I shifted into reverse doing 80mph (dont ask) please help...

[wuf23]

Hi all, this is my first time on the board, just looking for some advice, i shifted into reverse doing 80, dont ask why just feel free to mock me, so the car slammed to a stop locking up for atleast 100 feet and i rolled off the road, i had to restart the car and it seemed fine, i drove the 60 miles left on my road trip and i didnt encounter any problems, this happened about 12 hours ago and i have driven it twice since then...

the idle seems a little rough, but not sure... what problems can i look forward to having and what exactly did i damage, thanks for any help in advance

[wuf23]

bump

[ec437]

Please don't bump your thread only 6 minutes after originially posting it. Someone will answer it eventually, you just have to wait for them to do so.

Having that said, what year/make/model is your car? Is it a stick or an auto?

[curtis73]

Well, my first response is; way to go dipstick In general what you did was force the engine to stop because you made the transmission add enough force in the opposite direction to stall it. The engine is most likely unaffected.

The transmission took a serious thermal hit. Most automatic transmissions are capable of handling that much stress. If it operates normally I wouldn't worry too much about it, but I would check the tranny fluid. If its anything other than blood red, replace it. If it smells burnt, replace it.

Basically, if all things operated as they should have, you didn't damage anything, but you took about 30,000 miles off the life of the tranny. The friction material inside the tranny is much like your brakes. Its designed to apply friction over a period of time. Since you just used that friction to stop your engine, its like you just put it through a marathon.

So, if it operates properly from now on, you shortened its life. If it doesn't operate properly, consider a rebuild or replacement.

[wuf23]

ec, thanks for the etiquette tip, i gues i'm used to faster moving boards

curtis, that is great info, thanks

my car is a 98 nissan 200sx, automatic...

i just had the tranny fluid replaced 2 days before the road trip, i will check it right now thanks...

[$upraman]

LMFAO!

Nice one slick!

[2.2 Straight six]

my friend did that, but at like 145, he was racing on a track, hit the straight with a 5-speed, dunno how he did it, it was a nissan with a gate where rev. is in the place where 6th would be on a 6-speed, it had like 350bhp, it broke the driveshafts, an destroyed gearbox + internals, big money to fix it. i saw some one on a program about the gumball, who shifted his M3 in to 2second @ 100mph.

[wuf23]

can anyone give me an estimate what a repair or replacement cost, just so i know i'm not getting hosed

[ec437]

Originally Posted by wuf23

can anyone give me an estimate what a repair or replacement cost, just so i know i'm not getting hosed

A run-o-the-mill transmission rebuild would be like $1200, but might be as much as several thousand.

[Steel]

That's werid. Most auto equipped cars these days are designed so that if you do put in into revberse while you're moving foward, It'll just stall the engine and disengage all the clutches in the tranny. That's what MINE did at least

[curtis73]

Right, but the force required to stall the engine is what kills the clutches. Its not like it kills the ignition and shifts the tranny for you, it uses the friction material in the tranny to push in the reverse direction on the crank with enough force to stall the engine... at which point you lose hydraulic pressure and the clutches usually disengage. Still, at 70 mph or whenever the engine stalled can still do significant damage to a free-wheeling automatic.

Imagine having two grinders face to face spinning the same way, then all of a sudden reversing one. They would eventually stop, but the damage that happens until they stop can be poopy.

[Steel]

nonono, my car acutally just shutoff. If i didn't know any better, i woulda thought it just just stalled in neutral. Im 99% sure it's programmed to do that should one pop into reverse while moving forward (with the mechanics inside of the transmission and the electronics of the car).

[2turboimports]

yes, but what curtis is saying is that for the force to get to the point to shutoff is still bad for the tranny.

[Steel]

but i'm saying the transmission isn't what's causing the engine to shutoff, it's the programming of the PCM, and the activation of reverse valve + positive speed governer pressure = disengaging of all clutches. Basically it went into neutral.

[2turboimports]

yah, but neutral wouldn't stall a car....it probably went into reverse (or tried to) for a split second maybe?