My wife's adventure driving to work

[JimboDS]

Thought this story might make you laugh.

I get home from work and Mrs DS confesses... "On the dal carriageway this morning I must have accidentally knocked the paddle because the car was revving at nearly 4000 rpm. I think it said D2. I had to pull off and put it in P then back to D.".

Feeling very thankful that the gearbox is smart enough to not let you over rev, I explained what she needed to do change up or put it back to drive. She obviously hadn't listened when I'd explained before as she thought the left paddle changed up as well as down somehow

At least she waited until it was run in. I might not have seen the funny side!

Can I delete this thread if I ever try and sell the car on here??

 

[Dieselman]

She was just cleaning out the DPF...

 

[s88]

have done it myself; and I dont have paddles!

 

[JimboDS]

have done it myself; and I dont have paddles!

I'll tell her that. Though that would also involve me telling her about this thread!

(for the record she's usually a good driver!)

 

[Paul/]

Me too- always having manuals before, I initially continued my (bad) habit of resting my hand on the gearlever- with inevitable unintentional tips and consequential engine thrashing...

 

[Colin_b]

When I was driving an auto the first time I forgot it was auto and tried a manual change, and discovered an unexpected feature - pressing the clutch causes an emergency stop.

 

[Paul/]

When I was driving an auto the first time I forgot it was auto and tried a manual change, and discovered an unexpected feature - pressing the clutch causes an emergency stop.

I got that one out of my system driving a demonstrator with a manual override that, after cruising on a section of M-way , I'd forgotten didn't require any pedalwork. I was accelerating flat out at the time, away from the junction on to an A road, and it didn't actually stop- just fishtailed and smoked a lot

 

[John]

Reminds me of an old auto Mundano I once had - had me hand on the gear lever and it decided to slip into reverse.

Was only rolling up to a roundabout so less than 5mph but it went in and broken necks were had all round as it shot into reverse and moved back about a metre.

 

[Paul/]

Reminds me of an old auto Mundano I once had - had me hand on the gear lever and it decided to slip into reverse.
.

Done that in a few hire cars.

I should bail out of this thread before I'm forced to acknowledge that I should hang up my keys and use public transport instead

 

[Dieselman]

Reminds me of an old auto Mundano I once had - had me hand on the gear lever and it decided to slip into reverse.

I saw someone attempting to engage revers on the motorway a few days a go.

After three attempts, they gave up...

 

[BTB 500]

My grandfather managed to put an automatic Jaguar (courtesy car) into reverse at high speed, while shifting manually.

 

[John]

In my case, the gearbox felt immensely strong and capable of withstanding it - I can't imagine the result at higher speed though...

They tried it on Mythbusters once I remember watching recently on Quest:

Stop Car By Shifting Into Reverse : Discovery Channel

Comment at the bottom is interesting.

 

[Paul/]

They tried it on Mythbusters once I remember watching recently on Quest:

Stop Car By Shifting Into Reverse : Discovery Channel

Comment at the bottom is interesting.

"Not only was there no safety device to stop me from doing this but it actually span the wheels in reverse while still traveling forwards. It was just as effective as locking the wheels up with the brakes and even more amazingly didn't do any damage to my gearbox. "

..."just as effective as locking the wheels up with the brakes"!?

Also,I'd assumed that the result (at least in a manual) would have been a fried clutch- plates spinning in opposite directions- but I suppose the clutch has more grip than the tyres so they let go first.

 

[John]

Yes - I suppose in an auto - the torque converter wont spin the other way and I think everything is locked in place once in R so I suppose the tyres would give first.

In my case - the speed was so low they gripped! Hence the broken necks (whiplash).

 

[BTB 500]

When my grandfather did it in the Jag. there was a bang and no more reverse gear. The box still worked OK in the forward gears though. This was a long time ago ... 70s or 80s ... so not a current gearbox type.

 

[Dieselman]

When my grandfather did it in the Jag. there was a bang and no more reverse gear. The box still worked OK in the forward gears though. This was a long time ago ... 70s or 80s ... so not a current gearbox type.

Perhaps you can't answer, but why was he moving the selector at all?

Jaguars employed a J gate to stop people doing this accidentally, other makes had a button on the gearstick to release the interlock.

 

[BTB 500]

I believe he was shifting the gears manually at the time ... no idea why. He drove like a maniac - his own car was an XK150S drophead, which allegedly had some special factory mods/tuning.

 

[219]

My grandfather managed to put an automatic Jaguar (courtesy car) into reverse at high speed, while shifting manually.

I seem to recall there were a number of crashes involving early XJ-S's where this happened : there was no inhibitor built into the box to prevent this , and these cars had the old fashioned straight line selector , unlike Mercedes who introduced the modern staggered gate in the 230SL a decade earlier .

 

[moonloops]

Driving a Japanese import car I spotted a car coming towards me at night with no lights on.

I angrily washed my windscreen at him as he drove by..

 

[markjay]

When my grandfather did it in the Jag. there was a bang and no more reverse gear. The box still worked OK in the forward gears though. This was a long time ago ... 70s or 80s ... so not a current gearbox type.

I did that once on a 1970' German Opel Record 1700 with an automatic gearbox.

I was going down a steep hill and put the car in 2nd gear (it had 3 gears and no overdrive). At the bottom of the hill I wanted to put it back in D. The gear lever was next to the steering wheel, and I managed to knock it into reverse while cruising at around 30mph. The car came to a very sudden halt with screeching tyres as if the brakes have been slammed.

Luckily there was no other car behind me... so I put it back in D and drove off, and the car was fine after that.

Very embarrassing as my passenger was a lady friend who owned the car... and I drove it because I was supposed to be the better driver... ahmm.