So I had the car jacked up in the front (only) on two jackstands. I was replacing the Serpentine/PS belt and i fired it up after I had replaced them to make sure there was no squeaking, etc.

The car was in neutral, but when i started it both front tires rotated ever so slowly. Its a manual, and it seems really strange to me why this would happen.

Is this AT ALL normal?

Also, i stopped them rotating by hand, and they stopped, but when I revved the engine in neutral, they started to go again.

Any ideas?

 

That's normal... Hard to explain but don't worry.

 

Perfectly normal. I've seen a lot of different cars do this while on a lift.

 

What I think is going on is as the gears are spinning around in the transmission, the lack of resistance (wheels being on the ground) is allowing the gear oil to create an extremely inefficient fluid linkage, much like what you find in a torque converter.

As you observe this sort of thing though, please keep this safety video in mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...j-fhiTA#t=164s

 

Agreed.

 

Exactly no gears are exactly engaged per say but the gear oil is still allowing the wheels to move because of such minimal resistance. I had my car up and wondered the same thing I grabbed the wheel and it stopped no problem I was befuddled

 

Perfectly normal. Same thing used to happen on my automatic Volvo when it was in neutral up in the air.