While driving, will shifting into neutral periodically help me save gas?

it can save a little if done right

NO THATS NOT A GOOD IDEA
JUST DO THE SPEED LIMIT

im not going to tell you it saves gas going up hill…im not.

Maybe … but not really tho….your engine is still running…..it’ll only mess with your transmission and gearbox instead…..its not worth the hassel …. it wont save enough gas to really make much of a difference. a good thought tho.

When you coast, keep the car IN GEAR, not in neutral.

You can get much greater gas mileage by simply easing off the gas and coasting to red lights, stop signs, etc.

What but you should keep your car in gear as you coast. Putting the car in neutral as it coast towards the red light or stop sign is unsafe to do.

The reason putting the car in neutral is unsafe is now you don’t have the ability to “hit the gas” if for some reason you had to make an evasive move. For example, as you’re coasting, something comes out in front of your car (another vehicle, an animal, a person, it doesn’t matter) and you need to get over into the other lane quickly. If your car is in neutral, you’re going to slam on the gas expecting to quickly accelerate, only you’re not going to go any faster.

Additionally, you’re vehicle will have much better handling if the car is in gear.

So, go ahead and keep the car in gear, only switching to neutral once the car is at a complete stop – coasting in neutral isn’t worth the risk.

LOL @ a99blkdog…

Not necessarily.

What uses gas in the engine is if you press on the accelerator. I assume that you are not pushing on the accelerator if you are coming up to a stop sign. If you are on the highway, and you simply take your foot off the gas pedal, you would save the same amount of gas as shifting into neutral. Whether or not you are using more gas doesn’t depend on whether the car is in gear or not. In fact, if you are in neutral you can still use more gas if you’re pressing on the accelerator.

The only time when “coasting” like this might help your gas mileage is if you are going down a hill, because when going down a hill in gear, the transmission will stop your descent some. But in many cases this is a good thing — you don’t want to get to the bottom of the hill doing 100 mph! And if you use your brakes to help you slow down on the hill you’ll just have to replace the brakes sooner.

In addition, the wear on your transmission from shifting into and out of neutral all the time might cause you to have to spend a lot of money on your transmission somewhere down the line.

Actually, most cars idle pretty high, so neutral would use more gas than being in gear.

It may save gas but you will spend more to fix the trans. and gearbox.

Absolutely not,PLUS it is very dangerous as it could cause you to lose control. You probably would not save anything as your engine is still running.Your life and that of others is not worth it.Better to be safe than sorry.

The best way to figure this question out specifically for YOUR car is to use the RPM meter. Your engine will be doing the most work when the RPMs are the highest. Right before switching gears, your RPMs are usually the highest and that’s when you will be wasting the most gas.

When you are coasting (in drive but not pressing on the accelerator), you will, notice that your RPMs will drop to about 1k. Compare this value to the value while your car is in neutral (or idling RPMs), and you should get a decent estimate on whether you are saving gas.

If you have it on Neutral its less strain on your engine but as for gas it wont have a effect, and to ad if you for example drive at 25MPH and put it on N and let it coast your damaging your tranny for in the long run, especially for newer cars, best to leave in gear and ride it easy.

It is not worth the hassle, since you can and will burn out the converter coasting in Mexican over drive.

No. It isn’t worth the trouble.