Another curious thing I meant to ask about is the effects of travelling with the engine off and the trans in neutral. I always thought manual transmissions were fine coasting or being towed engine on or off and autos should only coast or be towed with the engine running, but my car's owners manual recommends against flat towing and says if it must be done to keep speed low and distance as short as possible, not to exceed 35 MPH or 50 miles I believe. No distinction is made for auto or manual transmission, although that may be an oversight.
I understand why towing an automatic transmission with the engine off would be bad since without the engine running there's no oil being pumped around to lubricate and cool components, but I am almost certain my transmission is simply splash lubricated so I don't see why it would matter? Unless the input shaft needs to be spinning to splash the oil around.
This doesn't matter much to me since I leave the engine idling while coasting, I'm just curious.
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