Am I hurting my car by doing this or saving gas like I think?

you are only hurting your transmission.

how about just coasting .. meaning keep it in the gear its suppose to be in just lay off the gas

your hurting your car.

Actually the new station recently did a thing on this with a couple of guys that throw there car in N.. should be fine.. especially going downhill…

Dont gas it too quickly though.. steady and gradual

I even know some that turn off engine at a light

Never heard anything of it hurting the car… not sure i would do it UP hill though.. might be dangerous.

You do not have as good control in N.. you do loose some things.

you could mess up your drive train, and probably transmission. Here are some tips you may want to check out instead.
Observe the Speed Limit
Remove Excess Weight
Avoid Excessive Idling
Use Cruise Control
Use Overdrive Gears

Ok. It’s going to depend on the kind of car you have. When you are coasting, most automatic transmissions will coast as well. Automatic transmissions have a “centrigual clutch”. Simply put, when the car is coasting the transmission is disengaged from the engine anyway. If you have a tachometer, you will be able to see this.

Now the potentially urban legend part – I really don’t know if shifting your transmission into “N” will do any damage. My grandfather, who was a mechanic for nearly all of his 72 years, swore up and down that, if you shift an automatic into “N” when drifting, it would eventually ruin the transmission. I have a feeling this was true and some point in the past, but I can’t think of anything that would cause a modern transmission to become damaged as a result of doing this.

So – to be safe – it doesn’t save you any gas and there is a chance that it hurts your tranny, so I would stop.

On another note – being EXTREMELY sensitive to making sure you apply steady pressure to the gas pedal when driving (rather than “pumping”) WILL have a large impact on your fuel economy. Also, make sure that your tires are properly inflated…

Good luck!

Coasting with an automatic transmission is not good for the trans. Most transmissions have a mechanical pump on the in-put end, but none on the out-put, or rear end, therefore coasting in “N” is very detrimental , especially over twenty MPH.

This will cause you problems and does not save anymore fuel than if you were to keep it in drive…
If your going down hill then you are probably going to ease off the accelerator, just because your engine is at say 2000rpm or 3000rpm does not mean that its using fuel, if your foots off the gas pedal then your not using the gas.

There is also a matter of safety, when you hit the brakes while coating in neutral your using 100% braking effort which will result in uncontrolled braking, the engine torque through the gearbox helps you not to lock the wheels up.

*note* you cannot tow an automatic vehicle and the propshaft has to be removed if you wish to tow it… so coasting one is not a good idea.

It’s not hurting your car. But if you have to use the brakes going downhill, you’re kidding yourself and not saving that much. (Using the brakes turns gasoline into useless heat.) Just be sure to keep control.

You had better hope that you don’t get into an accident while coasting, that is against the law to do that, reason being you do not have compleat control of you car, also it is not good for the transmission. Be very careful. We all want to save gas, but not at the expense of your safety.

It’s not the coasting that will hurt your transmission, it’s the shock to the transmission when you throw it in gear at 50mph. The other risk is when you overshoot N and hit R. You only get to do that once. Assuming your car isn’t ancient, the transmission will be in overdrive when you are going downhill, so the engine will be barely turning anyway.

Firebird’s off his rocker. If the flow of gasoline were completely cut off, the engine (wait for this… it’s a stunner) would not be running. No gas- no combustion. Engine not running.

It will waste gas and hurt nothing. Everybody who thinks it hurts the transmission is simply not qualified to give an answer.

HOWEVER, it’s illegal in my state. Bet it is in yours to.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, the reason it wastes gas is that when you’re coasting down a hill with the car in gear, the gasoline to the injectors will shut totally off. I don’t mean mostly, or slightly. It will shut completely off. No flow of gasoline.

So I’d leave it in gear if I were you. I’m assuming that you’re driving a fairly modern car.