Hello Scotty,
I have been driving manual cars all my life. Recently I bought an automatic 2018 Toyota Camry 6 gear automatic. What is the right way to shift from Park to Drive? When I change i usually leave the gear in 2 seconds before changing. Like if i need to change from P to D, I will leave in R for 2 seconds then N for 2 seconds then D, Then off I go. I have this belief it will prolong my automatic gear box. Is this better or do i just shift from P to D in less than a sec. Thank you
I have this belief it will prolong my automatic gear box.
Where did you get this belief?
- hold your foot on the brake
- Move the lever directly to the position you want. There is absolutely zero benefit to pausing at each position. In fact, you're just changing gears unnecessarily and you will wear out the mechanisms faster. Your belief is more of a superstition.
- Wait for the transmission to engage.
- Let go of brake, carry on.
The best thing is just to shift directly to drive. Otherwise, your transmission is shifting into each gear you pause at. It's actually worse for wear.
Nope, (on 99% of cars).
Many modern transmissions, most dual clutches, already engage 1st gear when you’re in P - so when you move quickly to D, it can avoid doing any internal shifting. Slowly moving though all of the positions will cause the transmission to shift when otherwise it wouldn’t have.
Going slowly though the gears on a CVT is probably worse, there you have to engage a planetary gearset used only in R, and in N the belt has to get unpinched and later repinched - you’re activating systems that wouldn’t have been used otherwise.
some automatic gearboxes also do go through all of the gears even if you’re moving the shifter fast - but those are usually designed to be used in that way (unless stared otherwise in the manual)
Just come to a complete stop (use the regular brake, it’s not a smart idea to use the parking brake just to shift gears - mostly on a DCT and some other modern transmissions) change it to any gear you want as fast as you’d like, after you feel the car has engaged the gear, you can begin moving.
but I still suggest you check the manual in case your car happens to be special.
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what really impacts the lifespan of your transmission is how you drive it and how you maintain it.
(On a DCTs and CVTs you have to avoid causing slippage, when only either the engine or the wheels are accelerating
But mostly it’s not doing anything ‘stupid’ like NOT shifting the transmission into N while moving, or revving in N and shifting to D.
AND maintenance. Oil should be changed very regularly (if possible on your model also change the filter)
also don’t think it needs to be said, but do not use additives and use only OEM spec fluids and parts)
The lifespan of your transmission is built into it, each modern model is usually engineered to fail at a certain mileage - so just don’t expect that anything expect for good service and careful driving can prolong its life.
"But mostly it’s not doing anything ‘stupid’ like NOT shifting the transmission into N while moving"
What's wrong with doing this?
I'm guessing he means shifting to N while moving on accident, thus causing over revs. But I could be mistaken.
@MountainManJoe @Mod_Man
What I mean is that you should never shift in and out of N while you're moving to save fuel - I doubt that you can over-rev your engine like that on any modern gearbox.
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Shifting into N while moving was actually a "feature" on 5 speed AISIN automatics that were ruining the lives of Volvo and Renault owners back in the early 2000's - what this actually causes is insane amounts of wear and tear on the valve body, solenoids and control mechanisms.
Many owners modified their cars to disable this feature to avoid premature destruction of the already weak automatic - later even dealers got the option to perform this using a software update.
(In the press release announcing this technology they had a typo and said, "A folly integrated electro-hydraulic circuit and unique control principle were designed..." - But maybe it wasn't a typo as it actually was integrated in a folly manner.)
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BUT, in general, On transmissions that weren't meant to be driven in such a way, this can also cause disruption of oil flow and in the wrong term wear out the entire transmission (In neutral, your transmissions oil pump may not spin or produce the same flow as it would under normal driving conditions)
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With how N works on CVTs I'm familiar with, it's clear to me that there it's even worse. You're causing the belt to be in a constant slippage between two cones moving at drastically different speeds - and when you're going back into D, the belt will have to grab the cones and equalize the speeds...
And on DCTs, usually one of the clutches is clutched in and the other is connected, I'm not sure how this would work if it's in "double neutral" - A lot of DCTs can't clutch in both clutches at the same time.
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It's just an edge case scenario that at best can maybe save accouple grams of fuel and most likely will wear out your automatic. (pretty much the reason why when you're towing an FWD car you always lift the front wheels of the ground even if it's in N)