I guess this question is generic to any modern electronic AT, but since it happened to my '05 Z, I thought I'd post my questions here.

My wife was driving the car, I wasnt there so this is all second hand, but while accelerating pretty hard, she misfires something in her head and is convinced she is in manual mode and needs to upshift. Thing is, she was in normal drive. So she squeezed the relase button (why I dont know) on the selector and either went in to reverse or park. She reports the back tires locked up and the car fish-tailed a bit before she recovered. I suspect she hit park because of this.

But what's bothering me more than the fact that she could have killed the car is that from what I can tell she didn't. Everything seems ok. Still goes into park, no noises, stink, or anything else I would associate with tearing the park lever out of the car. In a traditional automatic I would have expected that little park lever that engages with the driveshaft to have been torn up by this.

But for all I know this automatic is a drive by wire system. The manu-matic feature indicates a good deal of electronic/computer control of the shifting and I would like to think that the manufacturer would have made some attempt to prevent an idoitic move like what I just described.

So, for any of you familiar with the automatic in the Z, How big of a bullet did I just dodge? Should I be looking for a massive failure anytime soon, or is the system well built robust enough to tollerate this, or smart enough to have prevented the damage I expected?

Thanks in advance.

-glo

 

She might have depressed the pedal a bit more than needed and the auto thought that she wanted to race, so it revved up to redline. Mine does that sometimes when I push the pedal a bit too much. It is pretty annoying. Maybe that is why she felt she was in manumatic mode.

When in manumatic mode, however, you do not need to squeeze the release button to shift. She bypassed all of Nissans safety features. Nissan can only idiot-proof their cars so much. Are you screwed? I really can't answer that... I have never done it.

As for me? I'd never let my wife, girlfriend, pet brother, or valet dude drive my car. Period. But that's just me...

 

I can almost guarantee she didn't put it into Park. It would have broken the locking pawl.

 

To go to PARK, she would have needed to go to Neutral, which would make the engine rev like crazy. Then to Reverse, which you also need to push the brakes for (right?) and which would have prolly damaged the tranny. Then to Park which would have killed the locking pins. So no, very unlickely she went to PARK.

I think she shifted into neutral, hit the REV limiter, panicked and took her foot of the accelerator, then prolly shifted back in drive which made the rear wheels brake for a moment.

All in all, a perfect example why I don't let anybody (expect for my mechanic who is also a drag and circuit racer) drive my Z

Danny

 

If the wheels locked up you probably put it into reverse.

 

Modern AT transmission are shift by wire and won't allow you to go to Park, reverse or select a gear too low for the engine.

 

Far as I know the transmission will lock you out of Park or Reverse when driving so there's no way she could of went into those gears.

Odds are she went into Neutral then Red Lined it then took her foot of the accelerator then pushed it back in drive, with the rev's so high it probably locked the wheels for a second when she pushed it back into Drive which then caused it to fish tail a bit until the rev's dropped down...

Your car should be fine...

 

To get to PARK gear you must step on the brake far enough or the actuator can not go into P. From what you described it seems likely that she might have shifted into the REVERSE gear which does not require brake nor the shift **** button. When you are in D you can not get to P without stepping on the brake at all so the furtherest she can go is R. As to your question about damage...I don't think one messed up shift can kill the z tranny.

 

You need to be stepping on the brake to shift into park. I don't think you can shift into reverse either if the difference between the turbine and impeller are greater than the stall speed. What most likely happened was that she shifted into Neutral revved the engine and Neutral dropped it into Drive. If she exceeded the stall speed the transmission would have coupled or locked right away, hence the jolt. The car probably broke traction for a while until TCS /VDC kicked in and automatically adjusted the transmission and stability.

I can't say that I've Neutral dropped my tranny yet but, I have shifted into Neutral before thinking that I was in manual-mode while i slowing down then accelerating for a stoplight. It's embarrasing revving the engine and not going anywhere.

 

If anyone knows it is Aggro_Al. so a big +1