Tiptronic and coasting...

[dtwinters]

I'm a first time poster. About a month and a half ago I bought a 2003 Boxster with Tiptronic and 28,000 miles and I absolutely love it. Once a week I have a 45 mile commute between Roanoke and Blacksburg, VA. Along the way is a good size mountain range that I cross on Interstate 81. In my old Saab 900 Turbo with a manual transmission I used to enjoy coasting for two full miles coming out of the mountains on my way home. I would even do this when driving my wife's Volvo S70 with its automatic transmission. For some reason I enjoy the soap box derby effect of covering long distances without assistance from the idling engine.

Is it a bad idea to do this with a Triptronic? I've done it a couple times with seemingly no ill effects but it is a little more unnerving to do so with the extra button push required to pull the transmission back into drive from neutral.

What do you think? Is this harmless or a bad idea?

Thanks,

Trevor

P.S. The owners manual has a sentence that suggests neutral should only be used in limited situations where slipping is occurring.

[rsfeller]

I'm a first time poster. About a month and a half ago I bought a 2003 Boxster with Tiptronic and 28,000 miles and I absolutely love it. Once a week I have a 45 mile commute between Roanoke and Blacksburg, VA. Along the way is a good size mountain range that I cross on Interstate 81. In my old Saab 900 Turbo with a manual transmission I used to enjoy coasting for two full miles coming out of the mountains on my way home. I would even do this when driving my wife's Volvo S70 with its automatic transmission. For some reason I enjoy the soap box derby effect of covering long distances without assistance from the idling engine.

Is it a bad idea to do this with a Triptronic? I've done it a couple times with seemingly no ill effects but it is a little more unnerving to do so with the extra button push required to pull the transmission back into drive from neutral.

What do you think? Is this harmless or a bad idea?

Thanks,

Trevor

P.S. The owners manual has a sentence that suggests neutral should only be used in limited situations where slipping is occurring.

Putting ANY modern automatic car in N while at high speeds is usually a no-no and good rule of them to NOT do. I've owned several makes models with different trans manufactures but I know for a fact ZF and Asian both do not recommend on some models. I cannot image the Tip would like it either but I do not know for sure on your make/model.

If you do a search on a recent (painfully) long email on the discussion of idle for engine braking and gas consumption you an draw you own conclusions based on theories that have such a minor saving in your pocket book it's not worth considering.

[PAULSPEED]

He said nothing about high speed driving. If the car is

idling at 40 MPH my opion is it will not make any difference.

It probably saves gas also. I would enjoy your car

and drive it like you want.

Paul

[rsfeller]

He said nothing about high speed driving. If the car is

idling at 40 MPH my opion is it will not make any difference.

It probably saves gas also. I would enjoy your car

and drive it like you want.

Paul

I think we can assume that that coasting a mile or two down a mountain pass is going to cause speeds in excess of 15mph. With modern transmissions the issue is not with "coasting" in N at a higher speed it is the required shift in and out of N at higher speeds that some cars don't like.

[Beelzy]

He said nothing about high speed driving. If the car is

idling at 40 MPH my opion is it will not make any difference.

It probably saves gas also. I would enjoy your car

and drive it like you want. :D

Paul

I think we can assume that that coasting a mile or two down a mountain pass is going to cause speeds in excess of 15mph. With modern transmissions the issue is not with "coasting" in N at a higher speed it is the required shift in and out of N at higher speeds that some cars don't like.

I wouldn't do it with any automatic tranny, let alone a Tiptronic. :o