• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.19-23
• /
• 2009

This paper focuses on vehicle fuel economy improvement using D-Range neutral control of automatic transmission. The system objected to reducing of fuel consumption during idle. Usually, turbine of conventional auto transmission is mechanically linked to wheel during idling condition. Therefore speed ratio of torque converter is zero for that period. This causes needless power loss by the torque converter slip. To improve this inefficiency automobile makers develops electronically-controlled D-range neutral control system. The D-range neutral control system minimizes slip on the torque converter by shifting gear to a neutral position during vehicle stoped with D-range gear position. However there's insufficient study about the effect of D-range neutral control system on vehicle fuel economy. In this paper, researches are performed on effect of D-range neutral control system on vehicle fuel economy by experiment with two different vehicle. And it is also estimated the effect on vehicle fuel economy using computer simulation. As a result, 1.8% of LA-4 mode fuel economy improvement can be achieved in a vehicle by D-range neutral control system.