While lifting my 2003 Mitsu. Eclipse (manual) to replace a sway bar link, i was also checking on some other things and had the car running. It was in neutral yet the tires were spinning fairly quickly, and I dare say more on the driver side than the passenger side. Obviously this is a tranny issue, so I want to figure out what’s going on pretty quickly.
A quick note- depressing the clutch stops the power transfer completely.
I’m willing to bet this is completely normal, and nothing to worry about. You could probably stop the tires from spinning very easily. Even in neutral, the transmission input shaft is still turning unless you disengage the clutch.
It’s called viscosity drag and the colder it is the more pronounced it is…Even in neutral, the gears are meshed, there are just no drive dogs engaged. But the gear oil will provide enough coupling to turn the axles…
Hmm. That certainly makes me feel a lot better about it. As for stopping the tires from spinning pretty easily, that sounds about right.
Thanks for the input!