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.

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Reply to
George Orwell
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Buy a hybrid. They use coasting to charge the battery.

Reply to
Art

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!) :-)

Reply to
Greg

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.

Reply to
Spam away

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

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

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

Richard.

Reply to
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.

Reply to
Nza

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

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

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.

Reply to
Nza

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