DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Taking care of your cars. BUNCH of questions!

**gardenerextraordinaire** · 07-05-2007, 01:21 PM

Thanks so much for the answers guys. Lots of good information.

I still have few questions left though. I'm still not sure if having your car in "neutral" instead of "D" gear saves you gas or not. Sometimes I get stuck in red light for a while and when I change the gear to "neutral," I can tell the engine sounds different. However, I'm just not sure if that actually saves gas. I heard turning off your engine completely during red light saves you more gas but I think it uses more gas to actually restart the car.

I drive a 2007 Honda Accord and I'm not even getting close to the advertised MPG whereas I was getting more than the advertised MPG with my 2004 Hyundai Elentra and I have not changed my driving habit. I drive exactly as I did before. I try not to accelerate too fast and don't even break too often. I'm just a little confused here.

With a car that new an fuel efficient, you will not get anything out of shifting to Neutral at a stop light. You will save by turning the car off, though. It hardly takes any fuel for a new car to start up and the amount saved is pretty nice if you are at a long light. I have a 99 civic and I get 32-35 MPG on city driving. The biggest thing I do is I never go above 60 MPH because it is not fuel efficient after a certain point. Find the sweet spot on your car. For my civic I get the best efficiency around 55mph.

Also you might want to put some fuel injector cleaner into the gas tank next time you fill up.

Take a look at where you car is idling at, IE how many RPM's does it idle at? The RPM's at the stop light should be roughly equatable to the RPM's when the car is in neutral and at idle. IE - My civic idles around 1,000 RPM in neutral and probably at about 800-900RPM when in D4 and just sitting there.

We bought a 2004 accord v6 and the dealer recommended that when we weren't driving on the freeway to put the car in D4 instead of D5. Not sure how much gas that saves or whether it saves any at all but if you have the bigger v6 you might want to try it.

Try checking your tire pressure and wheel alignment too, low tire pressure or misaligned tires are very bad for gas mileage.

As far as gas goes, check this thread, http://www.futuremark.com/forum/show...&highlight=gas

And, a nice government resource
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drive.shtml

If you want some more resources for your Accord, I like this forum...http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/index.php

If you can't tell, I am damn proud of my Civic and it's gas mileage

07-05-2007, 01:21 PM	#14
gardenerextraordinaire Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 709 Senior Member	Thanks so much for the answers guys. Lots of good information. I still have few questions left though. I'm still not sure if having your car in "neutral" instead of "D" gear saves you gas or not. Sometimes I get stuck in red light for a while and when I change the gear to "neutral," I can tell the engine sounds different. However, I'm just not sure if that actually saves gas. I heard turning off your engine completely during red light saves you more gas but I think it uses more gas to actually restart the car. I drive a 2007 Honda Accord and I'm not even getting close to the advertised MPG whereas I was getting more than the advertised MPG with my 2004 Hyundai Elentra and I have not changed my driving habit. I drive exactly as I did before. I try not to accelerate too fast and don't even break too often. I'm just a little confused here. With a car that new an fuel efficient, you will not get anything out of shifting to Neutral at a stop light. You will save by turning the car off, though. It hardly takes any fuel for a new car to start up and the amount saved is pretty nice if you are at a long light. I have a 99 civic and I get 32-35 MPG on city driving. The biggest thing I do is I never go above 60 MPH because it is not fuel efficient after a certain point. Find the sweet spot on your car. For my civic I get the best efficiency around 55mph. Also you might want to put some fuel injector cleaner into the gas tank next time you fill up. Take a look at where you car is idling at, IE how many RPM's does it idle at? The RPM's at the stop light should be roughly equatable to the RPM's when the car is in neutral and at idle. IE - My civic idles around 1,000 RPM in neutral and probably at about 800-900RPM when in D4 and just sitting there. We bought a 2004 accord v6 and the dealer recommended that when we weren't driving on the freeway to put the car in D4 instead of D5. Not sure how much gas that saves or whether it saves any at all but if you have the bigger v6 you might want to try it. Try checking your tire pressure and wheel alignment too, low tire pressure or misaligned tires are very bad for gas mileage. As far as gas goes, check this thread, http://www.futuremark.com/forum/show...&highlight=gas And, a nice government resource http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drive.shtml If you want some more resources for your Accord, I like this forum...http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/index.php If you can't tell, I am damn proud of my Civic and it's gas mileage
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