When you first learn to drive, you will be taught driving habits that will help to keep transmission problems at bay. Over the course of many years of driving, however, it can become tempting to take shortcuts behind the wheel. When you bring your car in for transmission repair in Bethesda, your transmission specialist in Bethesda, MD can answer your questions about which driving techniques may be harming your transmission. To help you prevent transmission issues, read on to look at some driving habits that can destroy your transmission. 
Neglecting the Parking Brake
While drivers of manual transmissions nearly always use their parking breaks, many drivers with automatic cars often neglect this essential device. When you engage your parking brake after parking your car, you will help to take pressure off of your vehicle’s output shaft. In the event that your car shifts slightly while it is parked, the parking brake will help to prevent the transmission from becoming seriously damaged.
Shifting Before Your Car Has Stopped
Your automatic transmission needs to come to a full stop before you move the shift selector from one of the drive functions into park. If you switch between reverse, park, and drive too quickly, you run the risk of grinding your gears and causing serious damage to your car’s transmission. To protect your transmission from harm, get in the habit of slowing down your shifts and waiting for your car to come to a complete stop, before you select a new drive mode.
Using Downshifting to Slow Your Vehicle
If you grew up driving manual transmission vehicles, you may have learned about the technique of downshifting to slow down on a hill. While downshifting can be a helpful technique when you drive a manual transmission vehicle, this practice might cause devastating damage to your automatic transmission. Rather than forcing your automatic transmission into a slower gear to reduce your speed of travel, you can safely slow down by gently tapping on the brakes.