Waiting in an Automatic - Avoid Damage and What to do on your Driving Test

Different

driving

instructors have different opinions on when to use neutral and the handbrake, also known as the parking brake, when

driving

an

automatic

car, but

what

do you really have to do to pass

your

driving

test

in Britain? What can

damage

the car? No matter

what

type of

automatic

you have, first of all, the most common question I hear on this topic is if I am

waiting

in traffic or at a light and the car is stopped, do I have to be in park or neutral with the handbrake on? The answer is no, it is not in the standard.

Your driving examiner is not paying attention to this. They want to make sure that you are safe and legal and that you have full control of the car at all times. The method you use to achieve this. it's flexible, but if you were parked with the handbrake on and traffic started moving and it took you too long to get going, you could get a mark for this on the driving

test

in Britain and if you did badly enough , you might even fail or if you do it repeatedly you might fail, but for that to happen you would have to be very slow, okay?

So why do so many driving instructors recommend that you use park or neutral and the handbrake, the handbrake, whenever you're stopped? The saying is that when a pause becomes a burden, use the handbrake, well you don't have to do this, it's just belt and suspenders. The idea is that if someone hits you from behind, you are less likely to advance far enough to get into a fight. secondary collision with something in front of you, but keep in mind that for some time now not all cars have been equipped with what is known as post-collision braking, which is automatically applied to the brakes after a strong impact, that is useful to know if

your

car That system is a question I rarely hear and is it important?

Can I use all the automatic ones in the same way or are they different? The answer is yes and no because there is a method you could use that would work on everyone. automatics and you would be more or less fine, but there are methods you can use that would work fine with one type of automatic, but if you tried to use it with a different type, you could end up with a very expensive repair bill. In order to explain more, I need to separate the different types of automatics into three different groups. If you don't know the difference between the groups, don't worry.

I can still help you understand how you can

avoid

damaging your gearbox, but knowing the groupsets can help, so here goes group one, which is your style of torque converter automatic, which is the traditional automatic and when people say automatic , that's probably what they mean because that's the technical term for them and they include CVTS because they also have a torque converter. then you get your clutch based systems they are known as automated and automatic gearbox, now for me when teaching people that is not different enough so I like to call them robot manuals because that is exactly what they are and it is very descriptive, it is a manual gearbox mechanically. under the hood, since this hybrid is just starting out, if you have heard that, it is a manual gearbox under the hood that is controlled by a robot, that robot, which is actually just a small box, makes the gears and the clutch For you, you still only have two pedals. a gear pedal and a brake pedal, then you have the third group electric cars and that includes plug-in hybrids and cars like this one, which is a fully self-charging hybrid that is currently self-charging, which is why the engine has turned on . so I can keep my air conditioning because it's a little hot today if you're not an experienced driver and you experience that by trying these different types of automatic transmissions and you don't like cars, you probably won't notice the difference between the In the first two groups you'll probably know if you have an electric car, although in group three because well, you have to plug it in unless it's one that charges automatically, but it probably has a hybrid label now, how to

avoid

damaging it. what you need to know I'm going to put the car in D for Drive, in some cars it will be for auto, but any setting is necessary for the car to want to move forward and I'm going to leave the parking brake on now.

Look at this background, how this car moves relative to the background when I release the foot brake. You may notice that the front of the car rises slightly and the rear falls. I'm going to release the foot brake now, just watch it come out. it sinks in the rear and rises in the front and that's because it's front wheel drive and the electric motor is trying to turn the front wheels but the handbrake is operating the rear wheels and it's like trying to pull his butt on the floor. So it does that while it's trying to move forward, so you can see here that the battery is sending electricity to the electric motor to drive the front wheels, but the parking brake is on, so the rear wheels aren't moving now if I press.

The foot brake you will see the computer say "Oh, you don't want to go" and cuts the power. If I release the foot brake again, the computer says "Oh, you want to go" and sends power to the wheels, but we're off. going anywhere at zero miles per hour because the handbrake is on now I don't worry about this because this doesn't

damage

an electric motor, what it does do is waste electricity, so if I put my foot on the brake, that will prevent be wasted. electricity or if I put it in park, then I don't have to keep my foot on the brake.

If I had an automatic with a torque converter again I wouldn't worry because torque converters are designed to do this, but if I had an automatic that is a robotic manual, well they have one or two clutches, some have two clutches, some have one, so it won't be an electric motor trying to move the car with the parking brake on, it won't be a torque converter trying to move. the car with the handbrake on will be a clutch and well, I'll give you between 30 seconds and two minutes before your clutch burns when the clutch reaches a certain temperature, it burns very quickly, turns into dust and smoke and can be it gets so hot it actually damages the steering wheel too and it probably won't cost less than a thousand quid to replace, probably a lot more now, some systems are smarter than this, some systems will work, oh my handbrakes are on let's not send power to the wheels but some systems aren't that smart and they are, you're driving with the handbrake on and the footbrake off, it's sitting there trying to pull the car forward so my best advice when it comes to drive an automatic when it comes to being stopped in an automatic because that's what this video is about it's about being stopped you use the parking lot or whatever if you're stopped don't drive with the handbrake on and the footbrake off if you're in gear and you're not moving, make sure you're on the foot brake, what's up with neutral?

