Most of the time I dont, I let go of the gas for a moment to lose speed then smooth stop on the brakes. Unless I will be riding on a lower speed for a while. You are decelerating anyways so I dont see a reason why its bad since you're not requiring any power on your high gear.

 

I dont recommend putting it in neutral though when stopping, well not too early just for safety reasons, it might look safe 95% of the time but who knows, but then it also depends on how quick you are to shift. And especially when you're running high speeds then putting it at neutral to stop will wear out your brakes faster.

 

then it will give me an excuse to upgrade my brakes

 

Funny thing about oil is that it provides the best lubrication at higher engine speeds and not so good lubrication at really low speeds. So lugging your engine may get more energy out of the fuel you are burning but the lubrication by the oil is less and that includes the transmission gearing too. For those who have a MPG computer try coasting in neutral and then rev the engine to 1000 - 2000 - 3000 - 4000 rpm and watch the fuel consumption climb like crazy just spinning the engine. That is where the fuel is going when you shift at higher RPMs. Don't forget that you tC is throttle by wire also and the ECU is really controlling the burning of the fuel and should pick a pretty good throttle position to maintain a good clean burn of the fuel.

 

I don't want to hijack the thread - we can take it into a new thread if you'd like.

No driving at extremely slow speeds...I average the speed limit or a bit above.

 

I wouldn't be putting the car in neutral and dropping it back in gear above 55mph. The thing about wearing out the brakes, you just need to get used to a practice called smart breaking. Hypermiling actually extends the life of the brakes ironically!

 

I did not say putting the car in neutral then back to gear. Im talking about going to a full stop by not downshifting. And how do you define smart Breaking?
Putting the car in neutral when going to a stop is (1) risky (2) especially at high speeds will wear your brakes since neutral doesnt make the car lose speed easily as much leaving it in gear so you will have to apply brakes earlier and harder to stop (on neutral).

 

what i mean is: when u see a redlight and u start to slow down, u stepon the brake BUT DONT start to downshift to 4th gear.. then 3rd.. then 2nd and back to st gear....


or

dont downshift to 2nd gear from 5th gear because your engine is gonna rev up and u are the man with the big muffler, u know what i mean? u wasting gas like that.

whatever gear your car is in, dont downshift.. u can put it in neutral and just roll or u can do it what i said::: just step on the brake do not touch the shiftknob until i slow down until your car is gonna struggle... dont let your car struggle.. learn when your would do that.. and keep that in your head and before that point depress the clucth, put it in neutral...

who told me this?? well.. not my 60 year old papa who learned to drive in the last century...............

 

To time the red light you want to arrive at the green light with as much speed as possible thus saving gas and that can mean engine braking up to the light so the injectors are not injecting any fuel and maybe braking a little to kill some speed as soon as possible to time the arrival at the green. Tapping the gas between gears to down shift will waste some fuel and really is not needed unless you have a lot of speed to loose or are dealing with a steep hill. Darn those stop lights at the bottom of hills huh! So by maintaining consistant speed without stopping you can save a lot of fuel.

Leaving Newport to Tiverton I happen to catch all the lights green this week and ended up getting 48mpg for the 19 mile trip when I usually get 45- 46 mpg if I hit a few reds. And this is in an xB.

 

Unsafe , i can agree but wearing the brakes, who cares ! So your telling me you would rather wear down the clutch instead of the brakes ?

 

Wearing clutch? i dont think i mentioned to do clutch riding. Im responding to the guy who mentioned he put it on neutral before a stop (no downshifting). When you put it on neutral you dont hold down the clutch right? so no unecessary wear on clutch right there, only with brakes (due to stopping at high speed on neutral position), If you press and hold on the clutch though too early or long before you need to approaching a full stop then you abusing your clutch.

 

Sorry misread it. I thought you meant it was better to downshift all gears, blahhh.

 

^^ yup i figured out. But thanks for bringing it up, just to let beginners know, clutch riding is not good, you might find it useful at first but dont make it a habit

 

I never stay in gear while proceeding to a full stop - always neutral with ICE-On or ICE-Off.

Smart breaking is about anticipating the environment. In other words, if I'm approaching a stop light in light traffic, I'll lightly break way ahead of time hoping that by the time I reach the light it will be turning green...and in turn wasting less fuel.

I completely agree about wearing the brakes if coming to a stop at high speed in neutral. I'll throw my car in N way ahead of time if I anticipate a stop coming up...I won't do it going 55 w/a stop coming up quickly - I'd rather engine brake.

 

Never ride your clutch when the car is in motion!!! I try to minimize my contact with the clutch at all times.

 

you can save gas by coasting on neutral and with the engine off going down hill.

the power steering and the power brakes (master cylinder) works better with the engine off. They just rob you horsepower.

 

lol so you turn off the engine whe going downhill?

 

yeah that doesn't sound to smart but that's just my opinion

 

Correctly down shifting shouldn't hurt the clutch at all.

 

You would be using the clutch x2 then me which over time will wear it faster.