Why does a car engine idle at a lower RPM while in drive than when in neutral?
In: Engineering
This depends on whether you’re in park, drive, or reverse. In a traditional automatic transmission you have something called a torque converter that will prevent the engine from stalling when the transmission is in gear and your wheel speed is 0. When you’re in drive or reverse the transmission will command 1st or reverse to reduce shift time and get you moving faster. As a result your engine has to turn against the resistance of the torque converter which will burn more gas and cause it to turn a little slower. When you’re in Park, the transmission will command neutral so your engine is free to rotate with very little load.
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