When driving an automatic does it have an effect to put it in neutral to stop from sliding on ice?

Question

When driving an automatic does it have an effect to put it in neutral to stop from sliding on ice?

Answer 1

Most vehicles are built with a safety in the transmission to prevent locking up in the event of teh gear slipping into park or reverse. What your thinking of is to lock thw wheels to stop on ice and thats the worse thing u can do. Simply let go of the gas when u feel a slip and the engine will drop lower in the frame enough the add wieght and the torque will slow itself down. If you lock the wheels u lose control and your done for. If your sliding out of control, your deiving way too fast for the road conditions.

Answer 2

Actually if you put the car into neutral then you are freewheeling which is a bad thing. As a truck driver with lots of experience on the ice...you need to slow yourself down while in gear gradually without ramming on the brakes. Ideally, if you have left yourself some room and distance then you can take your foot off the accelerator, put your automatic shifter into 2nd gear and let gravity work itself down along with a few light brake pushes. If you feel yourself slide, press lightly on the accelerator and turn your wheels slightly to the opposite way that you are sliding. When the wheels get any grip they will straighten you out. Just keep taking your foot off the accelerator and the car will slow down gradually with light brake pushes. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes..............................

Try not to have to stop completely, especially if on an incline.

This means very gradual stops on snow and maintaining momentum before getting to a hill.

If you are driving an automatic transmission and find that you are skidding while braking, shifting into neutral will stop the drive wheels from opposing your stop.

Answer 4

No!  The best way to prevent ANY skid is to slow down.  Try to identify icy conditions by looking far ahead and slow down before you reach the ice.  If you do find yourself on ice, let off the accelorator and coast over the ice.

Answer 5

If you're going any kind of speed at all leave it in gear however if you are going slow like 5mph or less and you're sliding it might be a good idea to pop it into neutral to stop by taking the drive wheels out of the equation. You're trying to stop but the drive wheels keep working trying to move the car. I've done it many times...but keep in mind you should only do this at extremely low speed situations.

Answer 6

no

Answer 7

Yes, it can help. The Anti-skid feature of your brake system does not work below 5 MPH.  When you are approaching a stop sign on an ice-covered roadway, I have found that the front brakes usually lock up, and the front wheels will skid on the ice while the rears keep turning, and if you leave your automatic transmission in Drive, the rear wheels may push you through the stop and into the intersection.

Shifting your transmission into neutral at low speeds will help you come to a smooth stop when driving on ice or hard-packed snow.  It's kind of the same thing as pushing in the clutch in a car with a manual transmission.

Answer 8

Does it have an effect to go from drive to neutral while sliding on ice? Yes it does. What that will do is match wheel speed with the the speed the car is traveling and give the tires a chance to regain grip.CAUTION....Any time you do this you are now out of control. You must be in control of your vehicle.I strongly suggest you try practice power slides at a mall parking lot (empty of coarse).Instead of neural, try using both feet and try matching wheel speed to travel speed and don't forget to turn in the direction of the slide!!

Answer 9

No. Just the opposite. If there is any opportunity for you to gain control of a car after it have went into a skid (ice, mud, or snow) it will be with the transmisision and the engine power connected. But, in many cases, no amout of jimmying with the controls will get you out of trouble on a glare ice skid.

Answer 10

No, the best thing to do is learn to drive in snow and ice, and not slam on the brakes.  And if you have a 4WD or AWD vehicle don't think you can drive 60 MPH on snow and ice and be able to stop, if you do and you drive through the area I live and end up in a ditch I'll gladly accept $100 to pull your vehicle out of the ditch.  

Neutral has no effect on keeping a vehicle from sliding neutral just disconnects the engine from the transmission and thus you lose the engine braking effect of the vehicle.  So now you've done 2 things, the engine cannot slow the vehicle and the engine is now disconnected from the transmission.  So now when you drop back into gear your going to send a surge of power to the drive wheels and it will certainly cause the drive wheels to change speeds possibly causing you to lose control of the vehicle.

Answer 11

nope.

Answer 12

yes and it will help you stop on very slippery ice. I mean to put it in neutral at the last 100 feet or so at slow speeds.

Answer 13

When you put a car into neutral, you give up control of the vehicle. Apart from being highly dangerous to you and any other road user, it is illegal and you can be prosecuted.