How does a car stay still when the engine is on in park?

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Title.

When a car has its engine on, the engine is working. But if its in park, the car doesn’t move. How? The engine is still running like if the car was driving, but what mechanism prevents the car from moving?

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18 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The engine turns a gear in the transmission, that in turn rotates the wheels.

If you put the transmission in park or neutral, the gear is decoupled so it just spins in space but doesn’t connect to anything.

The park gear locks the transmission in place so the car can’t roll. Neutral just decouples the engine but lets the wheels turn.

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