Don't coast down a hill

[hartley]

I appreciate you are all clever chaps that know this but in case there are some thickos among you like me let me remind you if you turn off the engine in a traffic jam and then coast down a hill ( radio on key in ignition but not turned to starter position) - the brakes won't work ,brown trouser moment until you stand on the brake pedal - livened up the morning commute though !!!!!

[yeti]

What on earth were you thinking???

Wow, times are hard if you need to save petrol that much. You related to Jockman..?

Brake pressure to stop a 1.75ton Aston... Must have been quite a shove!

[George H]

yeti said:

What on earth were you thinking???

This! I can sort of understand if you just put it in neutral (although I wouldn't personally), but turning the engine off?!! Luckily it ended well

[Jockman]

Fantastic idea Hartley me old sweaty, but ultimately flawed

I suppose you could just pull back both paddles (if applicable) to engage neutral

[pschlute]

might find steering a bit tough too.

[RichB]

And I was expecting something deeply philosophical about life and the passage of time.

[v8woollie]

I bet Hartley's life passed before his eyes in a very short time when he pressed the brake pedal!

Whatever possessed you to turn the engine off

[michael gould]

That's funny......your a big divvi

[clorenzen]

a bit like driving my DB4 then.

[krisdelta]

No harm done, that's the main thing! You'll find that the car barely uses fuel at idle (less than a litre an hour I think), so unless the exhaust is annoying or it's overheating you may as well keep it on.

[Jockman]

clorenzen said:

a bit like driving my DB4 then.

Classic !!

[yeti]

Jockman said:

Classic !!

And sadly true. I have to stand on the brakes to slow down the Marcos by any meaningful amount, but if I stand on them too hard, it locks up... A car that induces exhaustion very quickly when driven fast

[hartley]

yeti said:

What on earth were you thinking???

Wow, times are hard if you need to save petrol that much. You related to Jockman..?

Brake pressure to stop a 1.75ton Aston... Must have been quite a shove!

Must be the Scottish love of efficiency in me - otherwise known as meanness - long hill stop start traffic - why use the engine when gravity will do the job. Unfortunately gravity has no off switch !!!

[BingoBob]

hartley said:

why use the engine when gravity will do the job. Unfortunately gravity has no off switch !!!

Yes it does. It's called a tree.

[GenialZ]

To cap it all coasting will actually consume more fuel then leaving it in gear. These modern engines are clever enough to shut off the fuel when the throttle is off. When it's in neutral the engine requires some fuel to tick over. When I learnt this I changed the habit of a lifetime and was gratified to see 999 mpg going down a familiar hill instead of 200 or so. An old Aston, like my old Landy, probably will save fuel this way.

[tonyarmitstead]

When I posed this question (of whether to idle (clutch in) or just take your foot off the throttle) to someone who should know, the answer was that for smaller engines, taking you foot off the throttle will stop all fuel being delivered to the engine (so is more economical than idling). However for an Aston (and other performance cars) the ECU will actually supply the engine with some fuel - just to keep the CAT hot. If you dont do this and then the driver puts their foot down, the CAT cant heat up quick enough and you get unburnt fuel going through the CAT.