For those with AT's....

[Hyperion]

Buffs92 previously said:

I shift into N. Turn off the engine. Get out of the truck to save wear and tear on the seats ( I only OPEN the door, though, not close it) I unhook the battery cables. I drain all the oil out and cool it down. I syphon the gas and put it through a 4 stage HEPA filtration process before replacing it. Granted, I only put enough gas in to get me from one station to the next so as not to put too much pressure on the gas tank welds. Airing the tires down is a little time consumming, but the reduced pressure does wonders for the sidewalls. Then, before pulling away again, I taste test all the fluids, including a few of my own.

I know, you may all think I'm crazy for doing this, but I do not do this at EVERY light. Just every 3.14 miles.

Your method seems very effective and comprehensive. I think I will need to do this check every 2.72 miles though.

[SkyKing]

CanadaFJ previously said:

do you shift the FJ into neutral when stopped at a set of lights??

No. Why in the world would I?

[1911]

DEWFPO previously said:

For years, some european manufacturers (Volvo's) have their engines set up to stop fuel delivery on deceleration above 2500 rpms. It's not noticeable to the driver and it saves some small amount of fuel.

My 30-year-old FJ40 does this too, except at above 1800 rpm. Keeps it from backfiring on deceleration, and supposedly helps with pollution (by keeping unburned fuel out of the exhaust on decel.?). It'd be hard to tell if it saves any small amount of fuel on a truck that gets as bad of mpg as this one. I actually had some problems with this system on mine and temporarily defeated it until I fixed it, and it ran better with the system defeated.

[Catt22]

Logic would suggest to me that keeping the tranny in gear at stops will result in less wear and tear on the transmission. The way I see it, the shifting in and out of gear shocks the tranny however so little and cumulativiely speaking this will eventually take its toll and will result in premature tranny failure. How much prematurely is extremely difficult to judge. Probably not much and probably less than that caused when you shift from forward to reverse when turning around and such. If you do any wheeling with an AT, you are probably subjecting it to a lot more wear and tear in one day than shifting in and out of neutral will cause over several years. That said, I still prefer to leave it in gear and ready to go instantly. The amazing Japanese engineers have designed it to be operated this way. They sure built a wonderful transmission. The AT is one of my favorite things about my FJ. It's soo smoooth, knows more about how you are driving than you do and it's always in the right gear. My only big concern is the cost of replacing it when that day inevitably arrives. By that time it will cost $10k. Will necessarily have to rob a bank or something. I'll plead justifiable robbery and roll the dice.