Is it bad to put an automatic car into neutral while driving to save gas?

it would hurt the transmission and drifting is bad on the tires

in that mode of a neutral, the engine goes back to idle. at that point the engine is ruining pretty rich to keep it moving. leave the trans in gear and you will save more gas.

That depends. The engine isn’t braking the car going downhill if the transmission is in Neutral, so economy would seem to be high. But if you think the engine is still using fuel while coasting downhill in gear, you’re thinking wrong. Most fuel-injected cars turn the fuel delivery completely off when you lift your foot from the accelerator. They still burn fuel when idling in Neutral, so do the math. The amount of fuel burned at idle over, say, a couple of miles of coasting downhill is small, but it’s still more than zero. So if you’re driving a modern fuel-injected car, you’re wrong.

It’s not bad for your car or transmission. I wouldn’t think it would save that much gas since your engine is still running. But if you are saying it works for you I guess keep doing it.

To answer your question, no, it is not bad for your car

I have done so on my old car. you need to ask a mechanic just to be sure.
from N to D you need to be at a complete stop.

no,dont do that some vehicles have trans pump from rear drive on trans

First off, it’s illegal in most states. Driving without being in a gear prevents you from accelerating during an evasive maneuver. But to answer your question, it really depends on whether your vehicle has an overdrive and fuel injection.

In overdrive, the transmission doesn’t provide any engine braking–it’s coasting down hills. That can be a bad thing if you’re driving on ice where you want engine braking to give you more control. However, once it slows to the point where it drops out of overdrive, then it DOES provide engine braking. You assume that because it’s kicking up RPMS downhill, that you’re using more gas. In a carbureted non-computer controlled vehicle that would be true. But it’s not true in a fuel injected vehicle. The computer is getting it’s input from the throttle position sensor and the MAP or MAF sensor. All those sensors would tell the computer that you’ve taken your foot off the gas, or at least back off. The computer would then turn off the fuel injectors until it sees you apply more throttle. Putting the vehicle in neutral during this period of downhill driving eliminates engine braking. But since the engine isn’t using any (or much) fuel at that point, it’s not saving you much money.

What you ARE doing, however, is unnecessarily cycling all the clutch packs in your transmission on and off. Whatever you save in gas you will spend 10X that in premature transmission repair costs.

Drive the car like it’s supposed to be driven–in gear. If you want better gas mileage, buy a more fuel efficient car.

First off it will not harm your car to do this if your only doing it for a couple hundred feet or when sitting at a red light. The only thing to remember is if your gonna tow or pull any car with an automatic transmission remove the drive shaft first because this prevents blowing seals out of transmission but kicking your car into neutral for lil short rolls will not hurt at all

1) it is illegal in most states
2) It takes some control away from the car, especially when you’re on a surface that is not dry
3) It’s possible to forget you’re in nuetral and either slide it into park or race the engine thinking you’re in drive
4) the engine braking effect actually helps you maintain control and have less wear and tear on the brakes
5) you have no control over the car in an emergency
6) the car is still turning over at idle, and coming down the hill with your transmission engaged, the car is still in idle – you’re not saving as much as you think
7) the rear seal of the transmission is not being properly lubricated when you’re in idle and the drive shaft is engaged. This is one of the reasons a rear wheel drive vehicle should not be towed great distances.

All in all, your friend is correct. Just let the engine idle as you come to a traffic control device that requires you to stop.

Since that will actually cause the vehicle to use more gas, yes it is bad. It also means you have less control of the vehicle in an emergency which is also bad.

When you are cruising throttle-off in Drive the fuel injectors will shut off and stop delivering fuel to the engine because the transmission will keep the engine turning above stall speed. If you put the transmission in neutral the engine drops down to idle and the fuel injectors have to open up again to keep the engine from stalling – thus using more fuel. So your theory is quite flawed.

In most locales it is not legal to coast in neutral. It’s unsafe as one will often forget to shift back into gear and then you’re flustered when you press on the gas.

On most cars the extra drag while in “Drive” is minimal. I’d keep it in Drive.

I can tell you that I have an instant MPG feature on my car. When I leave work I accelerate to 50 MPH and coast from that point to the interstate ramp, about 3 mi, down hill all the way. I leave the car in gear and get over 100 MPG for that portion of the trip. Hard to imagine neutral would improve on that. Drive it the way it should be driven.

i wish to know if by placing the gear to neutral will damage my car