coasting

[Hot Georgia]

Why would the valves be crushed?

The only thing I can think of is possibly a slipped timing belt for the load being on the wrong (Tensioner) side?

Just a guess

[ELF]

200 or 300k out of a auto is pretty rare, I'd say about 80% are toast long before 200k. I work just down the street from tranny shop, it is always full of new looking cars and trucks.

I won't coast with my engine off, Too much risk, auto trannys are expensive to fix.

[rh77]

Originally Posted by ELF

200 or 300k out of a auto is pretty rare, I'd say about 80% are toast long before 200k. I work just down the street from tranny shop, it is always full of new looking cars and trucks.

I won't coast with my engine off, Too much risk, auto trannys are expensive to fix.

Yeah, today I only Shut-down at lights with all of this weighing on my mind. I honestly don't want to spend a lot of money on this car -- no payments with it right now is "fiscally responsible" -- and budgeting assumes another year or 2 out of it.

If the tranny goes, I'd keep the car for perhaps a Rally-Cross project with a manual swap (over time and as $$$ allows), and get a newer, Hi FE - Lo Emission vehicle. I just hate the thought of another car payment right now ~

RH77

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by Hot Georgia

The reason I don't do the engine off in the winter is to prevent possible radiator stress for extreme, rapid heating/cooling expansion.

If you have a grill block installed (with the reduced air flow that it produces), rapid radiator cooling is much less of a problem.

[Peakster]

Originally Posted by theclencher

Why would the valves be crushed?

I found the site where I got this story from:

When you're driving a car, the engine turns, and that makes the wheels move. But when you tow a car in gear, the opposite happens. The WHEELS make the ENGINE turn. And since your manual transmission was in reverse, your wheels were making the engine turn backwards!

And engines aren't designed to turn backwards. When they do, what will often happen is that a loose timing belt will jump a few teeth, leaving the valves opening and closing at the wrong times. Then, when the pistons come flying up, they smash right into the unsuspecting valves.

[caprice]

what If you could have a toggle twitch where it would have a toggle switch where you could engage the Torque converter lockup clutch AND injector kill switch at the same time?

[Silveredwings]

But when you tow a car in gear, the opposite happens. The WHEELS make the ENGINE turn. And since your manual transmission was in reverse, your wheels were making the engine turn backwards!

Um...if that was a towing company, that's criminal negligence, or at the least, pecuniary culpability.

[brucepick]

If you coast in gear with injectors not firing of course there's no fuel consumption
BUT
I think you will coast longer in neutral with engine running at idle speed.

My reasoning is that if coasting in gear with injectors off, the rolling action of car is spinning the engine. This must be a huge drag on the system, sapping your downhill momentum. That's fine on a really steep hill where you need engine braking. I think more often you want to maximize the coast.

My car is an auto, I most often end up coasting downhill in neutral. Sorry, the car is too old for OBD-2 and ScanGauge so I can only judge my mpg results and "seat of the pants" impressions.

[repete86]

Originally Posted by Hockey4mnhs

isnt it bad in a auto to engine off coast because of sum bering not being lubricated? so thats y i leave the car on so it stays lubricated

There are almost no parts moving when the tranny's in neutral. I EOC in my '93 Accord all of the time and I haven't had any problems with my 125k mile transmission. If my tranny does go though, it would probably be a blessing. A 5 speed will do wonders for my mileage.

[bzipitidoo]

What is the use of neutral if the car can't be towed? What else is neutral for?! Pretty sorry neutral if it isn't intended for more than such emergency uses as being pushed to the side of the road or winched onto a tow truck.

But, some cars should not be "toad towed" or "dinghy towed" (all 4 wheels on the ground) as RV users call it. And yeah, a smaller percentage of automatics are towable. Here's some lists of cars that can be "toad": http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/techtalk/