Whats the deal with keeping your foot on the brake anyhow? I was always under the impression that you had to knock it into neutral when standing to avoid wear on the autobox, clutch? etc... Or is that not the case on an Omega (or any car?)
That is probably the 'correct' way, i knew someone who put it their Auto in Park at lights :-?
Technically you should shift into N and put the hand break on.
Breaking with autos cause pads to ware early, it can also warp discs if you stomp on the brakes and leave them pressed down.
When driving the Senator i leave it in D at lights with my foot rested on the pedal....
The pads will nor wear as result of standing with the brake applied, as there is no friction. I am aware that some people maintain that the discs will get warped due to heat build-up as the area covered by the pads can not ventilate properly, but I am not sure if this is actually proven or confirmed.
Pads wear on automatics because the engine is not normally used for braking (i.e. using low gears and high revs) as is the case with manual cars, so the brakes get more use. However, while braking with the engine is considered 'safer' because it prevents the brakes from overheating (for example, when driving down a mountain slope in hot climate, it is recommend to do this using high revs in low gear and without using the brakes, to prevent brake fading) , mechanically it is the wrong thing to do... the pads and discs are energy absorbing and designed to wear while doing their job, which is why they are relatively cheap and easy to replace. The engine is NOT designed to be used as brake, and doing so will impose mechanical stress on it - it is far more expensive to replace the engine than the discs and pads...
Also, the most common problem with automatics use to be that most people did not bother to shift down to 2nd gear when coasting downhill, thus simply dragging the brakes to overcome the transmissions tendency to shift-up and the car to speed. However modern cars and the Omegas included do not suffer from this problem - coast downhill and let go of the accelerator, you will see that the car does NOT speed-up downhill as the older automatics use to do... so there is not need to drag the brakes while driving downhill.
In short, the brakes on modern automatics should be used just like a manual car, they will still wear (slightly) faster than on manuals but this is not a problem as the pads are designed to wear and cheap to replace.
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Topic: veryoneGood Vibrations (Read 1401 times)