21 Things You Should Never Do In An Automatic Car! (Cuban Mechanic Explains)

🔗 Save $10,000 A Year By Keeping Your Old Car Alive Instead Of Buying A New One: https://rafaelvidalcars.com There are 21 things you should never do in an automatic car, and almost every driver in America is guilty of at least five of them without knowing it. Every one feels harmless from the driver’s seat, and every one is chewing on a transmission that costs $4,000 to $7,000 to replace. And number one is a myth printed in a lot of owner’s manuals. If you try to fix it the way most shops do, you can kill the transmission faster than the myth did. In Havana, almost every car was a stick. The first automatic I ever saw, I took apart on the shop floor in Miami just to see what was inside. I’m Rafael, a Cuban mechanic in Miami, and I’ve been taking them apart for 30 years. In this video: 21. Shifting into Drive while still rolling backward Throwing it into Park before you’ve stopped (the thumb-sized pin) Parking on a slope without the parking brake first Two-foot driving Revving in Neutral and dropping it into Drive Holding the car on a ramp with the gas pedal Coasting downhill in Neutral The “Neutral at every red light” myth Rocking a stuck car between Drive and Reverse Driving a CVT like a regular automatic Towing over your rating, or without a cooler Letting a tow truck drag your car with the drive wheels down Driving through a flooded street (the strawberry milkshake) Ignoring a shudder that feels like rumble strips Driving in limp mode Ignoring a small leak Pouring a “fix in a bottle” into a slipping transmission Using the wrong fluid Overfilling it Letting it get hot Believing “lifetime” transmission fluid, and the flush that can kill a high-mileage transmission even faster No sponsor, no dealer, nothing to sell you. Most of these fixes are free, and the rest cost less than one tank of gas. Tell me in the comments: what car are you driving, how many miles are on it, and had anybody ever told you that “lifetime fluid” doesn’t really mean lifetime? I read every one.