Can you push an automatic trasmission in neutral to about one mile away?

Answer 1

You can push it no problem, but the faster you go the harder it is on the trans. What's really happening is the trans is being lubricated when the engine is running so no worries, but when the eng is off the trans parts just have whatever oil was left on them. If there's no load and speed is low then it's not an issue, but if you were to say tow it behind another car for 100 miles, the bushings inside might cook the oil off and become metal to metal and that's when they really start to wear. Since there's no load on anything it's really only a matter of the parts own weight against the bearing. On a rwd Chevy car like a camero or nova or whatever it's the driveshafts weight on the aft bearing. Fwd cars can be very different, one design might start to be metal to metal very quickly (but I seriously doubt it) where another you might be able to tow across country. I have a Saturn with an automatic that was towed behind an RV all over, so at least several thousand miles at freeway speeds and the car is fine. I assume this is because the bearings the output shafts ride on are soaking in oil so they never go dry. They are probably not plain old bushing bearings but ball bearings which are much more lenient.

So it varies on the car and it's tranny, but pushing is slowly for a mile isn't going to hurt anything. And if the engine runs then the running engine will drive the trans oil pump and you can tow it forever. I did that once, I had to tow a car with an auto, the kind with a heavy rear driveshaft pressing down on a metal bushing so towing it 140 miles at 80+ would have caused damage. So I simply started it up, put it in neutral, and off I went. It probably burned a couple gallons of gas on the drive, but that beats removing the driveshaft for the tow.

Which btw is another option, if it is rwd then you can pull the driveshaft, or at least disconnect it from the differential, then the shaft and trans don't feel a thing. But be careful, the drive shaft on most cars will slide right out and many have been lost while towing, and those things are not cheap, especially if it hits another car :o Also if the shaft is pulled out the oil can drain out the hole so you'll need a special plug just for this.

So there you go, hope it helps...