putting car in neutral at stop?

[markus]

just curious. would it help my tranny if i put it in neutral at a stop light or no? im curious to see how many people do this also.

[Atl530i]

I've read that if you are at a long light you could do that. I've done it a few times in the Nissan, the Atlanta area has a few long lights.

[t.wak]

It's become a bit of a habit for me to pop the car into neutral when stopped... Don't know why, but hopefully it's a good thing.

[winfred]

may or may not do anything useful, could add a little life and probably wouldn't hurt as you are uncoupling the converter from the forward drum taking the drag off the clutches, i think it would do more for some trannys than others where as some will idle and not really pull and other drop the assend of the car as it rides down on the suspension

[Macv]

I do sometimes. I was told it doesn't hurt.

[Ferret]

What does hurt though is dropping the box into drive and immediately stomping on the gas... I've done this a few times accidentally while not paying attention to the lights and suddenly looking up to find they've been on green for a bit.

The boxes, especially if high mileage require a good 2-3 seconds to fully engage drive sometimes.

[Podmore]

Popping the trans into neutral does 2 things - it takes the load off the engine which in theory should reduce idle emissions and fuels consumption by a poofteenth, and it also allows the torque converter to freewheel, thus reducing the heat load on the trans fluid. In Drive with the car stopped, the output shaft is stopped while the rest of the gubbins is spinning around merrily; the friction between the moving trans fluid and the unmoving converter parts heats up the fluid. So I would say on balance it's not a dumb thing to do ... I do it ... but take heed of Ferret's point if you have a trans that's slow to shift into D from neutral.

[Randell]

my girlfriend drives an 04 holden (opel/vauxhall/gm) astra auto which does this by default... as you stop the car it pops it into N, and when you lift off the brake it puts it back into D.. the manual says it's for fuel economy, but i think it's probably because there's some fault with these transmissions and they'll toast if they stay in drive.. go holden!

[genphreak]

my girlfriend drives an 04 holden (opel/vauxhall/gm) astra auto which does this by default... as you stop the car it pops it into N, and when you lift off the brake it puts it back into D.. the manual says it's for fuel economy, but i think it's probably because there's some fault with these transmissions and they'll toast if they stay in drive.. go holden!

These days every bit of economy counts: As all it takes is some logic, which costs no extra at all, they do it. Also they reduce warranty returns a little (or get to build the boxes more cheaply)... I'd side with Randell on that one though, surely they will calculate the MTBF on them after they've made a few models and begin incorporating more plastic parts in their trannies.

[goat128]

Putting it in neutral at a stop will help prolong your transmission. However if its just a short stop dont bother.

Engage the ebrake too for comfort.