so when you park on an incline (say facing up-hill) and you put your car in Park...you let it roll back...then shift from Park to Drive and you don't feel the strain on the tranny...try it and you'll know what i'm talking about...this has happened to all my automatic vehicles...it's an automatic thing i guess

 

Yeah, my '03.5 auto does this too. I think it's because the weak parking brakes we have. You really have to press it down really good. Lately, I've been shifting into Neutral, set parking brake, let it roll a bit, then shift to Park(no clunking later when I go from Park->Drive). Hopefully this will save my auto trans a bit.

 

When you put your auto in park, all you're doing is locking the output shaft by putting it against a fixed gear or arm, one that does not rotate. When you're parked at an incline, the weight of the vehicle puts some pressure between the shaft and the fixed gear. Then when you come out of park, you pull the fixed gear away, but since there's pressure between them, when they give it clunks.

 

And that's bad to a certain extent right? I mean it sounds painful!

 

mine rolls about an inch also even when I push in the emergency brake, I wish we had one you lift up on next to our shifter, but what can you do. Wonder if its hurting the brakes when it rolls a little after parking?

 

Its not hurting your brakes, but as mentioned above - its hurting your transmission. All automatic transmission cars will roll one direction or another when you put the car in park unless you are on a perfectly even grade. What stops your car from moving is a pawl (basically a pin) that engages against a notched wheel on the output shaft of your tranny. The car will roll one direction or another until the pawl is holding the car.

THe problem si if you use this (putting the car in park) as your sole means of keeping the car form moving - the constant stress can cause the pin to break (or whatever component the pin is designed to engage to break) - and you are looking at an expensive repair.

Always engage your ebrake before putting the car in park! if your car rolls at ALL after engaging your parking break - you should have your parking break checked.

 

Check this out for a great explanation: "When I put my car in park, what really keeps it from moving?"