Get 5 to 15MPG BETTER than you are now, INSTANTLY.

[jimbo40]

Here's one you'll NOT see on the news or in the media.
Go out into the country and find one of those signs that say's
Danger buried High pressure petroleum pipeline, you know , the one that's pumping 6000 gpm. Well you tap into that puppy and veola no more Miles per gallon worries, in fact no more worries period

[jimbo40]

I don't know about the rest of the stuff he mentioned, but I can actually vouch about the shifting to neutral.

Especially on my '93 Sentra that's got well over 200,000Km on it (almost 300,000Km now), the engine is starting to show its age. Even thought I'm still getting 30mpg on it already, shifting it to neutral actually keeps the engine in check. It puts less strain on the engine because all it wants to do is GO. So, it makes perfect sense not to keep it in 'Drive' when stopped, because you're telling your car to go, but you're keeping it stopped.

It does not make perfect sense, and your not telling your car to go unless you have your foot on the brake and the gas pedal is pressed at the same time. At Idle there is very little fluid connection through the torque converter to the tranny. It's in the design of all automatic transmission vehicles and works very well.
Or do you think you guy's just came up with a revolution that all the R&D departments of all the auto makers never thought of?
I don't think so.

[justaguy]

Exactly right Jimbo. Why didn,t the car companies build the vehicles to automatically shift to neutral when hitting the brakes if it was better.
Like I said, hes trying to sell books and dvds offering great mpg gains by giving a few free tips. We all could do things to save a little gas but whos going to drive through the city traffic shifting to neutral every time you stop.
Jimbo, what you said about over shifting to reverse was my first thought because I did it once

BTW, didn't boynton say in another post he was working on a generator? I think he is a flip flop.

[Q-Hack!]

Shifting to neutral is dangerous and not a good idea especially when moving, here's why
1. On a heavy truck it's illegal to do, and I believe in most states on a passenger vehicle, you need to be in control of your power at all times.
2. going up on your gear indicator, next one up is reverse, tell me what you think happens if you should push a little past neutral and hit reverse at 55 mph or even 35, and if your staring at the indicator looking for nuetral you may not see the guy stopped in front of you
3. now your coasting along in nuetral and don't realize you foot is pushing ever so lightly on the gas pedal until you hear and feel a something. Whoops, gee I didn't know the engine could hit 6500 rpm's.

His whole torque converter shpeel is correct but big deal I knew all the simple stuff when I was 15.
Common sense would tell you to put the car in park for a train wait, if you really even care that much, but throwing your car in neutral while move is dangerous and a stupid idea, it really is not a solution to anything since your throttle valve is closed anyway, you increase your brake ware and braking distance
and in an emergency you will be in no gear, and your response time may come all to pieces with your vehicle.

Your coasting in nuetral and a deer jumps out in front of you, or someone blows a stop sign. QUICK whats the first thing you do.
Yeah just as I thought. You either whip it back in gear when you should be avoiding a crash or you avoid the crash with your car in neutral and not under your control.
1/2 second may be the determining factor of whether you live or die.

So why have you not seen it on TV or in the Media? Because it's illegal and a bad Idea!
So quite giving bad advise, illegal activity should not be condoned in this forum, Man your stupid.

1. While it may in fact be illegal in the States, it isn't in other countries.
2. While I am not sure about all vehicles, I do know that on a Chevy Siverado if you accidentally kick it into reverse at 80 MPH, the transmission makes a loud clunk and then coast as if it was in neutral. I did this once while reaching for the sun visor on the autobahn in Germany. I was able to put it back in drive and continue on. Not sure how many times you can do this without damage though.
3. Like with most hypermileing techniques, you are in control, you know what you are doing and if you are not comfortable with it don't do it. eg. I routinely drive in town with my cruise control. My wife wont drive with it on a straight road if there isn't at least 20 miles and absolutely no other trafic. Its all in what you are comfortable with.

Also, I don't know about you, but if there is any kind of anomaly (such as a deer) I don't hit the gas, I hit the brake; being in neutral has no effect.

So It is not all bad advise.

One caveat to my rebuttal though. If one is driving in snow and ice. You want to use your gears to slow down. This is one condition where going into neutral is a really bad idea.

[Q-Hack!]

It does not make perfect sense, and your not telling your car to go unless you have your foot on the brake and the gas pedal is pressed at the same time. At Idle there is very little fluid connection through the torque converter to the tranny. It's in the design of all automatic transmission vehicles and works very well.
Or do you think you guy's just came up with a revolution that all the R&D departments of all the auto makers never thought of?
I don't think so.

I actually gave this thought several weeks ago. When I am stopped at a red light, my Scan Guage II shows my engine load at ~3-4. Doesn't change when I am in neutral. However it does change when I turn the AC off (~2-3). By my way of thinking, if there is no change in load, you can be stopped at a red light and have it in gear without wasting gas.

