Why in cold weather, starting the engine of a car with automatic transmission, you should not translate the “automatic” into neutral

The automatic transmission is an engineering breakthrough that has made life easier for a huge number of motorists. But despite the relevance of the unit, experienced drivers in the old manner apply the same standards to it as to the “mechanics”, and advise others to do this. However, sometimes the venerable age of an experienced motorist is not a reason to fully trust his every word. And some tips "experienced" can do harm to your car.

Often, drivers, having changed from "mechanics" to "automatic", try to use some of its modes in the same way as they did before changing the type of transmission. Some of them try to save fuel by shifting the automatic transmission selector to "neutral" in certain situations. Others put the box in the "N" mode and recommend that others do this when starting the engine in cold weather. But all this is delusion and driver's fables.

The automatic transmission has two modes similar in function - "P" (parking) and "N" (neutral). In both cases, the engine does not provide torque to the wheels, so that the car remains motionless. The difference between the modes is that “parking” uses a gear with a lock, which prevents the wheels from spinning freely and the car from rolling downhill. In the "neutral" mode, this blocker is not activated. This allows the wheels to spin freely, and allows you to move the car, for example, around the service area, tow or perform any diagnostics when you need to turn the wheels. Therefore, your "machine" from the fact that you will start the car in the "P" or "N" mode is neither warm nor cold.

But trying to save fuel by switching the “automatic” selector to the “N” mode is categorically not worth it. First, breaking the connection between the engine and the wheels at speed is dangerous: when you need traction, you simply won’t have it. And secondly, this is an additional load on the gearbox components. When driving in a traffic jam, it is also not worth putting the selector into “neutral” whenever the flow of cars stops.