AWD and going down the hill in neutral (5 speed)

[kmvbaja]

I have a manual 03 Baja. I'm very new to this AWD car and was just wondering if it is damaging to the drive train if I put it in Neutral going down the hill to save gas? What do you guys think???

[YBajaSteve]

Im not a tranny expert, but I couldnt imagine any situation where putting a car in neutral and rolling it would hurt anything, so i would definatly say you would be safe doing it. Ive done that technique in all my cars and never had a problem. tho, using only your brakes to stop your car instead of combined with your engine, i guess you could say you might wear out your pads sooner, but again im sure it wouldnt be a big enuf difference to really matter.


just my .02

N2Subies

[Emsanon]

I've been doing that with my '03 auto Baja as well. I put in neutral going down hill to get some better mileage. Works pretty good. But again, I'm no expert in the area as to whether I'm going dmg something. It sounds pretty smooth during transition so I can't picture anything bad happening.

[bulwnkl]

No damage will result; you're fine.

[SCF]

Yup, just fine.

[The Steve]

I thought that fuel injected cars are at 0% IDC (injector duty cycle) when you are in gear and not on the throttle. Meaning if you put it in neutral you're actually using more gas.

[bulwnkl]

True in most late-model vehicles, though there are exceptions. Also, the fuel will come back on below some RPM threshhold (what that is depends upon the vehicle).