Hello fellows, Does anyone recommend a particular gear before turning the engine off? Some people told me that it is better to leave it in neutral and pull the hand break if you park on an even surface. They also said that it is better to leave it either in reverse or first gear if I park at an incline. Any thoughts or recommendations on this matter??? Thank you ahead of time for your input. By the way, my model is an F430 spider F1/automatic.
with any manual if it's a flat i normally just use the ebrake. if i'm on a hill i use the lowest forward facing gear. meaning if i'm facing down a hill i'll use 2nd gear. if the back of the car is facing down the hill i'll use reverse or first gear.
You post has me all confused. How is backward-down-hill equate to 2nd OR R, and forward-down-hill to 1st? The manual states and I completely agree to always leave the car in gear. I use 1st because it is the lowest gear by ratio. If I fear the hill is so steep the vehicle might somehow turn the engine (San Francisco), then I would use the ebrake as well, and select a gear that would spin the engine the correct direction if that absurd condition arises. i.e. R if reverse-down-hill and 1st if forward-down-hill.
The manual states and I completely agree to always leave the car in gear. I use 1st because it is the lowest gear by ratio. If I fear the hill is so steep the vehicle might somehow turn the engine (San Francisco), then I would use the ebrake as well, and select a gear that would spin the engine the correct direction if that absurd condition arises. i.e. R if reverse-down-hill and 1st if forward-down-hill.[/QUOTE] +1
In my flat garage, I just leave it in neutral. If I park on any hill whatsoever, it's 1st gear for me.
Step 1: with car and neutral, apply handbrake Step 2: let go brake (not handbrake) to make sure it's keeping car in place Step 3: put into 1st gear Step 4: turn off engine This should procedure be used when car is on a flat surface, incline, upside down, etc. The handbrake is what should keep the car in place. If it fails, then the tranny will act as backup. Always use handbrake as the gear is strained if it alone is keeping the car from moving.
This also keeps excessive force from settling onto the gears so you won't have a problem getting it out of gear. I use N when on level ground, lots of that around the valley. I always use the ebrake.
When I back into a space, I leave it in reverse and pull the e-brake. When I pull into a space, I leave it in 1st and pull the e-brake. If you ever leave your car in neutral and get distracted and forget to pull the e-brake (like I did once with my F430) you'll understand why you want both the transmission and the e-brake engaged. Nothing happened to my car, but as I stepped out of the car... it started rolling -- slowly -- forward. I had one of those Oh Sheet moments and never (ever) again left the car in neutral. Also, in my Gallardo, if you turn off the car with the tranny in Neutral, you get a pro-longed and angry beep from the car...
If you leave it in gear (first, reverse, etc) and then pull the brake, the brake isn't really doing much; your car is being held in place by the gears of the tranny. That's why I put it in neutral, then pull the brake, then put it into gear again.
Well if you have your foot on the brake with the car in gear while depolying the parking brake then I do not think that you have any pressure on the gears. After all the clutch is disengaged whenever the car is stationary and in gear. There is no need to put the car in neutral when deploying the parking brake unless you want to turn the car off in neutral as above.
if you are sitting in the car and looking out the window and you see down the hill, use a gear that you would pull back to place into gear. in this case second gear. if you are sitting in the car and to see down the hill you have to turn around and look out the rear window, use first gear.
You guys are killing me. The transmission can handle the weight of the vehicle multiplied by the grade of the incline, which is far less than the actual wet weight. The same transmission handles violent acceleration and deceleration of the entire mass of the vehicle. The force required to keep a vehicle from moving is F = %_Grade_Hill * Mass_Car * Gravity Mass = 3400 pounds [ 1542 kg ] Grade = 5% Gravity = 9.8m/s^2 On a 5% grade your car transmission is holding 755 N (Newtons) The same transmission is expected to handle at minimum 1 G of forward acceleration or 15,000 N There is no inherent difference between gravity tugging on your vehicle, and thus putting rotational forces on your transmission and the engine doing the same. If you use your ebrake after a spirited drive, you will discover that metal expands as it heats and contracts as it cools. A cool evening can have the same effect. Trust your ebrake at your own peril. If you want to use both, ok, why not.
THIS Any manual trans car should be left in gear and kept with the parking brake on. Just a little extra piece of mind.
I agree Trent. I would just add that Ive read a few random stories of the automated transmissions going into N every now and then- I figure why take a chance with a computer glitch so I use both. If you are in a stick shift car and you just drove hard and especially if it has metal brakes, better to leave the ebrake off and leave the car in gear.
