Question about Car gears.

[skeletor]

Just wondering. I'm about to buy an old car with auto transmission. I live up on quite a steep hill and while I've driven an automatic for years, I've never bothered changing gears going up hills.

However, seeing as I'll be going up this steep hill regularly I don't want to screw the car up. What gear (if any) should I use?

 

[conjur]

It's an auto...let it do it on its own. If you park on that, though, I'd put it in neutral, engage the emergency brake, release the regular brake, then put it in park.

 

[bbarnes]

Its automatic, let it make its own choice.

 

[rwahh]

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=automatic

 

[J3anyus]

<< Its automatic, let it make its own choice. >>

 

[Evadman]

<< It's an auto...let it do it on its own. If you park on that, though, I'd put it in neutral, engage the emergency brake, release the regular brake, then put it in park. >>


Yep.. Let the auto think, that is what it does best (usually 🙂 ) And make sure to do as conjur says. If not, you can dent whats called the "parking pawl". That is what keeps your car from moving. If it dents, you will have to have someone push you up far enough with another car to disengage the pawl, or you will never be able to shift from park 🙂

<edit>
Duh, Pawl is spelled with a "w" not a "U" 😀

 

[Jerboy]

<< Just wondering. I'm about to buy an old car with auto transmission. I live up on quite a steep hill and while I've driven an automatic for years, I've never bothered changing gears going up hills. >>



You only shift down when you're going downhill to activate engine braking. You might want to shift down out of overdrive if you have a dumb transmission and want to have better throttle response up a nasty hill. You'd usually have to floor the pedal or shift down out of overrdrive into a gear that gives better acceleration.


As everybody else said, it's not a good idea to let your car's weight roll into parking pawl. You don't have to go through a pain of putting in neutral, but apply your parking brake firmly and shift to park before releasing your foot brake.

I also discourage you from parking your car without using the parking brake up a hill. Parking pawl locks into a place rather than working by friction and it's fragile. If someone hits your car, it will break off the pawl and car goes rolling down the hill.