Reverse Mistake

[JRBRUIN7@aol.com]

I feel really embarrassed to admit this since I've had my car for a year but tonight I was leaving work and just wanted to get home and I forgot that I had left my car in Reverse with the e-brake on, I started it and let my foot off the clutch and of course it jerked really bad and stalled out, just wondering how much damage this could do if any?

[Graphite]

You shouldn't have any major damage. Keep doing it though and you'll wear out the springs in the clutch hub, maybe do damage to the shafts in the tranny/crankshaft.

It happens to the best of us tho. I hate it when someone else drives my car and leaves it in gear. It used to get me all the time. Now I wiggle the shifter everytime I start my car.

[navylife59]

Our cranks and rods are pretty hardy. Something as simply stalling out won't cause much problem on the engine side. Graphite is right. It will probably damage the clutch more than anything. The owners manual warns not to push start the motor as it can cause damage. I tried it one night on a dead battery and it sounded like the clutch fell out. I will never test that theory again.

[JRBRUIN7@aol.com]

Thanks for the help!

[TBITB]

Originally Posted by Graphite

I hate it when someone else drives my car and leaves it in gear. It used to get me all the time. Now I wiggle the shifter everytime I start my car.

i hate that too! the dealership does that. i thought i was the only one who didnt leave it in gear when i parked!

[navylife59]

My ex does that with her car. I think that it is a throw back to the earliest days in motoring. Cars back then had worthless brakes that would slip on the slightest grades. They used the engine's compression as an added measure to assist the parking brake to keep the heavy cars from rolling. Nowadays, that is not needed. This is just past from generation to generation. I did have the parking brake on my Ex's car slip and the car slid down the driveway into the alley. Of course, I got an arse chewing cause I left it in neutral

On the flip side, does anyone with an auto ever use their parking brakes? It is not an impossibility for the park lock in the transmission to shear of the keylock/shifter mechanism to fail. Both have happened to friends cars. Of course, these were older cars with a few miles on them.