Too Easy To Do......

MyHarley

MyHarley

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#1
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#1
About a month ago this happened and I chalked it up to not paying attention and must of compressed the button on the back of the gear shift.......but today it happened again.....I'm going down the freeway about 80 MPH (I know I know, but its the Houston flow of traffic) with my hand on the gear shift and the gear shift moves from Drive to Neutral without me compressing the button on the back of the gear shift.......of course the car is just coasting in neutral down the freeway......so I pull over into a parking lot to test the gear shift in a stationary position........the gear shift lever moves from Drive (not manual or sport) to Neutral without compressing the button......is this normal......I'm sure most of you drive with your right hand in place on the gear shift lever and tapping to the music........to me the gear shift lever is a hand rest......if this is normal, I guess I have to find another hand rest.......[8]
 
P

Pink_Floyd

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#4
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#4
In most cars there are certain gears that you are able to slip into without pressing the button. If you ever take apart the consol you can see the way the metal in the shifter is machined to let you slip into some, but not all of them.

For me I never rest my hand on the shifter, the only time I touch it is when I need to change gears. Eg. driving around in sport mode and then going onto the parkway and shifting into drive, thats about it.
 
Tom

Tom

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#5
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#5
MyHarley said:
About a month ago this happened and I chalked it up to not paying attention and must of compressed the button on the back of the gear shift.......but today it happened again.....I'm going down the freeway about 80 MPH (I know I know, but its the Houston flow of traffic) with my hand on the gear shift and the gear shift moves from Drive to Neutral without me compressing the button on the back of the gear shift.......of course the car is just coasting in neutral down the freeway......so I pull over into a parking lot to test the gear shift in a stationary position........the gear shift lever moves from Drive (not manual or sport) to Neutral without compressing the button......is this normal......I'm sure most of you drive with your right hand in place on the gear shift lever and tapping to the music........to me the gear shift lever is a hand rest......if this is normal, I guess I have to find another hand rest.......[8]
Click to expand...
Yes this is normal, every automatic car I've driven will allow you to shift from D to N without having to depress the button.
 
Wadula

Wadula

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#7
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#7
you can get from N to D as long as you are at a certain level of speed. standing at a light in N i can not shift or 5er to D without hitting the brake and the button. i find that security feature very annoying.
 
Kirby

Kirby

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#8
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#8
When we travel on business we like to screw around with rental cars. One trick we play on each other, especially on new employees, is to distract the guy driving at a stop light and the a passenger slips it in to neutral. It's great to see their reaction when they step on the gas and the engine revs up.

One time the owner of the company slipped it into REVERSE. Another group of our guys was in a rental car behind us - smacked them at about 3 mph - no real damage but we all laughed our asses off!
 
mikev

mikev

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#9
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#9
Wadula said:
you can get from N to D as long as you are at a certain level of speed. standing at a light in N i can not shift or 5er to D without hitting the brake and the button. i find that security feature very annoying.
Click to expand...
wait till you have a 2yr old in the car that youv'e just left running to pick a paper. then see as he slips it into D and the window of the newsagents your in. thats why its there. Oh and also for stupid people, so that we can laugh as they try and figure out how to drive it [:D]
 
MrElussive

MrElussive

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#12
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#12
Yeah, you can go from D to N without pressing the brake or pressing the button (if there is a button). Wasn't it only a decade ago that cars didn't even require you to press the brake to put it from Park into gear?
 
junglestylz

junglestylz

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#13
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#13
The whole nuetral issue is a safety feature that was originally developed for very cold climates. If you hit a patch of black ice you are supposed to put the car in neutral to stop any forward force of the cars wheels. When cars originally required you to push the button it took one of your hands off of the wheel for an extended period of time thus making it unsafe. If you just have to push it into neutral, it saves time, thus increasing concentration, and increasing the chances of recovery.
 
Kirby

Kirby

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#15
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#15
I drove "the Brick" last night ('87 Volvo) and this thread made me check out its shifter, thinking it would do the same Drive -> Neutral. Surprise - it doesn't - It will go only between D & 3 without depressing the button. All other positions require pressing the button. So there's at least one out there that is different - maybe it's an age thing?
 
Kirby

Kirby

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#17
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#17
Yeah they do some goofy design things. The worst legend in the Volvo world is changing the heater motor in a 240. It takes about 4 hours for a weekend mechanic, 2 hours for a pro! Fortunately, mine is a 740, only took me about 45 minutes.
 
Wadula

Wadula

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#18
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#18
the whole press a button thing is to prevent people from getting into a gear they do not want by accident and kill someone. the emergancy situations do make sense, but when it comes to it, the only thing a driver does is to slam on the brakes and get of the gaz. there is no additional concentrated move such as putting the car in neutral with the regular driver on earth.
it is as mike explained to prevent kids from doing something stupid by accident, to prevent the senil senior from rolling over his fence or crashing the garage door etc....
 
codex57

codex57

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#19
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#19
I liked not having to hit a button to go from neutral to drive. In my Civic, I used to do that and coast on the freeway to try and save gas. Well, I used to do it until I heard it's worse for your transmission.
 
wileycoyote

wileycoyote

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#20
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#20
codex57 said:
I liked not having to hit a button to go from neutral to drive. In my Civic, I used to do that and coast on the freeway to try and save gas. Well, I used to do it until I heard it's worse for your transmission.
Click to expand...
And how would that save gas? With a manual transmission, if you leave the car in gear and take your foot off the gas, you will get better gas mileage than if you put it in neutral and coasted. Why? Because in neutral, the fuel is required to idle the engine, in gear the injectors can shut off completely while the movement of the car keeps the engine "running".
 
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