Why does a car engine idle at a lower RPM while in drive than when in neutral?
In: Engineering
It’s under load. In neutral or park, the torque converter is spinning the transmission input shaft, which isn’t connected to anything. In drive, the transmission is connected to the wheels, and therefore the torque converter wont rotate (assuming the brakes are on). That means the engine has to overcome the resistance of driving the transmission fluid against a torque converter that won’t budge, instead of an input shaft that freely rotates.
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