Hi - I am very new Prius owner, so glad this forum exists. The owener manual says that pressing the "P" switch while driving could cause significant damage to trans. Although this would be a very stupid thing to intentionally do I could see that this could possibly happen inadvertently by accident or someone not familiar w/ Prius randomly pushing buttons. I would think that since this is an electronic engagement there would be some conditional logic before locking the transmission on a moving vehicle. Anyone have any comment? Thanks
Hi zdavid :welcome: I wouldn't worry too much the Prius is well designed, for example see the following thread. http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-technical-discussion/58065-what-happens-if-you-push-park-button-while-prius-in-drive-in-motion.html
Hi David and welcome to Priuschat. :welcome: We're all also glad this forum exists. About the [Park] button. In 2004, when the GenII was just released, we had all the same questions. Some of the members here - those braver than I - actually tested a lot of them. Here's what they found: the car is much smarter than we give it credit. I'm going to try and pull this from memory and am sure that someone will correct where I'm wrong. For example, shifting into [R] while driving is not possible. Putting the car into [Park] while driving is not possible. However, if something were to happen to the driver, the passenger can reach over and press-n-hold the (POWER) button for 3-5 seconds and shut down the engine and hybrid system. I believe the brakes, steering, and other critical non-propulsion systems are still fully functional. And if I remember correctly, it's something like 7mph that is the difference between "can put the car into [P] and can't put the car into [P]. That is to say, if you are above 7mph, the software will not allow it. But below 7mph you can. That's where damage will occur.
As pointed out above, the controller is smart enough to simply shift to N if you try to engage park at high speed. The place to be careful as at low speed. Just as with any other parking pawl, if you engage it while moving slowly you come to a quick stop, and in the process you induce a shock load. The proper procedure with any automatic transmission is to stop first, then shift into park. It is a standard warning for all automatic transmissions. Tom
You'll get 3 beeps and the car will shift to neutral. The same happens if you try to shift to reverse while in motion. It's a lot smarter because it's electronically controlled. With a regular automatic, if you do that, you'll be at the side of the road with a trail of parts behind you.
there's only 1 way to drop the parking breaking while over 8mph... short out the 12v line. (i did this yesterday.. and a few times in the past)... you'll hear the parking pin click as it tries to fall into spot... once you drop below 8mph or so, it drops in locking up the driveline. other than shorting out the car... any other ill intents puts you in neutral... btw.. you link to an 09 post?.. i tried this in 04 (that's how we get our wreckless data on here.. i give it)
