i just filled up my car and i have been cruising on 3rd the whole day, im trying to see if chillin at 4000-5000k will change my gas issue. 3-4th gear at around 30-50 mph, this is of course city driving, in the freeway i stay at 4 maybe 5th....ill see in 3 days if my gas is any better =) lighter gear = less load on the motor

 

I read that if you drive in 1st, 3rd, and 5th, skipping gears 2 and 4, you'd save more gas. I think in our cases we could go to 6 too, but I was always afraid to do this to my cars....

 

Sometimes, I skip 5 th. Does anyone know if this (or skipping gears in general) is good/bad/indifferent?

 

Well, the company that brought this out...as far as I know, was Chevy. They made you force an upshift in the Camaro/Firebird in some type of order like you listed. 1-3-5 or 1-4-5-6, but anyway...the reason they did it was to save gas.

The owners of those cars really did not like it, but Chevy forced the upshifts to save gas. Now the question is...was the cars ECU ready for something like that? If you do it by yourself, I've done it in my Probe GT, would it help? Is it dangerous the rotary to upshift in that manner?

Only testing will tell...

PS. I've done it, but never really done it long enough to test it out...maybe I should considering my old Prob has alot of miles on it and no one will indanger their RX-8

 

skip this..........................

 

I skip gears all the time... for me it's not a matter of saving gas, but with the crazy tall RPM range you hardly need 6 gears. I'm almost never in 4th- If I'm accelerating onto a highway or major road, I'll wind it out in 2nd or 3rd, then go directly to the appropriate cruising gear (5th or 6th) depending on the speed. When downshifting for passing power, I go from 6th or 5th directly down to 3rd. As long as the revs are where they should be for that gear, there's no harm in skipping a gear or two.

 

GM did that in the Camaro/TransAm/Firebird in the late 90's models. It actually only forced a shift from one to three, skipping second gear, and only when the RPM were under 3000, or similiar (can't remember the exact RPM). You're right, it was a gas saving measure. I don't think the ECU was tuned to expect this, as the mechanical piece was just a solonoid lockout on second gear in the transmission, much like the reverse lockout solonoid found on most manual transmissions. There were even companies that provided a "Skip-Shift Eliminator" for those cars. It was just a resistor that changed the voltage to the solonoid, so it thought it was never shifting to second gear, thus eliminating the lockout.

 

Exactly...thanks for the further explanation. In my Probe, I do a 1-3-5 shift and it works without a problem. Now, again...I have not tested this for fuel savings so I can't say anything more.

I wish a Chevy guy could explain in detail how much fuel savings this gives a car, heck or anyone else.

Note: The basic idea is simple, keep the RPM's as low as you can and you will save gas. Now, shouldn't that work in any car...??? It makes sense...

 

Well, it worked for the GM V8's, as they have as much torque at 2krpm as we do at peak, so the effect may be quite different with the RENESIS. I'm speaking in terms of which RPM to shift at. Just because GM picked 3k doesn't mean that's the magic RPM for fuel savings on all cars.

I doubt you'll find any GM guy that still has that in effect on his car Most of the ones I know had it removed, because with a 5.6l V8, who cares about fuel consumption?

 

I'm pretty sure it was from 1st to 4th, and I think the Vette still has it.

~ Matt

 

Yeah, maybe it was first to fourth. As of 2003, the vette had it, but the rpm was rediculously low. Too low to notice; something like 2000 rpm. I know, as I had one before the 8. I mean, who shifts out of first that low?!

Thanks for the clarification.

 

It was 1st to 4th, and it was fluid as can be, never seemed to bother most people because it just slid right into 4th gear like it would into 2nd.

-Rupes