Celica Forums General Discussion General driving in neutral

i have a manual and i like to drive in neutral a lot, especially when going downhill. i was wondering if this a bad thing to do or is it fine for the car? i heard different things and my friend told me that leaving it in gear is better. im trying to be fuel efficient, so whats the best way?

good question, something i would like to know!!!

I think its fine. I have never heard of anything bad happening from doing that.

i do that to save gas when im going down hill but its dangerous since if you need to step on it you wont have enough time to do so

It won't hurt it. Saves on gas!

i do it all the time especially coming to a stop at the lights...

I do the same thing but mine is auto? Ive heard its bad... is it really ?

No, it saves your brakes because your auto isn't pushing on them.

or when you are going into a turn, you can use the transmission and the engine to slow the car down with barely using the brakes

Yeppers and your already reving high enough to use that gear coming out of the corner.

yup... i just wanted to make sure it was ok to do so

I downshift with the triptronic on the turns

I do it now and again. But the hill I normally do it on has too many turns, and the car gets going fast! Hill is kind of steep, so it'll get going 80-100 pretty quickly in neutral

it's totally fine~ autos and manuals.

oh, and id use brake more instead of engine brake...

brakes are cheaper to replace than tranny and engine.

^werd...

i drive my rotary in neutral but i get lazy because the brakes get soo much harder.

i downshift for brake very rarely ... i dont really use the brakes at all when i turn... i just let go of the gas or instead if im losing traction i sometimes give it more gass...

NEVER STOMP on the BRAKE when taking a hard turn!!!

Great question, I've always wondered about this topic as well.

When going down hills I tend to leave my manual in a gear appropriate for the speed I'm going but keep the clutch pressed. That way all I have to do is let the clutch out to speed up again if need be.

The only exception for me is 1st gear, I don't like the noise it makes when it's in gear while moving with the clutch pressed.

its good to have it in gear until ur almost stopped.reason y is bcuz its less pressure on ur brakes so that you can save ur brakes n stop easier.i used to drive in neutral all the time but when my dad was in the car with me he taught me not to do it n told me its better for ur brakes to have it in gear till ur almost to a stop.its true that you waste gas,but i rather waste gas n save my brakes.

sure it saves gas, but be careful coasting in neutral especially if for any reason you may need to do emergency manuevering. I coast when coming to a red light or stop sign, but I keep it in gear when going downhill on long stretches, even those with no turns. Some of the hills I go down have houses on them with driveways of course, so I keep it in gear in case someone decides to pull out in front of me and I don't have time to brake. Because you are going downhill you need a much greater distance to brake. In addition, if you do a hard emergency brake on a turn prepare to lose control. All of this is obvious now but some may not realize this when driving. Also, I'm always prepared if someone going the opposite for some reason drifts into my lane causing me to manuever. It has happened to me before.
Engine or tranny life is not so much any issue to me, especially since I don't lug my engine even when going downhill. I keep the gas steady and smoothly transition to the brake and give it a tap if I need to slow down. I choose to have an extra measure of safety for myself and others above any amount I may save in gas, tranny, or engine. For me it's about having the maximum amount of control possible at any given point in time.