Start the engine in Park or Neutral?

[guest4288]

I notice the the Honda manual gives different advice as to the shift selector position (CVT automatic model) when starting the car.

It recommends Park for starting the car from cold but Neutral for restarting a stalled engine. What difference does it make?

[VicW]

I can't see that it makes any difference at all. You can only start the engine from one of P & N positions.
The only logic I can see is that if the engine stalls then N is between D & R but then R is next to P if you are in reverse when if it stalls so what the heck ?

Vic.

[guest4288]

In a manual car with the engine halted you may leave the car with the handbrake on and the gear in neutral, or for extra security (for example when parked on a hill) you might put the car in gear to give some extra braking through the resistance offered by the engine.

But I don't understand what Park does in a CVT automatic. It says in the manual it locks the transmission but what does it exactly do?

By the way, in making the transition from a manual car to my CVT Jazz, and now that I have stopped my left foot twitching, I find the most un-nerving thing about the car is the way that when approaching a junction, with the foot off the accelerator pedal, the speed of the car drops very slowly. There appears to be very little engine braking. This takes some getting used to.

In order to avoid prematurely wearing out the brakes I have to anticipate well in advance in my approach to junctions, taking my foot off the accelerator long before I would have done in my old manual Fiesta.

Did others have the same exerience when going from a manual to their CVT Jazz?

[VicW]

'Park' does the same thing in any automatic transmission. It physically locks the drive train to prevent it turning and hence prevents the car from moving.
It is for this reason that 'Park' should never be selected while the car is moving,however slowly,or damage may occur.

On a closed throttle the CVT box holds onto the higher gears for quite a long time hence the apparent lack of engine breaking. To see this in action select '7 Speed' mode and watch the gear indicator.First gear isn't selected until the car is almost at a standstill.

Vic.

[culzean]

In a manual car with the engine halted you may leave the car with the handbrake on and the gear in neutral, or for extra security (for example when parked on a hill) you might put the car in gear to give some extra braking through the resistance offered by the engine.

IMHO it is good practice to always put the car in 1st gear when parked - no matter how shallow or steep the slope - it is not unheard of for handbrake cables to fail and you may have trouble explaining to anyone injured and also your insurance company why the car was not in gear (or 'park' on an automatic, which physically locks the transmission on any type of automatic gearbox)

[guest4288]

Thanks for the explanation, Vic, about retention of a high gear when coasting upto a junction. That would certainly make sense of my experience.

This logic of the CVT raises an issue. Would it be cheaper to use a little extra petrol in forcing the engine into a lower gear for braking when approaching a junction (eg drop into S or L mode) or bear the cost of the brakes wearing out prematurely.

I find the brakes very sharp on my 06 Jazz and panic about slowing down too rapidly and receiving an unwelcome shunt from the car behind.

[guest4377]

If you have both front wheels off the ground and the car is in 'P', park, then if you rotate one wheel forward with your hands then he other wheel moves backwards. Until a stop. That's how the transmission is locked. 

Also the car will not let you remove the key from the ignition until the car is in park.  It physically won't come out until it's set to the park position.  Same thing as you can't move it out of park until your foot is on the brake.


Sent from my iPhone