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Hi,

I need some advice about coasting my Tiida 1.5L CVT in N with the engine off. Will it damage the transmission? The owner's manual says the car cannot be towed with its front wheels on the ground.

I think the Nissan CVT has the drive clutch between the torque converter and the pulleys. If so, will the pulleys continue to spin with the engine off and no oil pump circulation? Would that mean no ICE-OFF coasting?

What's the best way to re-engage the transmission into D after a NICE-ON coast? I am not sure if the CVT holds the last known ratio when I re-engage the transmission and thus am at a loss as to what the "rev-match" rpms should be.

My best tank so far has been 20.37km/l which has been achieved mostly by DWB and DWL (according to my right foot only, I do not know if the ScanGauge will work on non-US versions of the Versa/Tiida). NICE-ON coasting has been limited to coasts toward red lights since that allows me to re-engage the transmission with the car stationary

I hope to be able to do 50mpg (US) some day... My commute is variable, but averages out to about 35~30% city and 65~70% highway miles on recent tanks. My tyres are at 260kPa front and 235kPa rear--this is as much as I can get away with before my family complains :-). The car has a rather stiff ride.

Thanks in advance!

BTW, are there any other Tiida/Versa owners on this forum? I would like to pick up a couple of tips from you guys...

The Nissan Versa cannot be flat-towed with an automatic transmission. (regular or CVT)

If the Versa is just a rebadged Tiida, I would expect that you can't FAS that car.

PAGE 9-16 of the manual:
http://nissanversa.org/download/07-versa-om.pdf

Thanks.

In the light of this, what can I do to increase mileage further with the CVT Tiida/Versa?

Galdalf (cool handle by the way!), you should work on DWL and DWB as much as possible. Play with the pedal trying to get the engine to use the lowest RPM for a given speed as you can -- the lower that is the less gas you are consuming in the process. You most likely can also still use NICE ON (Neutral Internal Combustion Engine On) coasting to reduce fuel use even further if you can identify sections where you do not need engine power.

Along with that I would think that basic P&G with NICE ON is still a possibility for you as well.

Have you tried any of the above?

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a shot. Right now, I only coast NICE-ON to stop lights. Tried a moving NICE-ON coast today. Crested a slope and coasted down the other side for about 600m or so before re-engaging the CVT to D. Blipped the accelerator as smoothly as I could to get RPMs up to 1200 before that. Noticed that the CVT re-engages without TC lockup and takes 2~3 seconds to reacquire lockup. So there's a little loss of efficiency there, but I guess at that point, the car is still effectively coasting. I've experimented only a few times previously and find that the lockup occurs more quickly if I either hold the accelerator at rock steady and at the lowest possible position for that particular speed or ease off ever so slightly.

Still a little worried about damaging the transmission, so I'm only trying it out in situations that allow me to re-engage D at a relatively low 60km/h.

Still trying for that elusive 50mpg :-).

Hi Gandalf,

There is a very nice thread on NICE-on (the question is why it is illegal in some states but it goes into how and also into Pulse and glide). I think you might enjoy it as it was very helpful to me:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/fuel-economy/t-nice-on-coasting-why-illegal-some-places-5780.html

Happy hypermiling,

--des

Hi Des,

Thanks for the pointer. I'm still trying to get the hang of "re-entry" into D. So far, I haven't been able to get a smooth transition everytime (for re-entry speeds above 40km/h... lower than that, I just take my foot off the pedal and shift to D... the car re-engages very nicely).

For higher speeds, I have only successfully transitioned once with no discernable deceleration/acceleration. It appears that to rev match, I have to have depress the accelerator ever to slightly and then hold it rock steady before shifting to D. Otherwise it re-engages with a lowered gear ratio and the rpms rise quite a bit.

~kin-soon

Just a warning that I want to mention:

Whether FAS or NICE-On coasting, check the hill first!

Modern brakes don't fade (fail from overuse) nearly as quickly as the old asbestos ones did, but they do still fade.

This is not a problem on the flatlands, however the 10km long, 8% downgrade I drove earlier this month would have been a problem if I didn't slow at the top of the hill and occasionally reengage the tranny.

Thanks for the tip.

It turns out that our geography is mostly flat. The island I call home is only 26km north-to-south and 45km east-to-west. :-). Our highest hill is all of 150m tall.

Well I don't know about FAS but for NICE-on, if I think there is a likely stop (or a very good chance there will be a stop), I put it into drive to get the engine braking. We have some pretty nice hills to coast on (though they are less fun going up!). I think it is advisable.
It also slows you down if you get to what is a stop and you can go into it VERY slowly...

--des

Just a warning that I want to mention:

Whether FAS or NICE-On coasting, check the hill first!

Modern brakes don't fade (fail from overuse) nearly as quickly as the old asbestos ones did, but they do still fade.

This is not a problem on the flatlands, however the 10km long, 8% downgrade I drove earlier this month would have been a problem if I didn't slow at the top of the hill and occasionally reengage the tranny.