Well if you have a torque converter automatic you can leave it in gear with your foot on the foot brake, there is no real benefit to using neutral, maybe you can. save some fuel but if your car stopped starting and the engine is well off it won't make any difference because your engine is off anyway if you have an old car with an automatic torque converter like 20+ years ago , sometimes when you drive with your foot on the brake, the car can vibrate a little, and sometimes putting it in neutral can eliminate some of those vibrations and can save you a little bit of fuel.

Plus it's easy to select neutral on an automatic, you don't even have to press the button, at least I haven't had to press the button on the cars I've used, just push it forward to neutral and back to drive again whenever you want begin. about neutral robot manuals with those is actually a good idea because when you drive with your foot on the brake the clutch release bearing spins permanently now if you do a normal combination of driving between Town Motorway Country Roads your clutch release bearing release is Probably not going to fail before the clutch friction disc, but if you drive a lot in the city, are a taxi driver or driving instructor, your release bearing gets knocked and the more you use neutral, the longer it will last and maybe last enough to not fail before the friction disc, usually the release bearing weighs between 20 and 100 pounds, but to replace it it costs a lot to get to it and when you replace it, you replace the three components of the clutch, the release the friction disc and the pressure plate and you may even end up replacing the flywheel while you're there because it's worth it because of the work it takes to get there so you want to try to make sure it's cheaper, smaller, cheaper.

Part of your clutch lasts as long as the rest of the clutch lasts as long as the rest of the clutch is what I'm trying to say, but if you have a stop-start system and the engine is off, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you're in Drive, you've thought about the brake because the motor doesn't turn so the release bearing doesn't turn, it's pushed against the pressure plate, but it doesn't really do anything if you have a hybrid, although it's best not to use it like this. neutral neutral in this is actually pushing the car with the engine off if necessary when you are driving you leave it in drive with the foot brake on when it is in neutral the hybrid system cannot work the engine cannot charge the battery therefore , you will not get your maximum efficiency by allowing the hybrid system and computer to do what they are programmed to do.

There's actually a button on this car called hold, if I press it when I'm driving it lets me do it. to release the foot brake and will keep the car stationary until you press the accelerator. If you use Park when you're stuck in traffic, well, that's not what Park is designed for. Park is designed for parking. Some robotics don't even have manuals. In the park setting, they have neutral and you have to rely on the handbrake. What parking does is lock the transmission so the wheels can't spin and some people say that's a good thing, you have to use parking traffic so if someone hits you from behind.

It's less likely to roll forward, but most rear-end hits are usually pretty mild and if your car is parked when someone hits it, it will put a lot of stress on your transmission and may even break something, so use Park Well in traffic, which can be quite costly if you're parking on a steep hill, you probably want the handbrake to support the weight of the car rather than your parking group if you don't know what I mean. To explain now, when you put the gear selector in park, there is something called the park group pin that goes into park which locks the transmission and prevents the car from moving.

The parking group pin is about the thickness of my index finger, actually something like that and it goes into the pool gear like this, but most of the time it doesn't go in the first time, it goes here and then when you let go your foot, the car rolls and clicks into place and the car stops suddenly and it's a transmission stopping the car from rolling down the hill which is a parking group stopping your car from moving. I'll show you now so I'm going to park and when I release the foot brake you'll see the the car suddenly reverses and then stops suddenly usually quite abruptly when the parking group clicks into place there's no cushioning there it's metal on metal so here we go we just go back and there we go it rolls and then it stops suddenly it could be better or worse Depends on where that pin is before you break your foot, it could even go in for the first time.

The problem with this is that now the transmission supports the weight of the car and buy the engine mounts now that the transmission and engine mounts are strong, they can take a lot of torque, this should not be a problem for them, but the problem is how long your car is parked and if you park for long periods of time on hills your transmission is under permanent stress, it's not a lot of stress but it is permanent stress and as your engine mounts age the rubber inside them can They become brittle and can fail sooner if you put them under pressure, so this tip may save you a little money, but many people use the parking pool on hills for years and I don't have any problems, so this is really a minor tip. , may help, but it may not be worth doing.

I don't do it unless I'm on a steep hill, that's how you get the handbrake to support the weight of the car. from your parking group, so I'm going to move forward a little bit just to make sure the car isn't already leaning on the suspension just to loosen things up like it was before, there we go, so now I'm starting back to driving from a foot on the brake. I just parkedon the side of the road and I stopped on this hill, so what I want to do is lift the handbrake, put it in neutral now, when I release the footbrake, the handbrake will engage. the weight of the car you will see the colors recede a little as the suspension moves while the handbrake takes the weight, there we go and then we fill the brake again part way and now your parking group is ready to take control if the handbrake fails but it is not resting the weight of the car is not resting on it to pass the driving test in britain you do not have to use the handbrake when you are

waiting

in traffic, although you do have to use the handbrake when you are parked, you can use the handbrake in traffic if you want and you can certainly use the handbrake if you are trying to start on a hill in a manual car, but you don't have to do that to pass the driving test. handling, you must be safe. and legal and part of being safe and legal is having full control of your car, but the method you use to maintain control of your car is flexible, it's up to you, as long as you have good control and are safe and legal, then you must pass well.

I hope this video helped you learn when to do it. use neutral or park when driving an automatic car, if you have it, like the video and if you are looking for car insurance check out the links to Collingwood and Confused in the description if you are learning to drive and if you want to insure yourself in the car from someone else, Collingwood is there to help you because you can do it without affecting the owner's policy, now that can take a lot of stress off the owner of that car that you are using to learn to drive through the link.

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