Is it bad for the car if I put it in neutral when going down a long, steep hill?

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Amused
If a car is going to stall, it most likely will while idling.


If you idle your car during descents or coasting, and the car stalls, you lose power steering and brakes.

Actually I'm shocked no one has pointed this out. This IS the reason it is illegal.

 

[isekii]

Wouldn't coasting in Neutral fock with the air that gets taken into the engine ?

I know on the IS300, if you coast neutral down a hill( 5 speed ), the car will turn off.

 

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Amused
If a car is going to stall, it most likely will while idling.


If you idle your car during descents or coasting, and the car stalls, you lose power steering and brakes.

Actually I'm shocked no one has pointed this out. This IS the reason it is illegal.

Begging for attention are we? 😉

The thread is about wear and tear on the car, not the legalities of it.

 

[Triumph]

There is nothing wrong with what the OP is doing.

 

[element]

Originally posted by: isekii
Wouldn't coasting in Neutral fock with the air that gets taken into the engine ?

I know on the IS300, if you coast neutral down a hill( 5 speed ), the car will turn off.

Are you serious? I've never tried this but doesn't the car idle with a hot cat every time you come to a stop? Then the car would stall everytime you stopped at a red light?

I am not understanding some part of this someone pls explain.

How is coasting in neutral (engine at idle) any different than idling at a stop light in neutral or in gear as far as the engine is concerned?

 

[funboy6942]

If you want to save your clutch you need to learn how to shift gears without the clutch. I do it all the time in my cars and trucks I drove. There is a way that when you let off the gas you can pull it out or gear and then the syncros will line up and it will slip righ into the next gear. The only time I really used my clutch was for first and reverse.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: Mill

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
As a rule, never coast in neutral..i have always been told that by my dad. He has a permernent german licence.

OMG!!!11!1!!!1 Not a permanent German license. I guess that means no other answers can be accepted.

I'm not gonna say anything... but you're being a dick.

Mill's right though.

 

[AkumaX]

so youre saying everytime you guys slow down you guys always downshift and rev match?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: thermalpaste

Do you know how a 3 way catalytic convertor works? There are 3 chambers where the exhaust gases are re-circulated and thrown out after being processed by a catalyst. When you drive your car, there is enough force for the exhaust gases to be thrown out. When your car is on idle after a bit of driving, the cat con is already hot. Now the idle speed means that the gases take a longer time to come out. This increases the temperature of the cat-con and reduces it's life in the long run. WHen you start your car in the cold, the cat con is cold and takes time to reach it's operating temperature so you are not damaging it.

My friend, the reason a catalytic converter gets so hot is that the reactions it catalyzes are exothermic. When you are idling, fewer gases are reacting, therefore less heat is evolved. If you were right, catalytic converters would melt right off of the bottom of cars when they were left at idle for too long.

 

[Falloutboy]

depending on your car it could be quite bad to do it alot. on some trannies when the car is in neutral turn off the pump to lubricate the tranny and even when your car is in neutral parts in the tranny are still spinning. not all cars have this problem though

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: jagec

The only real time when it's necessary/helpful to coast in neutral is when you're out of gas and going down a hill to the nearest station.

This is inaccurate, and in fact the opposite is true. It's a common misconception, however. If you are driving a car with electronic fuel injection (as most of us are), it will use less gas coasting in gear than in neutral.

In gear, the motion of the wheels, fed through the transmission, is plenty to keep the engine spinning when the car is coasting downhill, so the EFI will not pass any gas at all to the engine. If you coast in neutral, the EFI will feed a small amount of gas to keep the engine running at idle.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: jagec
It's not bad for your car, but it does cause a bit more wear on your brakes since there's no engine braking.

Why would it save your clutch? The ONLY time the clutch gets worn is when you're engaging or disengaging it (primarily when engaging it).

So unless you revmatch before putting it back in gear at the end of the hill, you're actually wearing the clutch down MORE. Not much more, of course.

