Pop in Neutral at Red Light?

G

grasscutter

Joined
Feb 6, 2025
Messages
656
This is a rather silly question, but I'm curious if anyone else in the world besides me pops their automatic transmission into neutral while waiting for the traffic light to turn green?

You can either leave the transmission in drive and hold your foot on the brake, or pop into neutral and relax your right leg.

You manual transmission guys pretty much have to go into neutral or hold the clutch pedal in.
 
Never.

You'll be causing a small amount of wear having those 1st gear clutches apply and release all the time. Not a lot, but more than you would just leaving it there.

Although if your vehicle has auto stop-start it might be handled differently.

With my manual transmission cars I usually knocked it into neutral while coming up to the stop if I knew I was going to be coming to a complete stop. Usually without the clutch being involved.
 
My mom used to do this in her Honda accord. When I learned more about cars and how transmissions worked I told her to stop doing that! It unnecessarily wears components. It’s also a safety issue, IMO - if you are stopped at a light and notice someone about to rear end you, you need to be able to instantly more forward. If your car is in neutral, that extra few seconds could make a big difference.
 
On my 84' Mustang, always popped it into neutral. Didn't feel like keeping my leg down on the clutch pedal. No slave cylinder on that car to assist me. Pedal to cable to fork. Leg gets tired after awhile. Then the whole bit of one on the brake and one on the clutch. Got annoying. Sold the car after a year of that nonsense. Went back to automatic transmissions. Fun little car though ! Had a 302 in it / 5 speed
 
My Accord has a brake hold feature that will let you rest your leg at a light. Basically, it applies the brakes for you when you hit 0 mph and holds them until you tap the gas again. I don't care for it.

Putting it in neutral would only work if the ground is absolutely flat.

The use of neutral on a manual transmission is another topic.
 
So if your foot is no longer on the brakes are your brake lights on? Could be a big issue there.
 
Also check out these previous discussions on this topic:

L

Thread 'Going into neutral at stop lights?'

I found myself going into neutral at long interval stop lights lately.

Aside from the general coolant and transmission fluid/filter maintenance, my theory is this will help cool the transmission and hopefully prolong its lifespan.
Heat is the number one killer in most transmissions. I think this especially holds true if in a hotter climate area blasting the AC at max capacity. On top of that, I believe going into neutral reduces clutch pack wear inside the transmission as well as reduce heat produced by the torque converter.

I've read mixed opinions on this, some say it's not worth it...
  • Like
  • Haha
A

Thread 'AT into N or P at red lights'

Does putting car into P or N at red lights help extend auto transmission life? '10 Sonata 2.4 original owner 374 k. I don't accelerate hard at all, come to complete stop before R to D.
C

Thread 'Shifting to neutral at stop light . . . Does this help reduce wear on a AT'

Does the practice of shifting to neutral, at stop lights, reduce wear on the transmission? Also going from neutral back to drive is this detrimental. Basically is this back and forth self defeating. I've been in the practice of doing this for years.

Thanks for the input,

Crusader
rolleyes.gif
C

Thread 'Does putting automatic car in neutral for long idling periods relieve any engine/transmission stress?'

There are some times that I find myself idling for extended periods, such as food drive throughs, known extremely long stop lights at intersections (3+ minutes), rush hour traffic sitting nearly stationary for 5 minute periods, for whatever reason waiting for something but needing to leave the vehicle running, etc. etc.

I sometimes shift my automatic from D to N, and feel the engine RPMs change a little, and the engine smooths out. Is this normal? For lack of a better term it feels like loads and stress have been removed from the engine and transmission, and the ICE "relaxes" a bit...
B

Thread 'Shift to Neutral at RED light - is this a bad practice?'

At those very long RED lights, I shift Neutral on my auto transmission. This happens everyday, and I'm always at a complete stop while shifting. Does this affect the transmission negatively in the long run... and in what way???

Thanks in advance...
69GTX

Thread 'Can these shifts harm an automatic transmission?'

Ran across some reading material over the past year or so that indicated some of my automatic transmission habits are wrong, and possibly harmful. Well, been doing them for over 40 yrs. The last 2 automatic transmissions I had went over 200K miles (older vehicles - a 1988 and 1997). But, being Bitog, I'm always looking for ways to fix any problems with how I operate/maintain my cars. Heck, I was driving 4 and 6 speed manual transmissions for over 20 yrs before I found out about rev matching, double clutch, etc.....go figure! Over the past 2 years I've read numerous articles/blogs on manual...
 
clinebarger said:
Every clutch automatic has a Forward/Input Clutch, You should not do what you're doing as it puts undue cycling/wear on that clutch.
Click to expand...
This is why I don’t.

Cycling the transmission in and out of neutral adds wear.

My right leg is strong enough to handle that couple pounds of pressure on the brake pedal while I wait…
 
I do. The DCT disengages the clutch with my foot on the brake anyway, so I just put it in neutral so I can take my foot off. First gear is already engaged and ready to go, putting it in drive simply allows the clutch to do its thing. I've got neuroma pretty bad in my right foot so it's a relief to be able to take the pressure off at stop lights.
 
On my automatic transmissions , ( which is all I have now ), I leave it in drive. Read somewhere, years ago, leaving in drive is less wear and tear on transmission. The only thing that's cooking are the brake light bulbs. So, I keep an eye on them. The cops in NY love to pull you over for a burnt bulb, and see what else they could nail you on. Gotta keep their quota books up :(....
 
Here's a little fun fact:

In the past, Teslas could be programmed for Creep, Roll, or Hold behavior when you let off the accelerator. Creep is like a typical automatic transmission. Roll is like being in neutral. And Hold applies the regen brakes to slow the car down and prevent it from moving at a stop.

Since 2024, new Teslas will only have Hold behavior. So, to the OP, get a Tesla, lol!

Interestingly, hybrids that I've driven have all been set up to creep like traditional automatic cars.
 
Just a curious question.
How come with all the other clutches its a good thing for them to go on and off all the time, also they at times can be modulated to make nice easy shifts, does not modulating a clutch, meaning lots of engage and release cause wear?

Most all torque converter clutches do that all the time, and it is only one friction material surface in most TC's, the first gear clutch pack is usually a multi disk pack just like all the other clutches in the transmission, they are all skating on fluid. Leaving in gear on a very long stop condition allows the stirred up torque converter fluid to heat up, years ago my buddies dad a long time transmission expert told me best not to always leave it in gear for long stopped periods.

So the question is why is the first gear clutch pack so week and weeny that it isn't suppose to cycle like all the others. Lets not forget when coming to a stop it automatically shifts to low. So just pop it in to neutral before that happens and all is then good. Right?
 
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