so i was cruising down a country road the other evening on my way to a buddies house and being bored i decided to downshift into third, however, i missed third and somehow my car allowed me to put it into first gear..... I know that this is suppose to be impossible unless going under 20MPH, my question is what is to blame for this being able to happen?? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.


ecopower

There really isn't anything stopping a car from going into first. There is however for something to stop you from going into reverse. but i"m sure if i'm incorrect I will be corrected.

electronic trannys will not allow you to exceed red line, they will go to the next lowest gear possible


Its not how fast your car goes....its how much nerve the driver has to push it that fast.

LittleBill wrote:electronic trannys will not allow you to exceed red line, they will go to the next lowest gear possible

im sure he has a stick...otherwise why would he be downshifting?


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yes i have a 5 -speed getrag and i have read in the owner's manual that it will not allow the car into first unless you are under 20 MPH and when i read that i went and tried to do it and it would not allow me to put it into first, not even at 21 MPH. Now, however, i can put it into first at any time...........


ecopower

Anything happen to the engine?

^^ It shouldn't have, thats what the rev limiter is for. I miss 4th once, redline 3rd and some how went into 2nd. It bounced the limiter for about 1 second before I got the clutch back in. Nothing ever happened to it.


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nothing happened to the motor i realized what was happening right away, so i was able to engage the clutch and put it back into fifth gear. i guess no one knows what failed to allow me to do this?????


ecopower

There's ususally a 'catch' for the 1st gear that makes it hard to get the shifter into 1st unless the car is moving slowly enough.
I'm assuming it doesn't 'catch' anymore.

i was redlining 1st 2nd and than 3 gear at about 128km/h which max and i was going in 4th gear, but i have missed 4th gear and went in to 2nd gear at 128km/h (80mph) my front tires locked and in like 2 sec i pushed clutch in

nothing broke down, thank god

there is nothing in the getrag to stop you from hitting first, just dont be stupid and put it in first look at where your shifting lol!

there is a reverse lockout though


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you can also downshift with the automatics it saves your brakes and seems to help with gasmilage just like it would in a 5/4 speed only if you drop it in to first youll blow something up so dont try it if your a stupid ass be gentle on it until you get the hang of it, if you blow your trans dont blame me its not my fault you dont know how to drive

That, is dumb.

The auto will downshift itself and take care of itself. Read your owners manual. It does not suggest downshifting the auto. It also says not to downshift through every gear in the manual. Auto's put massive ammounts of wear on the internal clutches when you downshift them. The only time that you should downshift and use the lower gears in the automatic tranny is when you're going UPhill and cant maintain speed in the high gear, or when the car keeps acccelerating in high gear going DOWN hill.

Guys, Rev limiter doesn't prevent you from forcing the car to over-rev by down shifting. All it does is cut fuel, but if you downshift you still have inertia of the car speeding up the motor and your going to be way over redline.



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15.149 @ 91.26mph 3-18-2006

Fire Fighter wrote:^^ It shouldn't have, thats what the rev limiter is for.

uh...

rev limiters can't do much when the engine is mechanically spun right past it by the wheels

Quote:

I miss 4th once, redline 3rd and some how went into 2nd. It bounced the limiter for about 1 second before I got the clutch back in. Nothing ever happened to it.

you got lucky and caught it fast

Drive 70 mph and put your car into first, then pop the clutch out... see how much protecting your rev limiter does then.

I don't believe that there is anything with a special purpose of blocking first gear at higher speeds, but the synchros in the transmission will have a very hard time lining up going for a really low gear at really high speeds, so for the most part it's just hard as opposed to impossible.

Reverse is a little different though, it's got the safety collar (00+ anyway), and (also 00+, might be earlier, but no personal experience) it has an internal blocker that prevents you from dropping straight from 5th to reverse.

Any other time (not 5th gear) there is technically nothing preventing you from putting the trans into reverse(that I've found), except that reverse is not synchronized, and is a straight-cut gear instead of helical (hence the whine), so it is *nearly* impossible to get into reverse when moving forward at any speed.


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