I do routinely use neutral when slowing down to stop at the red light though. Its fun to watch my MPG go up over 100 when I am coasting to a stop.

[Omega]

This list of "miracle gas saving techniques" has been around the web for a while and is mostly pure baloney.

Newer cars are pretty efficient in the area of disengaging the transmission at idle. I have read responses by mechanics that claim that shifting to neutral excessively will damage the transmission over time.

The torque converter won't kick out unless you completely let off of the gas or especially if you hit the brakes. His advice to use cruise control is good, but has zero to do with the torque converter unlocking. More BS.

As for tire pressure, under inflation is bad (duh) but his example of inflating to 70 to 90 psi is so obviously insane it's asinine. I have found that some tires do better at higher pressures than the car manufacturers suggest. If the max pressure rating of your tires is 44psi (common on most tires) you can safely go to 40psi and get significantly better gas mileage. A year ago, I went through a set of tires that were run at the recommended pressure and they showed wear on the outside meaning under inflation. On my new set, I'm using 40 instead of the recommended 32psi and the tire dealer told me that was the right pressure to use. They are wearing perfectly. And I'm getting better gas mileage.

AND HERE'S THE KICKER THAT WE'VE ALL BEEN EXPECTING FROM BOYNTONSTU:

"What you've heard that does not work but many have deluded themselves that it does.
================================================== =================================
Every SINGLE 'underhood' hho ooh hoh hoo hoo electrolyzer, water gas anything, browns gas anything, gas tank pills, tornado air spinner or any other insert in the air intake, acetone, toluene, fuel heater etc.. NEVER EVER works. Do not waste your time."

The HHO attack, again. HHO shouldn't be lumped together with gas tank pills etc. There are lots of people who are experiencing better fuel mileage by adding 2.5 ounces of acetone per 10 gallons of gas.

I'm really sorry that the forum had to be littered with this thread. It's just more junk and disinformation.

[Blinger101]

Well, I can't say for sure about newer cars, but on older cars like mine that's gotten plenty of use out of it (like I said, over 200,000Km on it after only 10+ years (not sure how much that is in miles)), putting it in neutral DOES help MY car anyways. And what I meant when I said about leaving it idle in 'Drive' is that, on some cars like mine anyways, since the gear is in 'Drive', there is still some forward inertia built up that causes the vehicle to lurch forward. Next time you're at a stop light, idle it in 'Drive' then let go of the brakes. Take note of what happens. Then at the next stop light, idle it in neutral, then let go of the brake (obviously do this on a flat even road, never uphill or downhill...). Take note of what happens.

That's all I was really trying to point out. I'm not on BS's side here.

[jimbo40]

1. While it may in fact be illegal in the States, it isn't in other countries.
2. While I am not sure about all vehicles, I do know that on a Chevy Siverado if you accidentally kick it into reverse at 80 MPH, the transmission makes a loud clunk and then coast as if it was in neutral. I did this once while reaching for the sun visor on the autobahn in Germany. I was able to put it back in drive and continue on. Not sure how many times you can do this without damage though.
3. Like with most hypermileing techniques, you are in control, you know what you are doing and if you are not comfortable with it don't do it. eg. I routinely drive in town with my cruise control. My wife wont drive with it on a straight road if there isn't at least 20 miles and absolutely no other trafic. Its all in what you are comfortable with.

Also, I don't know about you, but if there is any kind of anomaly (such as a deer) I don't hit the gas, I hit the brake; being in neutral has no effect.

So It is not all bad advise.

One caveat to my rebuttal though. If one is driving in snow and ice. You want to use your gears to slow down. This is one condition where going into neutral is a really bad idea.

As for the anomoly as you call it. And of course you don't hit the gas when you see a deer unless your looking for a very expensive and painfull venison dinner.
Thats not what I was talking about, what I am referring to is the faction of a second that you may lose while your brain is trying to assess the situation.
and that fraction of a second, in a rare case may be the differance whether you get broad sided in your drivers door, or on the side were your wife and baby are sitting, or just nicked in the rear end and spun around.
Also a good experianced driver may very well use his gas pedal as well as his brakes to overt a deadly situation, I know I have.
So maybe it's just me, but at the risk of loseing .03 cents worth of gas, i'll choose and continue to be a skilled competent driver.
But thanks for the debate, it's been fun

[Stratous]

If people want junk threads deleted, then please report the thread to an Admin or Moderator. This thread itself is usless in my opinion, but thats just me. I will not delete it unless people start to complaign about it.

[justaguy]

This thread just shows how desperate boynton is . He is more of a troll than anything, one minute on your side and another minute against you. Trolls like to get people stirred up on forums.
They don,t come to forums for advice, they enjoy getting people riled up. When the heat gets on them they will settle down and be on your side just like boynton did last week then to keep from getting booted then later come back again with a thread like this one.