Is it better for my automatic trans to idle for extended periods in park or neutral? I have been told both ways, but have heard several times that dodges don't "pump" in park when idleing.

-By extended, i mean 15-30 min, not all day or night

-I don't want to hear idleing is bad for it. Every diesel i have ever been around has ideled all day or night or for hours on end and has been fine

 

If I am thinking correctly, you want to idle your truck in nuetral with the parking brake set(prevents the truck from coastling away).
I sure as heck aint going to tell you not to let it idle for 15-30 minutes. But I am going to tell you what I would do if I was you.
I would cut a peice of pipe, or a yardstick and jamm it between the seat and the fuel pedle to bump the RPMs up a little. My philosophy is, I would rather let it warm up than let it be cold and drive it like I stole it. Hope I could be Of Some use,
Wheelo

 

I dont see it making a differance, if your trying to cool tranny off then neutral is the way to go, but idling the tranny wont be hot anyway. Mine has a throttle lever factory, kinda like a choke cable that idle it to a grand.

 

The pump turns in neutral, but not in park. It's better to warm up and cool down in neutral.

 

Its not too cool it down or warm it up, just let it sit and idle at any given time. I do not shut my trucks off while i am doing something for 20 min or so. I have a choke cable that i used to make a "cruise control" that i can idle the engine up with if i want too, but i doubt that makes any difference.

 

The pump turns at crankshaft rpm and its pumping fluid, where the fluid is going is the question.
It doesn't circuilate an amount of fluid in park to make a difference unless the valve body has been modified to circuilate in park. Neutral is when the lube circuits are opened and the fluid flows out into the converter and out into the coolers.
I personally like to use park because I don't trust the brakes and I haven't had anyproblems with them

I don't think idling is bad, excessive idling while cold in cold weather with big injectors might not be a good idea though.

 

Idle in park, so you won't have it in your head of your truck possibly rolling away. Then when you come back to it, idle in neutral for a few seconds, then go. I'm one of the believers in no idle, but thats not what this thread is about. Idle unattendant, by all means put it in park.