Help: Reverse gear whilst moving forward at 60kph

BurningFeetMan · Jul 20th, 2005, 03:23 AM

G'day,

Whilst driving half asleep to work, I did the stupidest thing I've ever done in my whole life. Whilst trying out different gears in my automatic, cruising down hill at around 60km/h, I found the reverse gear. Stupid. I know.

Instantly I knew what I'd done, all the dash warning lights lit up, and I immediately put the car in neutral and pulled over. After abusing myself for about a minute, I checked to see if anything was leaking and also checked for strange smells. On finding nothing, I started the car up after about 10 minutes and all was fine... I drove to work and parked no problems. On the way home, I booted the car and listened for any problems, but again, everything seems fine with full power, smooth gear changing, and normal running noises.

My question is, what, if any, damage could I have done to my 1999 Pathfinder? I'm aware that some vehicles have safe guards against idiots like myself, but I'm not too sure if my Pathfinder is such equipped. If you could also point me in the direction of the best Pathfinder mechanic north of Sydney, I would be most appreciative too.

Thanks heaps, hopefully you'll put my mind to rest.
Cheers,
BFM

Animal · Jul 20th, 2005, 10:04 AM

Well, one minute doesn't seem nearly enough. You should have abused yourself for at least a half hour. I'll attempt to make up for this.
You know why they are called idiot lights? The more you have lit ... never mind.

The A/T is computer controlled. If there was damage, it should have gone into fail-safe mode (3 gear only) which is designed to get you to where you are going, but with sluggish performance and no shifting. I haven't found this written anywhere in the FSM (maybe it is in the Owners Manual), but I believe the computer prevents the trans from actually shifting into reverse and from what you said, shuts off the engine.
You or a qualified shop can pull to ODB codes. The shop should also have the tools to perform some addditional tests, such as line pressure

Derogate · Jul 20th, 2005, 06:46 PM

Its fine, I did the same thing going 150kph in my old 89 ford tempo. If an old cheapo Ford car doesn't get damaged by it (although i almost crapped myself when the engine shut off at that speed along with the power steering) there is no reason why a high end import vehicle such as a pathfinder would take damage from that. Don't lose any sleep over it, and dont bother wasting money getting it checked. IF the tranny starts acting up then get it looked at, but I am 100% sure that nothing has happened to the actual transmission.

worst case scenario is your tranny computer needs to have the codes flushed, but its not harming it having them in there for the time being. it might just confuse someone if you need it diagnosed another time for something else.

**88pathoffroad** · Jul 27th, 2005, 04:17 PM

The tranny physically won't shift into reverse while moving forward at that speed. I believe it reverts to neutral in the case of a gear shifter change like that. It should be fine.