What if hit P button while driving?

[carolle]

A simple, but scary question:

What if mistakenly hit P button while driving?

It seems that it can be easily pushed P button because of its eccentric design of the gear.

Would the car abruptly be stopping?

I believe the design of P is very weird... :shock:

 

[LEAFfan]

IIRC, it won't go into P if you're going a few mph. So it would probably just beep if you were going city or hwy speeds.

 

[Stoaty]

My guess is that like shifting into reverse, it would only be effective below a very low speed (like 5 MPH). Otherwise, probably nothing would happen. I haven't tested this, though... and won't be.

 

[planet4ever]

As the LEAF Owner's Manual says,

If the P (Park) position switch is pressed while the vehicle is in motion, a chime sounds and the current shift position is maintained.

But here's a warning I don't remember noticing before:

Do not slide the selector lever while pushing the P position switch. This may also damage the electric motor.

("Also" makes me think there might be something else which could damage the motor, or that it might damage something else, but I don't see either of those possibilities listed anywhere.)

Ray

 

[alex073]

Hello, my 4 years old girl did it at 25km/h, nothing happened except a little BIIIIIP ouf... But the seller told me not to do it before complet stop of the car

 

[Duncan]

Hello, my 4 years old girl did it at 25km/h, nothing happened except a little BIIIIIP ouf... But the seller told me not to do it before complet stop of the car

that was what I expected, it is electric not mechanical, so the car can check speed before engaging.

Reverse can certainly engage before the car stops moving forward, but it also has a speed maximum. Over that it just beeps and ignores you.

 

[TimLee]

I haven't tested it, and don't plan to.
But it may be similar to shifting into reverse.
If vehicle speed is >7 mph, shifting into reverse causes the vehicle to go into neutral very fast.
But if vehicle speed is 7 mph or less, the vehicle will engage reverse, and as Stoaty reported in another thread, the LEAF will come to a very abrupt stop.
That is probably NOT very good for the car, and if someone is following you closely they'll probably hit you.
Putting vehicle into Park at >7 mph, LEAF will just give you the chime warning.
7 mph or less, I'm not sure what it will do, but there is a chance it will stop abruptly.
Hopefully it won't try to engage the mechanical parking pawl in the transmission before it comes to zero speed, because if it doesn't, that will be very bad.
LEAF parts are very expensive, so I don't plan to intentionally test it.
I did unintentionally one day hit P while the vehicle was still rolling very slowly backwards, probably slower than 1 foot in ten seconds.
The LEAF came to a very abrupt stop with a slight chirp of the tires. Not good, and I plan to avoid doing that again.

 

[apvbguy]

this was discussed in another thread and I believe the magic number is 7 MPH, if you are over that speed the car will not engage reverse, under that speed it would,

 

[Stoaty]

But here's a warning I don't remember noticing before:

Do not slide the selector lever while pushing the P position switch. This may also damage the electric motor.

So they know this may damage the electric motor, everything is controlled in software, but the software allows this to happen??? Sounds like a major bug to me.

 

[planet4ever]

Putting vehicle into Park at >7 mph, LEAF will just give you the chime warning. 7 mph or less, I'm not sure what it will do, but there is a chance it will stop abruptly. Hopefully it won't try to engage the mechanical parking pawl in the transmission before it comes to zero speed, because if it doesn't, that will be very bad.

I can't imagine that pressing the Park button would cause the motor to reverse, the way going into Reverse at less than 7 mph does. Nothing about the Park button should ever cause power to be supplied to the motor. So if it is going to stop abruptly it could only be because the parking pawl was engaged. The pawl itself is indeed mechanical, but it is actuated by an electric motor. Surely that motor won't be actuated unless the car is (nearly) stopped.

Ray

 

[GregH]

I use Reverse at high speed often as an easy way to shift to Neutral (for coasting down hills).. As for Park obviously the parking pawl would tear itself apart if the car tried to engage it at even a very low speed. A Borg Warner EV transmission with built in parking pawl we're using at my work requires a motor RPM signal over the CAN bus as well as the signals to Park or Unpark. If the RPM is over 200 then it will ignore commands to Park. 0 RPM would be best though

 

[mrdcmills]

Nothing happens. My dog stepped on it the other day.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Clearly the car would lock the parking pawl and lock the front wheels causing the car to go end over end. I saw this happen at the mall last week and it likely happens often, I wonder how Nissan missed this!

 

[mbender]

There's no reason this shouldn't be fool-proof. After all, we are all fools (or have them as passengers) at some point, right? Hitting P even at a only few MPH will produce quite the "wake-up jerk" and would definitely cause beverages to spill and the "startle response", if not injury. It should always beep unless you have stopped. IMHO, of course!

 

[cwerdna]

Semi-OT: At http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=210271#p210271" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, I posted a link to a Mythbusters video where the tried shifting an automatic (Ford Crown Vic) and a manual (Honda CRX) into reverse at 50 mph. They also tried shifting the Crown Vic into park at 50 mph.

Oh yeah... c'mon people, add some funny videos to that thread!

 

[philip]

I, ummm "know someone", that shifts from D to R at 5-6 mph and back again every single day, when um, "they" are pulling into the garage to straighten out the car (garage is 90 degrees from the driveway). Doesn't seem to hurt anything, and I think you even get some regen out of it.

WARNING: Do not do with wife in car. I've "heard" it's nauseating.

Note to self: Maybe I should remove my VIN from my profile...you know, just because...