[thread split from Gas Economy dropped to below 15mpg]

BTW ,,,, coasting is illegal and may not keep the gears in the tranny in enough oil at a high speed,,,,friendly suggestion,,,,don't do it,,,

 

My bro told me this. I don't understand that idea. If your'e coasting, you're on neutral, and the transmission isn't even connected to the wheels, so the speed of the car shouldn't affect the transmission

Do you know why it's illegal? I heard of that too

 

I've never heard of coasting being illegal in any state, I'm highly skeptical of that statement.

 

Some automatic transmissions don't get lubricated properly, either when coasting, or more commonly when coasting with the engine off (which I would recommend against anyway for safety reasons). I don't about the Fit AT. Standards have no problem coasting, of course, on or off.

 

I heard that coasting was bad in a safety standpoint because in emergency situations, it takes longer to get in gear to accelerate away. Also, If you are forced to pull some emergency steering action, it's much harder to regain control from oversteer without having power to the wheels. I still coast a good amount on city streets, but rarely at high speeds and on the freeway.

 

The explanation I heard was more general, in that when you're in neutral you techncinally lost control of the car.

 

I was looking for the Ca drivers code that coverd this but I can't right now,,but here it is,,in my own words,,,
"State of California states that a driver will maintain control of his vehicle at all times"
As the man just said,,,you are not fully in control of a car when it's coasting.That's not just my opinion but it Ca State law,,,don't shoot the messenger!
As far as damage to a tranny DEFINATLY don't coast in an automatic. And for alot of the same reasons don't do it with a standard. Here's why, (DISCLAIMER, this is just how it was taught to me, may or may not apply to the FIt tranny)
The seal/bearing in the front of the tranny turns at the speed of the engine (input shaft),,,the rear seal and bearing turn at the drive wheel speed (output shaft). If your coasting down a hill at 65 MPH the front bearing is going really slow (motor at idle) and the rear bearing is going really fast ( getting warm needing lots of oil). THe gears and the rest of the tranny are NOT spinning fast enough (cuz thier not connected to anything, your in nutruel) to sling the oil onto the other parts of the tranny that need it. As far as I know lubrication on a standard tranny is done by rotating gears and slingers throwing oil everywhere, not by a oil pump or pressurized system. If the gears arn't turning then you have no lubrication.This means the rear seal/bearing is running with insufficient oil while your coasting. Newer cars may have a slinger in a place to correct this but I would not risk my car on it..Anyone know one way or another fur sure?

 

grouser-

The last manual trans. that I personally rebuilt was from a '76 Toyota SR5 Pickup (mine) and I think that you are probably right in your details about lubrication in modern-day trannies. No pumps- slingers. But with manual trans. fluids now being very light weight oils instead of the 90 Wt. gear lubes of the old days, maybe some do use pumps. Either way, coasting in any situation is a bad idea for many reasons.

 

Thanks for a little back-up,,,,
Just food for thought,,,
when coasting downhill, all the oil is at the front of the tranny,,,furthest away from the bearing that needs it the most,,,
A big problem with coasting is that in the event that you need to brake hard,,you get NO help from the engine like you would if you were in gear. Or think about what would happen if you fell asleep or passed out,,,,free-wheelen fur sure with no chance the engine might hold you back some,,,,
just not a good idea IMHO,,,,,
edited,,,I'm also thinking of traditional inline configurations,,,I really don't know much about the transverse set-up,,,come on teck heads give us the scoop!!!!

 

One additional note on fuel usage and coasting...

When you're in neutral coasting, the engine is running at idle and using fuel. But if you coast in gear (i.e downhill) with your foot off the gas, the ECU will cut off fuel to the engine and you'll use NO gas down to some preset engine speed, maybe 1500 rpm.

 

Well here are a few thoughts...

You mentioned working on your trunk, did you do any electronics work around the time of the bad oil change? Is it possible that you disconnected the battery long enough to reset the ECU and then did not perform the idle learn procedure?

I don't get how you could have such a dramatic change in gas mileage without feeling an effect in performance unless the gas is being used up outside of normal operation (like idle learn or gas tank leak or siphoning).

I would also like to make some quick notes on the coasting subject.

First, legality. It is true that in SOME states (not sure which ones, but not my native WA) driving in a car at speed while not in gear is illegal. My question is, how do they ticket you for it? How would anybody know you were coasting unless they were in the car? Hearing the sound of your engine RPMs is way to subjective to stand up in court.

Second, durability. What grouser said about lubrication is true in rear drive cars. However in front drive cars the differential (always turning with the wheels) is in the same housing as the transmission and keeps things lubricated. This is why people use front wheel drive cars to tow behind RVs and such. I don't know that much about ATs (I'm an MT guy myself) but the principal should be the same.

