Threw the car in reverse.......

[Rump Roast]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jimmy and I recently bought a 96 Camry LE for my wife and I to use as a daily driver. So far we're loving it. I frequent this board quite a bit and most of my questions were answered as I browsed through the pages except for one.
Today, after I dropped off my son at school I continued on going towards work. Somebody decided that they couldn't wait for me to pass and darted out in front of me and came to almost a complete stop...(WTF?) I had no choice but to slam on my brakes. I have a habit of resting my right palm of my hand on the shifter and when I slammed on the brakes the momentum made me push the shifter all the way into reverse. Now the shifter normally does not go past neutral into reverse unless I push the button but somehow it managed to slide into reverse, causing the car to jerk. The jerk was not violent but more like a downshift jerk....I was thinking it would slam the car to a halt. When the car jerked it killed the engine but I was still cruising along.
I had to pull off the main road to inspect the car to see or smell if anything was out of whack. I started the car and shifted from P to 1 and vice versa to hear if anything was out of the ordinary.
My question is this....has the shifter incident ever happened to anybody here and does my car have some kind of a cutoff system if this sort of thing happens (engine kill) ? Thanks in advance for any help and advice you guys can provide

[bronzemaxell]

this might be out off subject, but reminded me it happened a couple times a car cut infront of me, and i was in 3rd gear (stick shift), going about 30-35 mph and i brake so hard to avoid collision, the car came to complete stop, but the engine stalled, because i didn't have time to shift the gear back to neutral.

back to your case, i think you should be fine, but don't do that often.
do a drain refill on transsion fluid or flush if you still worry.

i think auto transmission shift in reverse while going forward is not as bad as manual transmission shift in reverse while going forward, you will hear all the gear grinding.

[JMSinMD]

I wouldn't try it too often but your car did what it was supposed to do. Jon.

[JetspeedCamry]

Hehe Toyota auto's aren't like good'ol Ford V8 transmissions (C4 anyone?? :P)...if you put them into reverse while going forward..it will jump back out, kill the engine. All you do is restart the car..and all should be good. Don't do it too often though..its designed for "mistakes" haha.

[fe519]

why dont you gas it a couple of times, make sure it downshifts properly, compare the smoothness... etc. If it feels ok, then its probably fine. I would definitely do a drain/refill since you probably will have some metal shavings from the tranny

[Gary_602Z]

Originally Posted by fe519

I would definitely do a drain/refill since you probably will have some metal shavings from the tranny

In a Auto tranny if you have metal shavings in the pan you have problems!! If you do it is time to tear it apart to see what is causing the problem.

Gary

[Rump Roast]

Thanks, I appreciate all the replies. I drove aggressively as well as leisurely on my way home to see if the tranny is ok and I think everything's going to be alright. I live in the country so I had 20 miles to test the tranny out. I either got lucky or as someone stated that the car was suppose to kill the engine in this type of event. Got to break the habit of placing my hand on the shifter. It just seem natural for me to do so. I really appreciate all the replies and advice. Have a great day.

RumpRoast

[kamesama980]

toyotas can handle shifting to reverse accidentally. ive heard too many stories of "so i accidentally dropped the tranny into reverse while going 80 mph..." and nothing coming of it. nice thing about a torque converter is everythings not locked together like manual tranny, where youll just destroy the reverse gear shifting to rev while going forward.

bronzemaxell: is there some reason you couldnt just press the clutch? ...duh? vbmenu_register("postmenu_1206054", true);

[Silver Streak]

Originally Posted by Rump Roast

I have a habit of resting my right palm of my hand on the shifter and when I slammed on the brakes the momentum made me push the shifter all the way into reverse.

This has happened to me about 5 times in the past few years, but only into neutral...which is a good thing as it helped slow me down in those cases...but it has never ever thrown itself into reverse.

[touringcamry]

Since newer Toyotas, I dunno about Gen 3, use ECT will the computer even allow the transmission to shift into reverse when traveling forward? Obviously in this case it did because the car stalled.

[Hajoca]

There should be no damage, I was surprised you didn't hear a rapid clicking noise.

At the corolla plant, some test and tear down builds are subjected to that test.

[bronzemaxell]

Originally Posted by kamesama980

toyotas can handle shifting to reverse accidentally. ive heard too many stories of "so i accidentally dropped the tranny into reverse while going 80 mph..." and nothing coming of it. nice thing about a torque converter is everythings not locked together like manual tranny, where youll just destroy the reverse gear shifting to rev while going forward.

bronzemaxell: is there some reason you couldnt just press the clutch? ...duh? vbmenu_register("postmenu_1206054", true);

i wished i had enough time to step on the clutch, it is one of those moments where poor skill driver on two lane traffic side by side just cut to your lane without looking at their rear mirror or side mirror, and within split second, all i remembered is step on my brake pedal and steer to left to avoid collision, i did managed to hammer on my air bag to sound the horn. but when you think about it, if you put all the force on the right leg on the brake pedel trying to stop the vehicle, it is pretty difficult to step on the clutch again with your left leg unless you stand up from your seat in an awkward position.

[Tarzan]

Not a problem, Toyota transmissions are idiot proof. I put my car in park going 80 on the highway. I heard a dunk sound and the engine cut off. Restarted and nothing seemed wrong.

[dna59]

I did this once, nothing was damaged I don't think. I had a small oil leak soon after, but don't think it was related.

[jhbhatia]

your tranny should be fine.
Nice story....(this is offtopic) i'm a trek'ie but coming to a complete stop always entailed picard wanting to do reverse engines on NCC 1701D...LOL