Why Dont Auto's Stall

[GeorgeA]

Is it best to keep a auto in Neutral at the traffic lights or to hold your foot on the brake pedal ?

What do you do, if like me, you spend 30 minutes every morning and evening in a queue creeping forward.

I use both N and P while waiting in the queue and never need to touch the accelerator throughout this time.

I guess I must be putting the maximum strain on the transmission and should perhaps change my ways. Personally I hate holding the car on the brakes

In these circumstances what do you do?

 

[MBManInKen]

I use both N and P while waiting in the queue and never need to touch the accelerator throughout this time.

But you are putting a lot of extra wear on your box that might eventually lead to very costly problems.

In these circumstances what do you do?

I use my parking brake for the more lengthy waiting periods. If traffic is really completely stopped for a long time, then I think it is appropriate to put it in park turn the engine off altogether. But if this happens every day, I would suggest taking a different route or moving house .

 

[GeorgeA]

But you are putting a lot of extra wear on your box that might eventually lead to very costly problems.

But if this happens every day, I would suggest taking a different route or moving house .

Buying a manual car would be cheaper than moving house. Another route is possible but involves sitting in heavy traffic in the city centre. So same problem really.

I use my parking brake for the more lengthy waiting periods. If traffic is really completely stopped for a long time, then I think it is appropriate to put it in park turn the engine off altogether. .

This is precisely what I do also but in my daily commute the queue moves slowly all the time - turning the engine off is not an option

I think a compromise is the order of the day and from tomorrow I shall keep my foot firmly on the brake pedal .... more often.

Many thanks

 

[glojo]

To give an easier description you have the drive from the engine spinning furiously and very close to this spinning wheel is the drive to the gearbox. You then plonk oil between the gap and this oil makes a connection. Modern automatics are far, far more complex and it then starts getting technical and we get baffled by long words.

I educated a very learned member of this forum into the easy way of describing the four stroke cycle of our engines:

Suck
Squeeze
Bang
Blow

or for edumakated folks

Suck = Induction
Squeeze = Compression
Bang = Power
Blow = Exhaust

Regards
John

 

[Birdman]

I recollect one of the motoring organisations suggesting recently that the trade-off between transmission wear and fuel burn (more burn in D than N) while stationary occurs after three minutes. They advocated not using Park, perhaps because of the McDonald's Law Effect mentioned above - I don't know.

They didn't say how you could tell beforehand whether a given halt would last more than three minutes. But then, we're talking about a Motoring Organisation (can't remember which one!) which means no need to worry about trivia like uncertainty and imperfect knowledge they're all too smug to understand.

That said, I tend to fidget after three minutes and like to put it in N to avoid the risk of leaping inadvertently forward while impatiently foot-tapping in the pedal area.

 

[greg123]

Yes, hybrid cars turn off - not just shift to n - at lights. Auto's don't stall because very little drive is passed through the TC at idle speed, it's like slipping the clutch EVER so slightly on a manual, enough to make you creep forward on a flat road, but not enough to even drop the engine rpm.

 

[glojo]

The option on some of our SBC vehicles might be the answer.

SBC Stop

John

 

[BlackC55]

Is fuel consumption effected by keeping it in D ?

Marginal.

 

[LastMinute]

older 201's 123 and 126 and early 124's ... use an idle relay that increases the idle when in gear

... whereas later 124s (and others, probably) decrease idle r.p.m. when in gear, to reduce creep.

 

[television]

... whereas later 124s (and others, probably) decrease idle r.p.m. when in gear, to reduce creep.

It was really a change when we got the electronic 722.6 box. the effect of being in D slows the idle depending on the engine

with the earlier boxes if you coast in N and put it back to D the engine will speed up and the box would go to 3rd at 40 mph and then drop into top, with the electronic boxes they do not do that, in fact the revs of the engine do not change, they are very different