sammy5001

Say you're stopped in front of a red light and you're tired of keeping your feet on the brake pedal. In the LS/SC models they have this lever that you can pull that puts your car into temporary park mode. When you apply gas it automatically puts the car back into D.

My IS obviously doesn't have this so I have 2 options:

(1) Shift to P and then back to D when the light turns green. But see going from D to P is a long and error-prone shift.

(2) Shift to N (which is just 1 slot above D), and then back to D when the light turns green. Now when I'm shifting from N to D, do I need to depress my brakes pedals first? I mean, it works even if I don't but am I supposed to? Does it hurt my transmission if I don't? On a similar note, if I rev my engine while in N and then shift into D, what effect does that have on my transmission?

meefer

iTrader: (8)

Whenever I shift into D, I always push the brake pedal firmly and wait till I can "feel" the shift. Then go. Habit from a possibly grenading v6 accord 4 speed. It can't hurt to do it. I doubt if you just idle it and then shift it into D it would do much harm.

Revving it and then dropping it into D will definitely do some damage though. Why would you rev it in neutral anyways? Just curious.

Eddiebx

as long as your car is not moving, and you are at idle, shifting w/o pressing the brake is fine.

and if you rev it up then but it in D, you're just asking for trouble. i;m sure the toyota trannies are strong and all, but i doubt anything can stand too much abuse.

sammy5001

So as long as I'm not moving and I'm at idle, shifting from N to D w/o pressing the brake is fine. Sounds good to me

But what's considered idle? When I'm in D the rpm is roughly 500-600. But when I'm in N the rpm is 1000. Is that still considered idle?

And just wondering, why is the RPM higher in N than in D while I'm not moving? Does that mean while I'm in D with my brakes pressed and not moving, the transmission is actually still trying to apply power to my wheels? Aren't I wasting gas then if I keep it in D instead of putting it into N if I were to stop in front of a red light for a long period of time?

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Nothing terrible will happen as long as you're not revving high during the process. Your torque converter isn't locked up at idle anyways.

Eddiebx

yeah idle as in anywhere around 1k or so. if you think about it, when the car is cold, the idle is even higher than that, and its fine to shift into gear as well.

its just the rev it up and then dump it into gear you dont want to do. we honda people call this a neutral drop aka neutral bomb,

SH212

yeah i know that as a neutral drop,
dont do it, not good for your tranny..j/w why would u want to? lol

iKenn

iTrader: (1)

dont you still have to press the brakes when you go into neutral? unless you press your parking brake, which is what i do

sammy5001

Yes I have to press my brake to shift into N. But once in N I can let go of the brake. When I'm ready to go, I want to just shift from N to D then apply gas (instead of having to apply brake, shift from N to D, and then apply gas).

iKenn

iTrader: (1)

i meant, what if your on a hill, you still have to brake.

2k4CamkilA

Always have my foot on the brake when shifting from N to D. I know some cars jerk forward if your at the light and don't have your foot on the brake while your shifting from N to D

gocubs08

i sometime shift from drive to neutral just to watch my gas mpg sky rocket... say im going down a hill or something.. then i put it back in drive while still moving sometimes going like 40, it seems like no big deal? I guess i never though that would hurt anything?

cliffud

iTrader: (3)

i think you'll be fine. on my gs, i stop at the light and throw it in neutral all the time and then put it in gear just as the light turns green.

what's even more fun is going on an offramp from the freeway and throwing the car in neutral, watching your RPMs drop down to the hundreds while you coast to the light. i do it all the time and it's a little game that i play to see if i can gauge the speed properly.