Anyone else Doing this?

I find it doesn't put any strain on the drive-train or mounts as long as you're accelerating VERY gently or just cruising.

 

you use more gas because there is more load. if you have vagcom or elm cable and scanxl software, you can watch your maf and fuel trims and calculate the best gear you should be in for what ever speed you are driving. you can bend rods driving too low of a gear for some set rpm, it may also cause engine knock and misfire due to increased load pressure.

a common practice to save gas is accelerate quick but firm to the driving speed and maintain speed.(I.E. not flooring the gas to the driving speed)

 

You missed my point... what you're talking about is being in too high a gear for the speed you are doing...

What I'm talking about is VERY slowly and SAFELY pushing the car up to speed using a higher gear. You can do this safely on a downhill hardly giving it gas and on level ground so long as you're accelerating *ever* so gently.... It's a delicate balance of power vs speed but if done correctly, it can be done without damaging the engine, tranny or the mounts.

You should NEVER do this is if you want to pass or accelerate quickly.

 

No.. Skipping a gear would mean revving higher then you need to in one gear to reach the low end of the next gear. The reason they put transmissions in cars is to keep the engine within the most efficient power band. Its the same reason new high efficient cars are receiving 8 speed gear boxes..

Not to mention modern cars are so advanced that it will maintain the most efficient amount of fuel that it can by using dual runner length intakes..

Slowly accelerating is really all that you can do on a flat surface..

On hilly roads you can actively bleed speed off while going up a hill and slightly accelerating down the hills.. It basically manages the load..

Look up hypermiling

 

Well I don't know about you guys but on my 5 speed, accelerating to 60mph in third on level ground only to cruise at this speed means I can skip fourth and go into 5th right away... The engine is not "strained", nor is the tranny. Saves gas as far as I'm concerned.... And yes, I can tell when the engine and tranny are strained.

 

The extra RPMs that you burn fuel with to get to 60mph in 3rd is wasting more than the fuel you would have burned by using 4th gear properly.

If you are truly trying to save fuel you should shift into 5th gear at 40mph and slowly climb to cruising speed.

Fuel is wasted as a result of heavy acceleration or heavy deceleration. Skipping gears like you explain would do nothing more than save a gear from use as if it had a chipped tooth possibly. My buddy had a Porsche that he had a couple chipped teeth in second gear due to racing it and always asked me to skip using 2nd when I could. This is appropriate reason for skipping a gear.

 

get vagcom or elm and log fuel trims. with the elm you can log calculated mpg from what the ecu "thinks".

i have done this and for me i cannot do such a light load increase in a lower gear. now this might be related to having a lightweight flywheel not having enough stored energy to "assist" the engine but also i cant even be at 40mph in 5th( i have 6 speed) because the engine is then chugging along.

i've done this test on highway between cruising 5th and cruising 6th. anything less that 70 i get better mpg in 5th.

 

It doesn't matter because no matter what you will be using fuel the second you put your foot on the gas pedal. Only way to save gas is to be moving at speed without touching the gas pedal since the injectors are completely closed at that point and the driveline is keeping the motor spinning.


When you go into a higher gear you have to give it more throttle to maintain a set speed then if you were in a lower gear. So dropping it into a higher gear to be at a much lower rpm while giving it throttle does not save gas.

 

this only works going downhill if your going to maintain momentum. if you do this on level ground you will slow down

 

Correct, but I am sure anyone that has driven a car knows that if you let off the throttle while on any ground that is not going down hill that the car is going to slow down. lol