Shifting auto trans without stopping?

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SZR48207

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I know a few people that do the following when driving a vehicle with an automatic transmission.

Go from park to reverse to back out of a spot.
While still rolling back in reverse they shift to drive and go.

I've always thought this was bad to do since drive is a forward gear and you generally don't move backwards while driving. I suppose I believe the same about reverse since.

I always come to a complete stop before switching between gears unless going into neutral.

Thoughts?
 
Of course its bad, but occasionally some might mistakenly shift too early and do this.


Personally, try not to do it, but overanalyzing it is a waste.

Life is short.

Just don't do it. Occasionally by mistake is fine.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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I know people that do it all the time though. Subsequently it seems like their transmissions are extra loose in comparison to mine.
 
Once back in the 1970s I mistakenly threw my auto transmission into park at 30 mph. It made a really loud clacking noise while it slowed down. When it was almost stopped, it lurched to a stop because the pin must have finally slipped into the slot for park.

THen there are the folks who do brake torque take offs where you hold the brake on hard while in gear and rev it high, when the light changes release the brake and stop the pedal the rest of the way, usually makes for a spectaular take off, if not a pool of transmission fluid on the road--heehee.
 
Its OK to shift a converter AT from rev to D when moving under 5mph. Trans is designed for this. It's Harder on CV or U joint and transmission mounts than anything in the AT(dont forget spider gears in the pumpkin). The transmission should be able to handle this NP whatsoever. Forward to reverse is a no-no on modern underspec'd transmissions. When we were a kid you would not believe what we did to our TH400 in our BB buicks and chevys and C6 in our LTDs! Never a failure - I would know as I was the neighborhood mechanic on all these beasts.
 
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It is not good for the transmission, I know a lot of people who do it though. When I was in my teens I took a 1976 [almost positive it was a 76] T-Bird up to about 65 and tossed it into reverse. Yes it was stupid, please lets not go into that. Anyway the engine stalled and the car kept going forward, w/o power brakes or power steering. Being the crazy kid I was I tried it again, only this time I paused in neutral and pegged the gas to the floor. Much to my surprise the car slowed to a stop with one rear tire spinning in reverse, and then backed up. What a rush, it was like stopping a boat. I'm happy to report the 429 or 460? CI T-Bird survived. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. Trying it with a front wheel car would probably spell disaster. The big T-Bird was RWD.

IIRC Myth Busters did something similar and found the car stalled. They should have called me for the workaround! LOL
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
I know people that do it all the time though. Subsequently it seems like their transmissions are extra loose in comparison to mine.



confused2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
It is not good for the transmission, I know a lot of people who do it though. When I was in my teens I took a 1976 [almost positive it was a 76] T-Bird up to about 65 and tossed it into reverse. Yes it was stupid, please lets not go into that. Anyway the engine stalled and the car kept going forward, w/o power brakes or power steering. Being the crazy kid I was I tried it again, only this time I paused in neutral and pegged the gas to the floor. Much to my surprise the car slowed to a stop with one rear tire spinning in reverse, and then backed up. What a rush, it was like stopping a boat. I'm happy to report the 429 or 460? CI T-Bird survived. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. Trying it with a front wheel car would probably spell disaster. The big T-Bird was RWD.

IIRC Myth Busters did something similar and found the car stalled. They should have called me for the workaround! LOL

Sounds like a good thread for "General and Off Topic": Stupid things you did as a teenager with cars.
 
Demarpaint,
Wow, you're lucky it didn't lock both back tires and send you into the ditch at 60 mph...
Brake torqueing isn't too bad on a transmission though, if done for a few seconds, basically all you are doing is heating the transmission fluid with all the HP your car has at the trans stall speed...
In my Neon's case, maybe 50hp? A 60,000 watt heater sounds more impressive! I do it all the time for autocross to get my heap moving with a bit more authority. Fluid is nice and rosey and smells new even after a few seasons.
 
Originally Posted By: mikiee
Sounds like a good thread for "General and Off Topic": Stupid things you did as a teenager with cars.