Third, safety. When was the last time you had to accelerate to avoid an accident? Ever? I don't think our Fits have enough power to make any meaningful acceleration happen fast enough to make a difference. When coasting you may not be in control of the accelerator, but you still have steering and breaks which 99.9% of the time are the tools you need to avoid an accident anyway. I think worrying about coasting from a safety standpoint is kind of crazy when people talk on cell phones and stuff while driving.

Anyway, I didn't want to continue the thread jack, but I did.... Sorry.

 

"how do they ticket you for it? How would anybody know you were coasting unless they were in the car? Hearing the sound of your engine RPMs is way to subjective to stand up in court."
If they find the tranny in nuetral at the crash site would be pretty evedent, or if you gave yourself up cuz you did'nt know it was not legal,,
"Third, safety. When was the last time you had to accelerate to avoid an accident? Ever?"
In gear at least you have that option, wheter you need it or not who can say? You might need power AFTER the accedent or near miss,,, and if you are in gear the motor has SOME (granted not alot, but SOME) slowing effect on the car soon after taking your foot off the gas,,,if your in nuetral there is no slowing effect,,,
Gotta keep in mind that the law was made for many reasons along time ago,,,and we can prolly punch holes in now with the newer cars and front wheel drive and all that but,,,simply stated here in California,,,your breaking the law by doing it,,,I'm not saying right or wrong just stating a fact,,,

 

I know it's against the law some places, and it would be cool to compile a list of where it's legal and where it's not. I found a site like that for underage people performing (I'm a musician) in bars before I was 21 and it was really helpful for tour planning. Maybe if somebody wants to figure it all out we could make a sticky thread of it here on FitFreak?

 

dunno about it being that big a deal,,,unless there are alot more people coasting than I think there is. A poll may be in order.
I'm not talking about the coast up to the stop light we all do,,,we're talking coasting down a long grade for a fair distance. DO you do this on a regular basis?,,,just curious

 

If coasting in neutral is illegal & unsafe, then everyone with a manual or regular auto transmission is really illegal & unsafe, since shifting(disconnecting wheels from engine & then moving gears thru neutral from one gear to another) is done a lot more than people purposely coast in neutral. That means I'm more legal & safer than all of you, since I have a new Dodge Caliber with a Continuously Variable Ratio Transmission that connects the wheels & engine at all times when in Drive.

I've coasted in neutral a lot during my 500,000 miles of driving using many cars & have never had any problems or felt anymore unsafe while in neutral. While in neutral, I've even past police moving in the opposite direction & they had no way of knowing I was in neutral. So it seems this thread is looking for trouble where little trouble can be found.

Once I coasted over 7 or 8 miles while dropping from 6000 feet into Death Valley...boy did it heat up on that descent!

 

COASTING IS NOT ILLEGAL. It is an urban myth, much like how people say it's illegal to drive barefoot, or it's illegal to kill a Praying Mantis. It's not true.

 

you may be correct in your state,,but in California,,,your braking the law.

As far as how anyone would know you were not in gear,,,, they would'nt ,,,,,it would only show up in the accident report,,,,after the fact,,,,,yes we all coast with a stick shift if we get technical like you are sugesting,,,the law was not written to stop that, you're trying to read more into it than there is. BUT get into an accident (like not being able to stop at the bottom of your 8 mile coasting spree), and kill someone and have the tranny found in nutrel and your gonna pay, trust me,,the law is quite clear about maintaining control of your vehicle, coasting is NOT maintatining control any CHP officer will tell you that

 

Unless you can show me proof that it's illegal (not counting tractor trailers) I don't believe it. In a serious accident the last thing the police are going to look for is what gear the wrecked car is in, and even if they did, it's very possible the transmission could have shifted upon impact.

 

Believe me ,,kill someonw on the road and the MAIT (motorized accident investigation team) team tears the car apart to find out how it happend. There is alot of money and liability to place and they DO find out how it happed. I've seen the road closed for hours while they do the investigation. Transmissions don't generally get moved , have you ever tried to pull the shifter into nutruel while under a load (on a manual). For a automatic I would think it's even MORE unlikely for the shifter to get moved sinse it usually takes two movements in two different directions to move the shifter outta gear. ? I'm just guessing on that but I think it would be few and far between that it gets knocked outta gear. It happens so fast that everything is generally locked up tight. I will try and find the exact code for the law but check out CA motor vehicle regulations and there is a law requiring drivers to "maintain control of thier vehicle while traveling on mountanous roads". This is were being in nutruel gets you into trouble,,,, there may or may not be a code that specifically states anything about being in nutruel, I can't recall seeing that. but the above regulation was show to me by CHP and he was quite clear about coasting being included in " haveing control" of you vehicle

 

Hi, i drive manual cars on occasion (my sister's RSX-S and RX-7) and im wanting my first car in 2 1/2 months to be a MT car myself, but im so curious... what the hell do you do if you cant coast? Do you have to downshift then i suppose? Like.. for example, turning at an intersection, what if there is someone walking?

Or.. do are you IN GEAR but riding the clutch? But even so isn't that bad on the clutch?? ugh this is confusing!