1st gear vs. neutral

@EllyEllis,

They might be lug nuts that hold both the wheel and the wheel cover if they are like the ones that came on my Civic. If this is the case, you will need to jack-up the vehicle to remove the wheel covers as if you were removing the wheels.

Whitey, you are right. I just couldn’t tell by looking at them. I know that someday I will have to remove a wheel and wanted to know.

EllyEllis, my grandmother’s car has wheel covers that are held on with plastic nuts that are integral to the covers. They screw on to external threads on the wheel nuts and have to be turned to remove the covers. In my opinion it’s a stupid design. One of her wheel covers is not on because two of the plastic nuts got stuck and had to be broken so the cover could be pulled off. They aren’t strong enough to handle being turned hard when they get stuck. Just because they’re plastic doesn’t mean they necessarily don’t turn. I’d suggest pulling (not too hard) on the edge of the wheel cover. If it bends at the edge and seems stuck in the middle, it may have these plastic nuts.

Reverse is typically the highest gear ratio so would have the most resistance to rolling.

One thing I didn’t see mentioned is using the parking brake on some cars exercises the rear brake adjustment mechanism. Regular use keeps them adjusted and helps avoid having the cable seize up.

Engines with timing belts do not like to be turned backwards. I don’t really know what harm it would do, but I have seen warnings in repair manuals. Therefore, 1st gear if pointed downhill, reverse if pointed uphill, but ALWAYS set the hand brake.

It depends upon the terrain. If you are pointing downhill I would leave the car in reverse, turn the wheels into the curb, and set the parking brake. Putting the vehicle in gear is going to slow the car town if the parking brake does not hold but it is not going to keep the car in place on a hill using only the engine compression.

Neutral gear is where the trans shifter should be put when sitting stopped with the engine running so you can release the clutch and minimize wear and loss of the grease in the clutch throw out bearing. The last thing I want to do is pull the transmission to replace the bearing before the clutch plate needs to be replaced.

Update: I finally got around to adjusting my parking brake. The center console wasn’t as hard to remove as I thought it would be. It’s just a matter of removing the shift knob and six Phillips head screws (three on each side). In my car, there are actually two cables, one going to each rear wheel.

Engines with timing belts do not like to be turned backwards. I don't really know what harm it would do

My 1975 Civic CVCC didn’t have a self adjusting tensioner.
One day I parked pointing uphill in 1st and it turned the engine backwards a little.
Caused the belt to jump a tooth. After that it backfired above ~2500 rpm.
This was shortly before it was due for a belt change.