Question About Starting, Shifting, And About Neutral

[eli2k]

Three questions - the first is if I park my car at night, then in the next day I want to start it, it is sort of harder to start up. If I leave the car for 30min and come back, the ignition is really fast, but in the other situation, it takes more 'time' that I have to turn the ignition before the car starts. Ideally it's maybe 500ms, but then the one that takes more time is maybe 2-3sec. Is this because the battery is going bad? I think one of the terminals is sort of collecting that crusty stuff, not sure if it is corrosion. I don't want to touch it in case it electrocutes me, so I'm not sure.

Second question - if I leave my car parked overnight, the next day, once the car starts up, I wait maybe a minute, and get into Reverse and go back out, and then shift into Drive. When I shift into Drive, the car makes this loud jerk, which doesn't sound good. If I leave the car to warm up around 3-4min, however, then the problem goes away. I checked the transmission oil (I don't know if this has to do with the shifting), and it's fine, the other fluids are fine, too. I wanted to ask what was causing this, what I should check.

Last question is, my uncle drove this car before, and usually when he stops at a long red light, he likes to shift the car into Neutral and told me it is fine. A friend told me if I leave the car in neutral it'll make something loose in the car. I assum Neutral makes the car work less. Does anyone do this when they reach a long stop? Is it bad for your car?

Thanks!

- Eli

[kingjack133]

1. clean the battery terminals with baking soda/water/and wirebrush..... see what happens

2. have a transmission service done...see what happens

3. putting the car in neutral or park should not hurt or looswen anything

[eli2k]

1. clean the battery terminals with baking soda/water/and wirebrush..... see what happens

2. have a transmission service done...see what happens

3. putting the car in neutral or park should not hurt or looswen anything

Do I have to disconnect the battery first? Or I can just clean it with everything connected?

[kingjack133]

1 turn everything OFF

2 remove clamps

3 clean posts/clean clamps

4 apply treated felt post washers and vasolene...prevents corrosion

5 do all this in a timely manner. if you take to long the airbags are disarmed and must be reset by a dealer. i don t know

what that time factor is.