October 26, 2011
Does putting your car in neutral while going downhill save gas?
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on Oct 26th, 2011. Comment. 
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Comments on Does putting your car in neutral while going downhill save gas?
not alot , but on a 200 yard hill it should save at least 500 drops of gas.
Technically yes, but it is a very small savings and not worth the risk you take of not having your car in gear if you need to make an emergency maneuver. You would never notice the difference in the amount of gas you use one way over the other.
If you drive a later model fuel injected car, it actually wastes gas.
No. Keep it in gear.
No, but what it does is put a bigger strain on your tranny when you put back into drive if its an automatic.
There are a number of hypermiling tricks you can do but they will not make a huge difference. Just being more careful on acceleration and just planning routes with more right turns (if those turns are legal on red it means less time waiting at lights) will probably make a lot more difference in your mileage.
Moving the shift lever back into drive from neutral while at speed on an automatic trans can damage things. Also, although there is a reverse lockout on most transmissions if that lockout fails it can be possible to accidentally engage reverse and that will start destroying things big time. Also, The coasting you mention may be illegal.
So, yes, there might be small savings in gas but your brakes will work harder because the engine compression won’t be slowing the car down.