Downhill acceleration
03-27-2005, 09:38 AM
#1
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Downhill acceleration
Most of the automatic transmission cars I have owned in recent years really accelerated going down steep hills with your foot off the gas. Our automatic RX-8 picks up very little speed down steep hills. Doesn't the automatic RX freewheel on hills?
03-27-2005, 01:50 PM
#2
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It SHOULD freewheel. I can pick up speed at nearly twice what I can on flats when going downhill, and once I'm up to speed, I just let it coast on its own. If anything I have to keep stopping it from going to fast and utterly blowing away the speed limit. Of course what gear you're in determines how freely you'll coast down...4th being the fastest with the least amount of engine braking.
03-27-2005, 04:37 PM
#3
Bummed, but bring on OU!
It takes a pretty steep hill for me to pick up any speed. A little engine braking was designed into the car, and personally I prefer it to just zooming off down every hill. You can always throw it in neutral going down hills. I hate other people and their free-wheelin' vehicles, specifically on the highway in the mountains. 50mph up the hill, 90 mph down the hill.
03-27-2005, 04:42 PM
#4
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Originally Posted by therm8
It takes a pretty steep hill for me to pick up any speed. A little engine braking was designed into the car, and personally I prefer it to just zooming off down every hill. You can always throw it in neutral going down hills. I hate other people and their free-wheelin' vehicles, specifically on the highway in the mountains. 50mph up the hill, 90 mph down the hill.
03-27-2005, 05:40 PM
#5
He's as bad as Can
Originally Posted by sferrett
I think coasting downhill in neutral in an auto might be bad for the transmission as the idling engine may not provide enough oil flow to properly lube/cool the rest of the transmission. It's also generally considered to be unsafe to roll around in neutral be it in an auto or a manual.
03-27-2005, 05:49 PM
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Originally Posted by expo1
I used to think this was true but what about all the RV's you see FLAT Towing cars with auto's on the hwy over 60MPH?
Doing a little searching it would seem there's a bit more to towing cars behind your RV than just hooking them up and heading off. This site (amongst others) talks about driveshaft couplers, lube pumps, axle locks and other such things...
http://www.remcotowing.com/
Last edited by sferrett; 03-27-2005 at 05:54 PM.
03-27-2005, 07:09 PM
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I am definitely talking about an automatic transmission. We live close to a very steep hill and my Ford pickup gains more speed in 3rd gear (manual trans) than the RX does in 4th. Even the Lincoln Mark VIII gains more speed in 2nd than the RX in 4th. We just bought the RX last week with 5000 miles on it. It has had the N flash done to the computer by the paperwork I have but it doesn't appear to get very good gas mileage. Haven't calculated it yet (not enough miles) but it went through the first half of the tank pretty quickly.
03-27-2005, 08:21 PM
#8
He's as bad as Can
Originally Posted by Wingtraveler
it doesn't appear to get very good gas mileage. Haven't calculated it yet (not enough miles) but it went through the first half of the tank pretty quickly.
1. 2.79
2. 1.55
3. 1.00
4. 0.69
Plus the rear axle ratio is 4.44 all factors in this “ down hill” issue.
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