QUOTE:
I remember push-starting cars with automatic transmissions. I recall most cars had rear pumps in the auto trans up through the early-to-mid 60’s. UNQUOTE
I have a 59 T-bird condition about 9 out of 10 which has the rear tranny pump. The owners manual which I do have states “vehicle can be towed up to 50 miles at a speed of no more that 35 mph” or must be towed with rear wheels off the ground or have the drive shaft disconnected.
Yes you can push start this car. You only need to get her up to 20 mph turn ignition on and drop it
into “L” or D2. D2 was recommended for snowy or slick roads. Car still has the old fashioned generator so will even push start with a “dead battery” as no alternator to excite.
Now, you’re coasting down a long steep mountian in neutral and you have an engine failure. You now lose PS and the power brakes. Most automatics will stay engaged if your engine quits ( if going fast enough ) which will keep the engine turning maintaining PS & PB’s as the drivetrain is still connected.
Shifting down one gear does not put anymore wear on the engine or tranny. When climbing a mountian doesn’t the tranny downshift to a lower gear with increased engine rpm’s if you have slightly underpowerd car to maintain the speed limit ?
When I lived in NJ I used to travel to PA a lot and had this one mountian with a 14% grade about 2 miles long.
I had a 76 Maverick with the 302 and I had to use the “2” position on the downgrade or it was constantly applying the brakes. I put over 140k on the car and never had a tranny or engine problem doing this about once a week.
About 3/4 of the way down they had a runaway road which you could turn off which had stones piled up like speed bumps that went up hill to stop you.
One the top of the grade going down hill there was a warning and a STOP sign for all trucks to STOP and use a low gear and to try and maintain 20 mph where the speed limit was 55.
YES . . . it is “bad” to coast for miles with an automatic. Dangerous for you and other drivers and harmful to the transmission of the vehicle. Don’t do it. Rocketman
with occasional brief braking to avoid over speed limit.
Besides the already-discussed transmission damage and possible hazard of not being able to accelerate in an emergency (until you shift into gear), you run the risk of overheating the brakes. At best, you warp the disc rotors. At worst, you boil the brake fluid and completely lose the brakes. Long distance coasting is a bad idea, especially as it saves very little, if any, gas.
Is it possible to wring 48 mpg out of an Accord? Apparently, yes, if one wishes to drive a car in an extremely dangerous, irresponsible manner and to force one’s passengers to travel in discomfort.
After reading about this guy’s gas-saving technique, all I can say is that no sane person would drive like that. This guy is saving money at the expense of his safety, his passengers’ safety, and the safety of everyone else who is unfortunate enough to have to share the road with him.
I think the consensus is that the potential loss of control and the potential damage to the drivetrain make it unsafe and not worth trying. I happen to agree with that consensus.
wow really so that mother jones article was just a bunch of B.S and everybody on forums from various websites are just lying about their extremely high average MPG over many miles?. Well i just have to say that i, to some extent, “hypermile” on our country roads to and from work and have increased my mpg of my jetta from 25ish to between 30 and 35 mpg and at $4 a gallon (what it is here) for gas i save approx $10 a tank. while i only accelerate a lot slower and coast in neutral to stop signs, i’ve been doing it since i had about 30,000 mi on it and have yet to have any tranny problems (127,245mi) in fact thats pretty much the only thing on my car that hasn’t had problems(roof liner is falling down,stereo buttons stopped working,power door unlock wouldn’t work, and my passenger window wouldn’t roll down). my mother also does it and has yet to have problems on her 98 Chrysler Concorde (187,000mi) so i’ll take my chances considering where 2 for 2 and know people who don’t do it and have had car problems. and yes they’re automatics
My early 80s benz automatics have rear pumps and can be push started, I’m not sure about the new ones.
Coasting down those hills is pointless, you need to touch the brakes occasionally with the car in drive to maintain speed. Any modern engine will use very little fuel under those conditions.
I’ve been coasting downhills and to stop signs in neutral in my 05 Explorer for about two months now, and I have increased mpg from 16 to 21. I am saving over $15 for every 20 gallons of gas I use now, when you live paycheck to paycheck that extra money really adds up. When I shift from neutral back into drive at low rpms the shift is smooth and quiet and I don’t forsee any problems that it could have on the trans. As far as the handling and control, where is the concern here? The vehicle behaves in exactly the same way it does in drive, without the extra drag on the motor. As far as emergency situations, how is it different from someone who’s driving a standard shift, and having to change gears to achieve sudden burst of acceleration. For now I’m a believer and will continue to drive this way unless gas ever becomes affordable again.
The last I checked, coasting in neutral is also illegal in Virginia.
Oh, and I would think it is enforceable, to wit:
Officer at traffic stop: Why were you driving so fast?
Driver: Oh, well, you see, officer, I was trying to a good citizen, saving gas by coasting in neutral, and I guess the car coasted a little faster than I thought…
Officer takes driver’s credentials back to his cruiser and does his thing.
Officer returns with a nice ticket for both speeding and coasting in neutral.
I spent the '09 -'10 ski season going up long grades (heating up the transmission) and then coasting down the other side on I-70 and other Colorado mountain crossings. My new car’s transmission failed at 40k miles. If the manual says “don’t tow in neutral,” it also infers don’t coast in neutral. I wish I knew that.