Toyota RAV4 2003. Looking on a hypermiling site, they recommended coasting in neutral like coming up to red light. I have an auto trans, tried it a RPM’s go to 1000. My brother says that doing so will ruin my trans. Any thoughts on this?
This will not harm your transmission. Nor will it save you in fuel costs. Your computer will deliver about the same amount of gas whether you coast in gear or in neutral. It uses the TPS (throttle position sensor) to shut down fuel flow to a minimum in either case.
But you do have the right idea, that of letting off on the gas pedal as soon as you see you will have to stop. Coast to the stop leaving your transmission in D. That should handle fuel economy matters.
This question is asked here over and over and over. Did you search? It’s common courtesy.
You will save no gas (it’s more than a simple matter of the engine slowing down), and you have somewhat less control over the vehicle in an emergency. I see no up side to doing this.
You should check you manual and check with the dealer on dingy towing. If you car is approved for dingy towing (towing behind an RV with 4 wheels on the ground in neutral) then coasting should not hurt your car.
I don’t know how well this works with an auto. I have a 96 T-100. My truck is a manual. I went from 18mpg to 24 mpg by coasting with the clutch in. Thats a 30% increase. If your car is approved for dingy towing give it a try and let us know what you find. That would be better than these knucle heads who just give you their uninformed oppinions without really experimenting to find out!
That won’t give a definitive answer. Towing is done with the towed vehicle’s engine off, thus the transmission pump isn’t working. Coasting with the engine running and the transmission in neutral may or may not cause the pump to stop pumping. Most likely, there will be no damage.
There is no way coasting alone increased your fuel economy that much, unless you were previously in the habit of stomping on the gas while going down hills.