Good idea. Trust me it was stupid! I did a few other stupid things with cars, but I'll save them for that thread.

Why not start the thread since it was your idea! I bet it would be very entertaining.


Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Demarpaint,
Wow, you're lucky it didn't lock both back tires and send you into the ditch at 60 mph...
Brake torqueing isn't too bad on a transmission though, if done for a few seconds, basically all you are doing is heating the transmission fluid with all the HP your car has at the trans stall speed...
In my Neon's case, maybe 50hp? A 60,000 watt heater sounds more impressive! I do it all the time for autocross to get my heap moving with a bit more authority. Fluid is nice and rosey and smells new even after a few seasons.



I'm very lucky, I'm wondering if the fact that the car didn't have a posi rear mattered? I know FWD would have been a disaster, but those cars weren't nearly popular as they are now. Thankfully as we get older we get wiser. Again Kids don't try this at home!
 
Originally Posted By: Eddie
It was fun in the GM DYAFLOW at 60 mph


LOL I always knew I wasn't the only person to try it. LOL
 
If you have one rear wheel spinning backwards and one rolling forwards with an open diff you should be kind of pointed straight. If the tire has no traction it's not really relevant if it's spinning backwards or locked up. An e-brake application would be worse at speed, stability wise.

Had a friend in high school who loved neutral-slamming his dad's 1990-ish Taurus 3.8. Last I knew he hadn't broken it!
 
slightly different, I sidestepped the clutch at 3500 (manual trans) into reverse in my FWD escort (not moving). The bang that shook the car and stopped the engine dead in its tracks was so horrendous, I never, ever did that again, ever. I was in the dirt even.... not on pavement... it did not spin wheels like I'd hoped.... the driveline ate ALL of that force.

M
 
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It's not exactly good, but the torque converter buffers the shock from the engine. As long as you're going slowly, it'll hurt u-joints, etc more than anything.

Neutral drops, however, are BAD for the transmission clutches.
 
Originally Posted By: meep
slightly different, I sidestepped the clutch at 3500 (manual trans) into reverse in my FWD escort (not moving). The bang that shook the car and stopped the engine dead in its tracks was so horrendous, I never, ever did that again, ever. I was in the dirt even.... not on pavement... it did not spin wheels like I'd hoped.... the driveline ate ALL of that force.

M


I side stepped many cluthes, another fun thing when I was younger. I tested traction controll against a 6500 rpm hole shot, a very weird feeling. I wasn't that young when I did that though
smile.gif
 
I once hit R in the Buick when coming back up from a lower gear at 25-30 mph. The engine stalled and that was it. Lesson learned, don't pull back the column shift when coming up from lower gears!
 
I know people who do this routinely at lower speeds, and some do have transmission problems with their vehicles, but I don't know if their shifting is the cause or the fact that these same people never change the transmission fluid.

Personally, I don't do this, ever. I have never had a transmission problem at all in any of my trucks. I am pretty hard on them otherwise, such as flooring it from a dead stop, but I never shift between D and R unless the truck is stopped.

For some reason my dad drove this habit into my head early on. I don't know if it was due to our Taurus' appetite for transmissions, or some other experience, but my dad always told me to come to a complete stop whenever I shift between D and R. I remember him telling my sister and my mom as well. My dad is not that picky about maintenance overall.
 
Originally Posted By: mikiee
Sounds like a good thread for "General and Off Topic": Stupid things you did as a teenager with cars.
Yes! Yes! Let's do it! But don't limit it to cars. Besides doing many stupid things with cars, I did something really stupid with a garden tractor--and survived. I also did stupid things with bicycles, mini-bikes, and motorcycles.
 
back in the dark ages i had 1965 chrysler 300 L auto trans. one time on the snow, 25-30 mph, i stoped it by locking the brakes , tricked the trans into thinking it was stoped and put the trans into r. let up on the brake pedal carefuly, cause it WILL go sideways. it DID stop. but you MUST be carful
 
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