Why does a car engine idle at a lower RPM while in drive than when in neutral?
In: Engineering
Neutral disengages the engine from the transmission, so when the car’s in neutral, it’s spinning less components. When a car is in drive, it has to also spin the transmission gears as well as the driveline (if applicable)
Basically the extra stress from moving more components bogs the engine down more while utilizing the same amount of rotational force. This translates to neutral having a higher RPM than drive
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