you'll notice a difference as well.

[JockoT]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

After a while, when you get it dialled in, you'll become sensitive to external effects that change your coasting distance, eg: as colder weather approaches, your rolling resistance will start to go up. Or on wet roads or windy days you'll notice a difference as well.

I'll second that. I find that if I come up short on the first coast they will probably all be like that that day. So you can adjust accordingly. Knowing when to coast and when to DFCO is quickly learned, and as MetroMPG says, use landmarks (changes to the road surface, signs, lamp posts, garden gates).

[ecocruze]

It's funny how sensitive you become to the wind and even the slightest amount of water on the road. I started guessing wind direction and speed on my trips to and from work. Turns out I'm pretty accurate on both now.

Anyways land marking will be the best way to get things locked down. Soon you won't even pay attention to the land marks anymore. You will start to notice what kind of grade you are on by your acceleration or deceleration and it will translate into your driving everywhere. Drives my wife nuts coasting into stop signs and lights. Using DFCO really gets her going when I'm timing a light. Rather than aggressive braking to time it I always hit up the engine braking. Little stink eye when I do that but hey it's the essence of ecomomodding.

[JockoT]

Originally Posted by 14'ecocruze

Drives my wife nuts coasting into stop signs and lights.

My wife is the same. This morning, for the first time, she said to me, "why are you crawling along". I pointed out to her that the lights ahead were at red, there was no one behind me, and with DFCO I was showing 9,999 mpg on my ScanGauge.
She promptly shut up!

[gpfaster]

Got the torque app up and running. No apparent effects of dfco with this car. Bit of googling and it appears that it'll only initialize in some very specific circumstances, none of which I'm encountering. Rev count over 2500 is one of them which is above the peak of the torque curve of this engine I never see it lol.. I had already planned to wire in a injector off switch so that will take care of that anyways.. Also apparent is the fact that I thought I was a smooth steady driver until some instrumentation told me otherwise.. Need to cut back the caffeine a bit