In auto's, Let's say im backing out of my driveway and shift from R to N and let it roll out TO a stop. So while its rollin i drop it to neutral. Or for example when im goin down a steep hill on the highway about 80 mph, i let it glide in neutral, and when its time to give some gas, i change it to D,while rolling... and continue. Is this safe for my transmission? Will it hurt it at all?

I DO wait for a COMPLETE stop before going to R to D. I wanna make sure the tranny doesnt mess up anytime soon and cause problems...

 

You can do it once in a while but not on a regular basis. I really think our auto trannys suck, mine is durable so far but shifts like total ****. Or maybe mine is just up for a rebuilt.

 

i shift from R straight to D when I backup. It's much better than hearing the creaking noise when going R --> N --> D. maybe I'm in need of a rebuild I hope my tranny lasts another year at least.

 

its no good when ur coasting on the parkway....the transmission has pressure inside of it when u put it in N the pressure drops to regular N pressure. Then when u put it back into D its like a sudden jolt to increase the pressure back up to the speed. u wont save money on gas or get better gas mileage by doing it.

 

Well if u think about it, when u put it in neutral, the gears are disgaged, so i believe that only throwin the gears from R to D will def kill ur tranny because ur changin the gears in reverse to forward without a complete stop. But for neutral the gears are free to go in either motion.

 

what about going down a hill and shifting into nuetral? I've also wonderd of that, is it harmful to tranny ?

 

When coasting, there is no benefit of putting the car in neutral since the transmission works pretty much like a bicycle ratchet. The transmission(bicycle chain) is under no strain while coasting. Check howstuffworks article on how automatic transmissions and torque converters work for more details. Also there is no problem with switching from neutral to drive or drive to neutral as long as you are coasting foward. This is actually less stressfull than switching from neutral to drive while holding the brake(stationary).

 

Back when I was in driving school, they said to shift down a gear when you're going down a hill and use engine breaking so you don't have to ride your brakes as much. I'm not sure how this is for your transmission though. I used to do it on our Subaru, but I'm worried to on my Maxima. The only time I shift it into neutral is when I'm sliding on ice and I need to slow my car down faster.

 

auto trannys are built to handle the best without excessive shifting. like when you come to a long red light, i have heard that it is best to just leave it in D rather than shift to N. the extra disengaging and engaging is more work than just sitting in D, right?

 

i think i'd rather replace my brakes twice than my tranny once. i don't think its worth it to put extra strain on the tranny when the brakes are there for a reason...

 

if im at a lonng red light, i jus leave it in D, and pull up the E-brake a little and let my foot of the brake.

 

going downhill with engine at idle speed while transmission is in neutral or going downhill with tranny in drive and burnin at 2k rpms... seems like a benefit to me