Lately I've been putting my automatic truck into neutral when going down long big hills and then shifting it back to drive when I need to get going again. Is this bad at all for my transmission and is it saving me any gas?

 

i do it with my truck, but my truck is standard.

 

I used to do it a lot in my old truck which was a manual, but I just want to make sure I'm not hurting the auto tranny because I plan on keeping this truck and don't want to run into tranny problems.

 

i know a guy that does that with a manual trans all the time, i figure its fine with an auto too as long as you put it in drive before you brings the rpms back up, usually just letting off the gas in those situations helps me get way better mileage

 

I have a friend that did that with his auto in his honda, and he said his trans. got screwed up. I dont think it would be a good idea to do it all the time, but im not an expert on that kind of thing by any means.

 

I'm not going to chance it unless I get some more ok's from you guys. thanks to you all for the input.

 

When I use to do that in my 5 speed saturn which was my vehicle before the ranger.. I would always put it in - N - on the huge long hills.. I remember bringing the revs up before letting the clutch out again in 5th gear or else it would be jerky.

As for putting it in - N - on my auto ranger on the hills, it seems to go over really smoothly with no jerky action at all.. I usually put it in Neutral on the last hill before my driveway and drift all the way in the driveway.

Once when I was young and stupid I did that in my dad's truck (96' GMC Sierra 4x4 at the time) and instead of putting it back into drive, I put it in and out of park real fast and the truck shut off, no power steering, no brakes, nothing.. I basically pooped on the spot. No damage done though - started right up again... haha, oh the things i've done.

 

I suggest not to do it. Its not going to save you much more gas.

 

I wouldn't do it. Doubt it'll save you enough money on gas to afford a new tranny.

 

Nope i wouldn't do either. I just shift my truck outta overdrive into drive. That seems to help alittle bit.

 

i do it, in fact i do it when i am coasting to stops also on all types of roads.

 

Using neutral downhill is definitely illegal in California where I learned to drive. It probably is in most other states too. I never do it.

Besides, if you let completely off the throttle for more than a few seconds while coasting in gear, the injectors shut off to save fuel. They don't start operating again until you open the throttle or reach a minimum RPM (something like 1500 approximately).

So, rolling down a long hill in gear with the throttle closed can actually use slightly less fuel than shifting to neutral and letting the engine idle.

 

Plus if something happens and you need to power out of an emergency you don't have to fiddle with your shifter. I get out of a lot more bad situations by using my gas then using my brakes.
I would not do it.
You would save a lot more gas by not doing jackrabbit starts, using engine braking, driving at even speeds and not passing someone to get to the next exit. Things that many drivers do and then complain about gas mileage.

 

If you're going to base this off the majority of yes or no's on here. I'll just help you and your transmission out......no.

As mentioned above, you won't save enough gas money for a new tranny. Just keep driving normally in gear.

 

I would say bad for the truck, do not do it
even for the manual drivers you do not have as much control over a free wheeling truck as one in gear
no matter how good of a manual driver you are each engagement of the clutch (unless PERFECTLY matched in RPM with the engine) creates heat and wear on the plate

 

don't do it.....bad for the tranny when it gets the sudden shock of being put back into drive......and what if you go too far and you put it in reverse? now talk about bad for the tranny.....

 

 

not only could it cause damage, but think of it this way, when desending a big hill, you can shift your truck for D to '2' and that will give u more braking power. the big thing here is your relying 100% on the fact that your brakes with stop u. once they get red hot, their no longer effective. your MUCH better off using the engine and transmission to slow the truck down. since u can actually manually downshift your auto, so u get more engine braking which is more effective than brakes alone.

Me and dad learned this the hard way.... we used to take our boat up into niagra county for winter storage..... so, his E350 at 13,000lbs, + 10,000lbs for the boat and trailer, + 1/2 miles hill with a red light at the bottom..... dad, used to rely 100% on the brakes... well one year, that light at the bottom turned red, the trailer brakes were tugging at the truck, and the speedo was reading 60 in a 30 LOL needless to say we didnt stop for the light LOL! after that incident, we began downshifting the truck from D to 2 and that pretty much solved that problem.

 

i would say with a manual, it is fine, with an auto.............heck NO

 

Manual or automatic, why would you ever use neutral downhill?

It is potentially dangerous.
It is illegal in most states, maybe all.
It uses the same or more fuel than coasting in gear.

 

I'm wondering if people are reading your previous post. For me that settles the issue altogether (because of the fact that the injectors shut off).

Anyways, I appreciated your post, thanks.

 

It seemed to me that they hadn't so I restated it - shorter and simpler.

 

If you had a Dodge or something from the 50's or something that had the torqueflight trans. with the push buttons to change gears........I've heard stories that people that had those would go down the road at like 60mph, and put it in reverse and mash the gas, the tires would light up backwards while your going forward.......tough transmissions!

 

i used too, but i went past N into reverse for half a second and that ended that... plus i idle at the same rpms either way...

 

I read somewhere that the manual tranny has the oil pump on the driveshaft side of the tranny so it supplies oil to the tranny whenever the truck is moving. But this was for towing up to 55mph. But again why would you.