What happens if.....

[SJT]

....I press the transmission "P" button while moving?

Today I accidentally pressed the button while the car was just about moving and it stopped instantly, nearly throwing me through the screen!

It got me wondering what would have happened if I was going much faster.

[Herbie]

Hopefully, as it's all electronically controlled there should be some form of circuitry or interlock that prevents you from doing it, but from your experience maybe not.

The parking pawl is a bit of metal that meshes with a gear and prevents it from rotating, thereby stopping the car from moving.

People who like to say that they don't use the parking brake for fear of it seizing on are playing a dangerous game, because the whole weight of the car is then on the parking pawl and if it breaks that means that there'll be a piece of metal floating around in the transmission; not a good thing and could be a very expensive mistake.

[DrShockr]

There is a speed cutoff above which the parking pawl doesn't engage even if you do press it. I've done it by mistake while at speed and it just beeped and and the car stayed in Drive

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[SJT]

Thanks everybody.  As expected but good to know for certain from the experts!

[Fatts]

3 hours ago, DrShockr said:

There is a speed cutoff above which the parking pawl doesn't engage even if you do press it. I've done it by mistake while at speed and it just beeped and and the car stayed in Drive

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 

Good to know as this can happen to anyone 

[royoftherovers]

39 minutes ago, Fatts said:

Good to know as this can happen to anyone 

If both hands are kept on the wheel whilst driving, it cannot happen at all.

[NemesisUK]

Is this 'P' button for the parking brake? Or the Park position for the transmission?

[ColinBarber]

2 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

If both hands are kept on the wheel whilst driving, it cannot happen at all.

Unless you have a passenger 😉

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

Is this 'P' button for the parking brake? Or the Park position for the transmission?

Park for the transmission.

[Las Palmas]

On 10/14/2020 at 5:10 PM, royoftherovers said:

If both hands are kept on the wheel whilst driving, it cannot happen at all.

Not if you drive alone in the car.

Merry Christmas and happy new year

john

[MadJam250]

Coincidentally this crossed my mind the other day too. Reassuring to know there is a cut off at speed function which I would never wish to test out. 

[SnoopyS]

I was also curious what would happen if you selected R instead of D when driving along, after for example you have selected B. I would assume it would not engage revers over a certain speed but I haven't really checked to find out haha!

[DrShockr]

On 10/14/2020 at 12:48 PM, DrShockr said:

There is a speed cutoff above which the parking pawl doesn't engage even if you do press it. I've done it by mistake while at speed and it just beeped and and the car stayed in Drive

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 

Just wanted to correct my earlier post, what actually happens is that it beeps and goes into 'N' and a little message pops up saying something along the lines of braking and coming to a stop before pressing 'P'. 

[Poundy]

On 10/14/2020 at 5:10 PM, royoftherovers said:

If both hands are kept on the wheel whilst driving, it cannot happen at all.

Or both hands on your head 😉