The only real time when it's necessary/helpful to coast in neutral is when you're out of gas and going down a hill to the nearest station.

uh. what part of stop and go don't you understand? if he just going to magically leave the clutch out when he stops? every single time he stops he'll be saving himself at least one clutch engage/disengage.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
not sure i see the point. the engine is spinning either way. i think this was answered on cartalk.com or the radioshow. engine might work harder to keep running with no load.

yeah cause when you're doing no work, you have to work harder. :roll:

come on people, think about it. all this crap about mismatched transmission speeds and stuff is baloney. how is something going to get worn out more by spinning if it's not even touching anything than if it is connected to something that is exhibiting a giant force on it?

you're not going to save gas by coasting in neutral (engine uses the same regardless, assuming you don't touch the accelerator, or even less when engine braking) but you will save clutch wear and you will also save your leg, and really, the gas savings would be neglible either way.

i love car talk, but listen to their reasons. none of them apply to this situation. his brakes are not going to overheat going 5 MPH in a modern car, nor is his engine going to magically die unless his car is in really bad shape. and he's not going to "pick up speed in a hurry" because if he did, he'd be plastered all over the back of an SUV. the other post is completely irrelevant because they are talking about AUTOMATIC transmissions, and yes, it's bad for them to go in and out of neutral all the time, but a manual goes in and out every time you shift, which he would be doing a lot MORE of if he was putting it in gear every time he went another 5 feet.

the comment about "focking" with the air coming into the engine is also bullsh!t. i once drove a civic (mileage ~ 150,000) about 20 miles downhill in neutral and guess what? it didn't die! wow! amazing! and the brakes worked! crazy! and the steering? it worked too! WHOA! not only that, but for the OP, we're talking about 5-15 MPH, here, not 70. THINK! that's what you have a brain for!

the catalytic convertor story is pure crap, too. if that was true, every car stuck in traffic or waiting to get out of a concert or drive-through line would have a broken cat.

now on the flip side of this, my cousin damn near killed herself when she left her jeep in gear going around a very steep corner in the mountains. because the engine wasn't in neutral, it slowed to a near stop, causing the power steering to fail in the middle of the corner. now what's more dangerous?

people assume there's some end-all be-all way to drive stick and there really isn't because a good driver modifies what he's doing according to the conditions. if you think this through with your head instead of parroting half-truths and irrelevant information, you'll see what the OP is doing in HIS situation is probably the most convenient thing to do and probably causes the least wear on his car. keep in mind that a new clutch costs a hell of a lot more than brake pads.

 

[phreakah]

i do this all the time on the 405N/S in LA going into the valley..... the traffic is usually stopped or the traffic is usually going fast enough to where i can go downhill and maintain 60+mph in neutral

 

[element]

bah switching to neutral is not that bad, not as bad as they make it seem especially in this situation. But it's unnecessary.

Know what IS bad? And I see people do this all the time....switching to neutral at a red light. If someone hits your ass you're going to end up in the middle of the intersection where you'll get smashed again sideways. Of course that's what you're brakes are for but if you lighten up on your brakes and are not on an incline you might not notice that you're too light on the brake pedal to stop you from ending up in the middle of the intersection if you get nailed from behind.

But still even that case is a rare occurance so who cares. Too much mental masturbation round here with less than endowed individuals. (read: clueless noobs spouting misinformation)

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: SampSon

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Amused
If a car is going to stall, it most likely will while idling.


If you idle your car during descents or coasting, and the car stalls, you lose power steering and brakes.

Actually I'm shocked no one has pointed this out. This IS the reason it is illegal.

Begging for attention are we? 😉

The thread is about wear and tear on the car, not the legalities of it.

Why yes, yes I am. 😱

Anyhow, I would consider crashing and killing yourself because your power steering and brakes went out "wear and tear" on a car, wouldn't you?

It's illegal for a valid reason. Not just because some yahoo didn't like people doing it. 🙂