Current automatic trannys illegally "freewheel"

State laws, for good reason prohibit coasting down hills. It used to be
common for car and truck drivers to push in the clutch pedal or shift into
neutral and freewheel down hills to save on gas. Brakes overheated, lost
all their stopping power and many serious crashes resulted.

So, what do we see on virtually all of the automatics today? Overdriving,
freewheeling drives. I own a late model and can personally attest to the
fact that it coasts almost forever down the road. It is a real
ticket-getter, that bastard car of mine. When the speed limit slows from
65 to 55, my car is still coasting down at about 60 when I hit the 55 sign.
No engine braking to speak about is the reason.

Of course, Chrysler does this to improve gas mileage and it promotes longer
motor life too because it revs low rpms, but I have to take exception with
their unsafe methods. It is just a matter of time before this freewheeling
action hits the courtroom. If a judge and jury finds Chrysler violated the
anti-free wheeling law, there toast.

Il mittente di questo messaggio |The sender address of this
non corrisponde ad un utente |message is not related to a real
reale ma all'indirizzo fittizio |person but to a fake address of an
di un sistema anonimizzatore |anonymous system
Per maggiori informazioni |For more info
https://www.mixmaster.it

 

Buy a hybrid. They use coasting to charge the battery.

 

Yeah-- your driving speed is your car's fault! Blame Chrysler! Blame
everyone! They should have designed your car to slow down itself before your
speed limit sign, wherever that may be. If you haven't found your brake pedal
yet, you might want to try downshifting on your way to file your lawsuit.

(Then go out and buy a bunch of junk with a credit card, don't pay it off, and
whine that society put your in debt too!)

 

Um, yeah. MANUAL transmission cars with Overdrive did that back in the
'40s & '50s; it's more a function of the AT being in OD over 40 mph than
the transmission design itself. If you want engine braking on hills, try
taking it out of OD into a lower gear and see what happens.

 

I don't like replying to a fake, but here goes.

You need to learn how drive a modern car and look further ahead.
My Chrysler also has little engine braking in top gear, as do all modern
cars. It's called low revs in top gear George.
If your eyesight limits your vision of that lower speed limit sign up
ahead, you can downshift, or if not too difficult touch the brakes which
are "amazingly" just for that purpose.

 

Yes, those old front and rear drum brakes did that.

Today though it's really difficult to overheat and lose stopping power on
a set of front disc brakes. Which just about all vehicles have. But your
welcome to try. In fact, please do try, often! Maybe we will get lucky
and you will get into an accident that will paralyze your typing fingers.

Ted

 

Last freewheel I saw was on the good old SAAB two strokes.

Richard.

 

I would have to disagree. My grandfather's 2004 T&C has front disc
brakes that fade very quickly.. and the thing only has 22,000 miles.

 

Someone put on cheap or wrong brake pads. Or your running OEM
crap pads. Or the rears aren't working, or you have a kinked brake
line that isn't letting the brakes release so they are overheating. In any
case it's still under warranty, bring it in. Brakes
are a safety item and NHTSA gets real interested in stories of brakes
having problems.

I have 2 T&C's and no problems with fading, even on a 4 mile 6%
downgrade hill.

Ted

 

Ok, I'll bite on that one. However, I really doubt the dealership in
this town I live will find any problems..if you know what I mean.
The power steering graunches sometimes. I brought it out there and
"oh, we couldn't find a problem".
When we first got the thing, the rear coolant tubes had somehow been
bent enough to touch the exhaust pipe. Took two visits and a loaner
hemi pickup to get it all straightened out. I think they might have
left a ground undone as well because the tranny doesn't lock up
properly any more and the right window doesn't go down. Not to
mention the headlights flicker one time whenever you press the brake
pedal or use any other accessories in the car. Sometimes, when you
turn the key to the start position, there's a delay between the time
the switch actually goes into the position and when the starter
actuates. Oh yeah, the battery keeps getting weak as hell, also.