Hi Scotty and Friends,
I recently started driving an automatic car, prior to which I used to drive a manual gear car in my home country. Out of habit here are few things I do:
1. Switch to neutral, if I know I am going to idle for long at a stoplight. More of a habit from driving a manual car as holding on the clutch can hurt. I figured the automatic transmission might benefit from it.
2. While at a stoplight on the top of an inclined road, accelerate slightly instead of breaking so that the car doesn't roll back. This is something I used to do back in my home country as cars there do not have fancy tech like hill hold. I feel there is a two-fold benefit here, one, the car doesn't slip back and you don't have to squeeze the breaks with a clock ticking in your head. Two, when you start off the wheel don't slip since the take-off is gradual. Not sure how this wears out the transmission parts though.
Looking forward to inputs on this from a car maintenance and road safety perspective.
Thanks in Advance!
Bad habits.
- Unnecessary and potentially dangerous. No significant benefit.
- Don't do this. Read your owner's manual. It probably says something along the lines of "do not use the accelerator to hold the vehicle on a hill. This could damage your transmission". Automatics don't roll back on slight inclines at all. On steeper hills, I lightly hold the brake with my left foot and accelerate with the right until vehicle takes off.
@mmj thank you!!
enjoy driving a civilized car that doesn't feel like a farm plow