QuestionQUESTION: If a FWD car is up on a wheel lift, shouldn't the automatic transmission be in neutral. I'm thinking that the front wheels should be allowed to rotate as a hinge to allow the towed car to go up and over bumps etc. without binding the driveaxles and stressing the motor mounts. Which I think would be the case if the transmission was left in park.
ANSWER: Ah the question of the decade..
Well I understand your point of thought on this, but unfortunately there is no real answer as to what is required while towing on a wheel lift...
It would be good to have the vehicle in park or gear as it would if the vehicle came unhooked. It would not travel far if it came off, where as in neutral it would roll till it hit something. When the tires are tied down properly it should not cause damage to the transmission... But in life things do happen...
This question is like the one about putting a vehicle into park when its on a carrier... Lots of thoughts about it and no real answers other than the safety factor.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: A State of New York Department of Transportation towing manual and a Daimler Chrysler instruction states that the FWD car should be in neutral when the car is being lifted, and only after the wheel lift is adjusted to its final position, then the shift lever is placed in park. This might be a good compromise.
When the car is being lifted the angle of the car is changed, but the front wheels are still held by the wheel lift. Consequently there is some rotation of the front wheels relative to the rest of the car. But if the wheels are locked by the park position then they cannot rotate. Something has to give! Hopefully the tires will just slip on the steel surface of the wheel lift to allow the necessary rotation. But if they are held so tightly that they can't slip, then I imagine there must be tremendous stress on the CV joints, the axle, the differential and possibly the parking pawl and gears in the transmission itself.
Imagine the locked front axle being turned by a giant wrench the length of the car and you get what I mean.
The reason that I'm raising this issue is that I recently had my car towed and the operator raised the car with the wheels still in park. On a previous occasion another operator did put the transmission in neutral so I presumed that this most recent operator would do the same. But he didn't.
So my follow up question: Does anyone know if this would have caused damage or weakening to the driveaxle and/or the transmission?
AnswerI see your point in wondering about the park pawl and the transmission... However in my 29 years of towing, I have not seen or heard of it happening, but not saying that it could not happen.
Do you think that if you take the same front wheel drive vehicle and park it tight against a curb and put it in park then let it roll backwards a bit as the pressure would be forcing it back, that it would damage the vehicles transmission or the CV joints... Or what about hitting potholes while driving, that is major impact stress on the parts also... There is some give and take designed into the systems.
Personally I feel that nothing has happened, but like I said earlier, it could happen I guess ... Lightening does strike people but can you be sure that you will never be hit ???
