Using neutral to gain MPG (CVT)

[gomarlins3]

Does anyone else put their CVT into neutral going down hill or coming to a stop light to gain some MPG? I have found the car coasts well in gear, but even better when in neutral. If my battery is close to fully charged and I am not worried about regen during coasting, I will use neutral. I did this for years in my Insight and never had a problem.

[LeeMoon]

My 2008 Civic Coupe A/T would shut off fuel to the engine when coasting. I'm pretty sure the CR-Z does the same. I've watched the MID display that shows power delivery for the engine and battery pack and could see the fuel flow stop while coasting in Drive. If the car is in neutral, does the engine still idle using fuel? I'm curious to see if one method is better than the other, but will let someone else try it out.
Lee

[bizzybear]

Lee, what you say is true (to my knowledge) but you also have to take into consideration when coasting in gear, the engine IS slowing the car down faster than if you were in neutral...

my guess is, even with the engine idling (coasting in neutral) you are still getting better mpg b/c idling doesn't waste nearly as much as one would think and the distance you travel while coasting in neutral makes up the difference vs when in gear...

i hope that makes sense

[David_PA]

Originally Posted by bizzybear

Lee, what you say is true (to my knowledge) but you also have to take into consideration when coasting in gear, the engine IS slowing the car down faster than if you were in neutral...

my guess is, even with the engine idling (coasting in neutral) you are still getting better mpg b/c idling doesn't waste nearly as much as one would think and the distance you travel while coasting in neutral makes up the difference vs when in gear...

i hope that makes sense

I just tested this out today driving up and down hills. With the car in neutral I would get as high as 60 mph coasting downhill starting from as low as 30 mph, but in gear, it wouldn't reach much more than 40-45. With the car in neutral running 60 mph, I'd make it quite a way up the next hill before having to give it any throttle; whereas if I'd been going only 45 mph because I had it in gear going downhill, it wouldn't make it very far up the next hill.

[swat49833]

Originally Posted by gomarlins3

Does anyone else put their CVT into neutral going down hill or coming to a stop light to gain some MPG? I have found the car coasts well in gear, but even better when in neutral. If my battery is close to fully charged and I am not worried about regen during coasting, I will use neutral. I did this for years in my Insight and never had a problem.

I have been doing this for awhile. In my experience, YES, you will get better mileage coasting down hills in N. Watch your RPM's and you will notice the difference. If you coast in N at 60MPH, down hill, and 750 RPM's (also depends on how long you can coast-distance) You will get better mileage than coasting in D at 60 MPH and 2000 RPM's. Plus you will reduce the distance (down hill, and up hill start) that you can coast, therefore, you have to accelerate sooner to maintain or catch-up to your speed. In other words higher RPM's = lower mileage. Accelerating more instead of longer coasting will also cause lower MPG's. The lowest RPM's you can run for the longest distances will give you higher MPG's. By doing this I have had numbers of 42.7 being the lowest and 50.0 the highest (so far). However I have seen 51.7 on computer reading, so I will be trying to do better. I honestly believe this car has the potential of getting 52-55 once broken in... Hope this helps sorry for so long.

[crzsuzuka]

Isn't coasting in neutral bad for the engine? I was always told not to do this.

[Synapz]

i always thought an auto tranny car uses next to no gas when you're coasting to a stop.

and always shifting into neutral is bad for the tranny.

[lexsum]

I thought automatics should remain in drive at all times also.

[bizzybear]

true the auto tranny doesn't use much gas when coasting, but the speed of the engine slows the car down when in gear...

i shift to neutral on the auto civic and never had a problem with it... remember this is also a CVT transmission and doesn't work exactly like the auto...

[Intuos]

Hm ... in gear means charging the battery, neutral means less friction loss; which one has more advantage in the end?