Accidently Put Car Into Reverse While Driving!

[bngu1]

so the other day i took my sister to the airport, this idiot cut in front of me so i slammed on the brake and push the shifter into neutral but went too far and got in reverse! i know that's bad, but you think i damaged the transmission? it seems fine now but did i do any damage? shouldn't the reverse gear in a lockout mode when the car is moving until it is stopped?

[SKperformance]

It should be fine as going into reverse will cause the engine to shut off if it engages.

[Ted Chumpusa]

The real problem is that you are shifting the transmission at all during hard braking. You gain nothing by shifting into neutral, you lose the advantage of engine breaking, and you run the risk of shifting a moving car into reverse or park which could potentially cause a catastrophic loss of control.

[djspawn00]

shifting into nuetral while braking = more work with no payoff. Ted's right, I think car n driver magazine also discussed this briefly in one of their recent issues.

[wwest]

shifting into nuetral while braking = more work with no payoff. Ted's right, I think car n driver magazine also discussed this briefly in one of their recent issues.

Actually there can be a strong safety benefit at certain times and circumstances from quickly shifting into neutral, especially on FWD or F/AWD vehicles such as is the RX series. The AAA has recommended this to owners of FWD and F/AWD for many years now to help maintain directional control while slowing or braking on an adverse roadbed surface.

A significant level of inadvertent engine compression braking can/will not only raise the potential for a skid, "jack-knife", but it will also interfere with the anti-lock system. The slippery the roadbed the higher is the potential for loss of control.

But in this case I rather doubt if the engine/transaxle ECU would have actually shifted the transaxle into reverse, at least not until the driveline was turning slow enough that no harm would have been done.