Shift into neutral when waiting for light to change?

I'm no expert (other than having owned several "sticks"), but
I can't see why it would be harmful to shift into neutral. You are constantly doing that anyway when shifting into gear..

There is not problem with keeping the car in neutral at stop lights. I do it occasionally at long ones so that I don't have to keep my foot on the brake. The thing to remember though, is that if some one were to rear end you, you would go sailing through the intersection or whatever is in front of you. So be careful.

trenee said:

I'm no expert (other than having owned several "sticks"), but
I can't see why it would be harmful to shift into neutral. You are constantly doing that anyway when shifting into gear..

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No, the auto tranny does not go into neutral when stopped.

yes it is perfectly fine. It helps the car warm up if you are stuck in traffic or whatever.
Just dont forget u are in N, or you will step on gas..rev..then go.."OH yea, still in N", and then immediately slap it into D, and thus, doing an accidental tranny drop. hehe....from experience...

This hurts the motor mounts.

yeah i remember for a period of time i was shifting from (D) to (N) as the car is moving sort of trying to simulate a stick. i also notice i save a couple km/L on gas as well. But now i don't do that anymore becasue i'm scared it might screw my tranny so i only change it to (N) with the hand brake on when i have to wait long. i'm gonna ask my mechanic about this just to make sure but i'm pretty sure it can cause long term damage to your tranny.

wait..pipes.. u think switching from N to D messes up teh tranny? aww man.. are u sure?

AcuraGuy said:

wait..pipes.. u think switching from N to D messes up teh tranny? aww man.. are u sure?

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Yeah shifting contributes to the wear of the tranny. Good point, though you still have to shift sometimes, don't you?

The thing that pisses me off is when people don't make a complete stop before shifting from reverse to drive.

Sorry about my former reply. I didn't notice that the car was an automatic.

On the other hand, in the winter here in good 'ol Des Moines, I always shift from drive to neutral when coming to a stop in snow. I takes the pressure off the drivetrain and you are less likely to skid.. I've never noticed a problem doing this. I always make sure I come to a complete stop before shifting it back into drive again.

well not really messes the tranny but like what vince said wear it out. but i used to shift from (D) to (N) as the car is moving, my friends tell me its not good so i took their advise. and another thing i heard is bad for the car is when you drop from (N) to (D) while you punch the gas i heard you can drop your tranny-loose it? sometimes i wish i had a standard.

The thing that pisses me off is when people don't make a complete stop before shifting from reverse to drive.

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ya know.i still dont know how to quote propertly. anyways hehe yea ive done that in teh Acura a few times and since the tranny shifts hard, its really harsh. Other cars like Toyota, you can do that all day and the transistion between R and D is seamless. Doing that is prolly the second deadly sin for trannys hehe

yes dropping the tranny from nuetral to drive can cause you to lose your tranny, I know this from experience.

If you are sitting at a light idling, it doesn't do the tranny any harm to shift into nuetral. The only thing it might effect in the long run, is make the mounts wear out a little faster. If shifting back and forth does wear out the tranny, the wear is so minimal that you would never see it in the life of a car. That's just like saying pushing the gas pedal wears out the throttle cable because it moves it.