if you r diving your ls forward would the car be smart enough to not shift in to reverse if you accidentally put the shifter into reverse? i know this sounds stupid but i have a friend that has a 2008 or 2009 Malibu and some how he did this and the car went into reverse. talking with him i was like how can a new car be so stupid to let its self do that. the trans is fly by wire there is a box at the shifter and one at the trans so the computer let this happen. i called is car dumb and then he was like O so your Lincoln wouldn't do that. i told him it wouldn't but now im thinking would it or wouldn't it. im not going to go put my car in reverse when going forward to find out but i would hope that it would be smart enough not to let its self do it. sorry for such a dumb post its just one of them things were i have to know now.
quick transmission question
- Thread starter bob380sx
- Start date
djknowledge
Dedicated LVC Member
only if you press the brake hard enough to disable the lock on the shifter will it be able to go into reverse.....i think..... it might actually be able to go into neutral by just moving it tho.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
There's no brake interlock to prevent you from shifting from drive to reverse, or reverse to drive. There's only one to prevent you from shifting out of park without your foot on the brake.
I know that the early 2000's Grand Marquis transmissions wouldn't shift to reverse until you had nearly stopped moving. I also know that fairly recent Ford F150 transmissions will slam into reverse while you are going forward at over 40 MPH.
I don't know what the LS transmission does, and I'm not going to try it either. I do have a habit of shifting from reverse to drive while still moving backwards. It seems to wait until the car is nearly stopped before it engages, and it does so smoothly (doesn't jerk).
Dont try it, but it can shift into reverse while moving forward, ask me how I know.
To save gas my friend would get to lets say 40 on a 35 and put the car in neutral and just cruise. I really doubt it would do much, not enough for you to do it anyways. I tried it once though trying to see how far I could cruise in neutral like that. On the second attemp, I pushed the lever past neutral and into reverse accidently. The tranny locked up trying to go into reverse but before it could fully go into it, I pulled it back into neutral. It was less than a split second that I left itin reverse, but it did jerk a little in that little time like it was going to engage it and stop the car, I wont be trying that again. :shifty:
To save gas my friend would get to lets say 40 on a 35 and put the car in neutral and just cruise. I really doubt it would do much, not enough for you to do it anyways. I tried it once though trying to see how far I could cruise in neutral like that. On the second attemp, I pushed the lever past neutral and into reverse accidently. The tranny locked up trying to go into reverse but before it could fully go into it, I pulled it back into neutral. It was less than a split second that I left itin reverse, but it did jerk a little in that little time like it was going to engage it and stop the car, I wont be trying that again. :shifty:
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
Some info for you and your friend...
The LS like just about all 95 and newer cars, cuts off all fuel to the engine when you are coasting above a certain speed (probably 20/30 MPH). The movement of the car turns the transmission which turns the engine, so no fuel is required to keep the engine at or above idle RPM. When you put the transmission in neutral, it no longer turns the engine, so fuel has to be injected to keep it running. Of course, the car will coast further in neutral than in drive, so it is hard to say without testing which way saves more fuel. For sure going down a hill uses less fuel in gear than in neutral.
In any event the difference in fuel use would be so small as to be nearly impossible to measure.
i don't get this. with as smart as car have gotten why would they not program something to not let this happen. in my suburban if im going down a steep grade and pull the truck in to low the computer doesn't let it down shift and i end up burning the brakes off it. if you put it in 1st and take off it will shift any way up to 3rd the only thing you can do is keep it out of over drive. but it would probably shift into reverse running 65mph down the road. i just don't get it.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
I understand your point, but maybe the driver should retain some intelligence too. Also keep in mind that each additional feature that is added to keep the driver from doing something stupid, is a feature that could cause a failure when it breaks. (Everything you add, is just another thing that might break some day.)
Example: Add a feature to the PCM software to not allow reverse or drive to engage if the car is moving. (The ABS controller tells the PCM if the car is moving.) Your ABS fails, and can no longer tell the PCM if the car is moving. The PCM doesn't know if the car is moving, so it does the safest thing and assumes that it is. It now won't allow you to shift into gear because the car might be moving, even though it isn't.
Now: ABS fails, you can drive without ABS until you get it fixed.
Added feature: ABS fails, maybe you can't even drive anywhere until it is fixed.
Clearly, it wouldn't have to work that way, but the point is that you could be adding unexpected failure modes.
i understand that point too but clearly one doesn't have to be intelligent to have or drive a car. we see this every day. i worry more about the fly by wire stuff like a gas peddle that is only connected to a electronic device that communicates to another electronic device through a PCM. i don't see to many ill effects of have and safety for keeping the car out of reverse when moving forward. a simple mechanical reverse lockout would be better than nothing.
mlara1129
Dedicated LVC Member
I dont know if this would apply to our LSes, but for my Volkswagen, the manual strictly said NOT to cruise in neutral, because it could potentially cause damage to the automatic tranny.
Just my two cents, since someone mentioned doing this...sorry i know its not completely related to the OP
Just my two cents, since someone mentioned doing this...sorry i know its not completely related to the OP
i don't care if threads stay on topic. it was kinda dumb anyway.
as for cruising in neutral it could have something to do with trans speed vs the oil pump speed and that's why its bad for it. the motor runs the trans oil pump. in neutral the motor runs at idle so im thinking the pump would be spinning slower. just shooting in the dark.
FWIW, the new 6-speed transaxles in the D3 and CD3 FoMoCo cars won't engage reverse when you're above a threshold speed. The shifter will go into the R position and the back-up lights will light, but the reverse gear won't engage.
It's amazing what you can do when you're not working with a transmission that originated in a Pinto...
It's amazing what you can do when you're not working with a transmission that originated in a Pinto...