is it illegal to coast in neutral?

people, its pretty common sense you know! AS LONG AS THE DRIVER KNOWS WHAT HE DOES, THEN ITS HIS PERSONAL CHOICE. I do agree though with Auslander about the tips on using the neutral.Besides, putting the car in neutral is not DANGEROUS! Except only if you are in a inclined state.(DUH) Then thats dangerous. But other than that, its all good! I bet you people who are saying that u shouldn't put your car in neutral haven't driven a manual car yet. (mostly all automatics)

 

More...duh...isn't this discussion about manual transmissions?? Personally, I've never owned anything but... Do automatic drivers ever think about their gears other than putting it in park. And, yes ...again....we are talking about inclines....how else can you coast at speeds....!!!??? I'm glad I'll never be your passenger...hill or no hill. ;-)

From the "University of Hard Knocks"....things that do downhill run themselves....things that go up must be pushed. Applicable...to cars and discussions... ;-)

 

@cowhand

No ones implying you do anything like that. Auslander even clearly stated...

cowhand I strongly suggest you take a manual trans car for a drive, and see what it is like. People with manual trannies are in more control of their car then most people.

 

I guess you missed this "I've never owned anything but..." I've driven a manual daily for 40 years. ;-) We can only be talking about inclines...when talking about speed and danger! I'm amazed, here....

I'm hearing alot of teenager holdover....no one is EVER in control of everything. If the 'unexpected' happens you cannot react fast enough to get the car back into gear and regain control. I KNOW someone who was in a bad accident while coasting. Laws are made for people who lack good judgement on their own.

More comments from elsewhere:


"It's illegal because it's dangerous. You have less control of a vehicle when it's not in gear. You can't accelerate and the brake booster is not as effective when there is no load on the engine."


"Thanks guys, it's pretty common sense to see it isn't the safest thing in the world. It does sound silly at first, but once you think about it it makes sense. Oh, and another very strong point I forgot to mention is that your engine can stall while moving if you aren't in gear(hit a bump or other reasons). I don't know if you've ever driven a car before, but that's not good. The steering locks, the brakes lose power assist, etc. "

" The steering wheel shouldn't lock as long as the key is still in the ON postion. Otherwise that would really suck! "

"you actually burn gas if you coast in nuetral because fuel is being injected to keep the engine at idle. if you coast while you are in gear you do not burn gas because the momentum is keeping the revs above the stall point."

" here is a better explenation by someone else;

When you let off the gas while in gear, the injectors shut off. placing the car in neutral will cause you to waste gas. The reason is that if the engine was in neutral the it would have to pick up the idle or else the engine will stall. Picking up the idle uses up gas.

You can easily see this if you had an exhaust gas temperature gauge. Travelling at freeway speeds net around 710C temps, and if you let off the throttle, the temps drop rapidly down below 500. If instead you just put it in neutral all of a sudden, the temps do not drop as fast because the engine is burning fuel to maintain an idle."

"You definately use less fuel when coasting IN gear rather than neutral in the wrx anyway. I have a PSI3 guage and when you let off the throttle the injector duty cycle goes to ZERO, notta, zilch. No fuel is being injected so your motor isn't loading up.

I notice that on a downhill grade the coolant temp actually goes UP when coasting in neutral. I suppose it is due to the water pump turning slower than it would be in gear,so you're not allowing it to circulate the coolant that is getting cooled by the rush of air through the radiator"


http://www.cqdx.gov.cn/ye/topic-409872.html

 

Yupp, I man up and admit when I'm wrong, so here I am. While coasting in neutral lowers the rpm your engine is operating at, slightly reducing engine wear, it still requires enough fuel to keep the engine idling. When you take your foot off the gas in a modern vehicle and let it decelerate in gear, the fuel injectors are shut off and no fuel is used. The momentum of the vehicle keeps the engine internals spinning and the only thing coming out of your exhaust is air. You save your breaks a little with this engine braking, but probably negate this small savings with an equally small amount of engine wear.

Not telling you what to do, you guys are the drivers, but you will save more fuel by leaving it in gear.

I apologize for my misinformation and hope it caused no one any problems. However, except for the gas savings remarks, I do stand by all my other comments.

 

lol, hey Aus. replying a bit late there buddy

 

Meh, it was a response that needed to be made. I like to leave the record correct.

 

Good point. Well see ya around the forums.

 

I know who you're talking about. He won a hypermile-er award for getting a hybrid to do 140 mpg. Alot of his driving is not only very dangerous, however, but also very illegal.

 

Ha, yeah, it escapes me at the moment. He's a kook, but it's still cool he can do that.

I think about the best an average person can do to save gas is keep their tires inflated, aligned, and rotated, keep the car clean, drive with a light foot and little dead weight, and of course: carpool!