Driving an automatic transmission vehicle is relatively easy, especially compared to manual transmission vehicles. That being said, there are still a few pitfalls of automatic car driving that you should avoid.
These driving mistakes can damage your vehicle’s automatic transmission, leading to costly repair bills. Here’s what you need to look out for:
On downhill roads, you shouldn’t shift your automatic vehicle to neutral. It reduces the oil supply in the engine and deprives the transmission of proper lubrication if you do. This can cause long-term damage to the engine and lead to components wearing down faster.
It’s common to rev the engine before switching gears. After all, it makes an impressive sound. However, if you do this frequently, it causes excessive friction between the engine components, which can cause damage in the long run.
Waiting at a red traffic light or in terrible traffic can feel like forever, and in these situations, you might be tempted to shift your vehicle to neutral to save fuel. But leaving your vehicle in neutral and shifting out of it constantly between lights can easily lead to transmission damage.
In addition, if traffic suddenly starts speeding up, staying in neutral reduces both the vehicle’s speed and movement. Not moving right away once the red light turns green might earn you a few frustrated honks at best and lead to a bad accident at worst.
When driving an automatic transmission vehicle, you should avoid switching between reverse and drive without stopping completely. The sudden shift between these gears in the middle of the vehicle moving can place a tremendous strain on the transmission system. Shifting gears while the automatic car is moving forces the transmission to act as a brake, which can wear it down rapidly.
Always stop the vehicle from moving completely before shifting between reverse and drive.
The emergency brakes are important in both manual and automatic transmission vehicles. They’re useful for more than just emergency situations as well. In manual transmission vehicles, drivers always naturally use the emergency brakes while parked on an incline. The same should be the case with automatic transmission vehicles.
While park mode does engage the parking pawl, the emergency brake serves as extra support. Not engaging the emergency brake when the vehicle is parked uphill, downhill, or in a position vulnerable to movement can cause damage to the parking pawl, and lead to the vehicle careening down the slope. It also adds an extra level of security when parking on flat areas as well.
While the fuel gauge is an excellent indicator of how much fuel is left in your vehicle’s tank, it isn’t always accurate. You might find yourself stranded someday if you often drive your vehicle when it’s on its last few quarts of fuel. This practice can also damage your vehicle’s catalytic converter.
It’s always best to keep your vehicle’s fuel tank over a quarter of the way full. Fill up the tank once the fuel dips below a fourth of the way full.
Abruptly pressing the gas pedal too often can force the automatic transmission to downshift, which in turn leads to more responsive acceleration. The technique is called kickdown. While it’s useful in certain situations, especially in case of an emergency, kickdown can also lead to increased fuel consumption and tire wear. Only use it when necessary.
If you’re not at a stop light or in heavy traffic and you foresee yourself sitting in your stationary vehicle for a long period of time, it’s a good idea to take it out of drive mode. Keeping your automatic transmission vehicle in drive mode for prolonged periods when it’s parked and stationary can lead to overheating.
Now you know how to drive an automatic transmission car without damaging it. Here are some additional tips for what you should do:
Automatic transmission vehicles rely on a transmission that sends power to the vehicle’s wheels and keeps the engine running within specific ranges. The transmission controls the engine’s revolutions per minute through various automatic car gear combinations, which in turn controls how much horsepower and torque the engine outputs.
The automatic transmission also has a neutral position that disconnects the engine entirely from the drive wheels, a reverse position that causes the wheels to turn in the opposite direction, and the park position where the latch mechanism inserts into a slot in the output shaft to lock the drive wheels and prevent them from turning.
In the end, driving an automatic transmission vehicle is still leagues easier than driving a manual vehicle, but that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down.
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