Auto Gearbox In Neutral

[David73]

I have a torque converter auto and when in stop start traffic I use neutral and handbrake. There is some folklore on the net that claims that using neutral puts premature wear on the gearbox. (The other problem is that searches on the matter also bring up people that like to offer irrelevant comments such as about fuel consumption, safety or convenience.)

Keeping solely to the question of wear, I see no difference between neutral/first and the normal shifting between gears on the move. Can anybody shed any light on this?

Second, is there an oil change interval and what is it (the car is a Fiesta)? 30K seems to be the figure mentioned elsewhere but the handbook and Haynes manual don't provide guidance.