"P" parking button by mistake

Agreed, too bad that you can only change the temp with the steering wheel controls and not the fan speed. I should get in the habit of using them to rotate through the presets on the radio.

 

Wha...? Granted, I haven't driven "most manual transmissions", but I've never noticed this in the ones I have. Certainly not my dad's Honda Accord...

 

It's not just you. I have driven more manuals that you can shake a stick at and I can't think of one that doesn't allow you to inadvertantly stick it in reverse whilst driving along. Was following a car the other day as they slowed towards a traffic light when the reverse light flicked on at about 30 mph and the sound of an angle grinder was heard. I guess their car allows reverse to be engaged when driving

 

So you can pull it into reverse directly from 5th. gear? How old is that car?
I'm talking about the lock that prevents you from doing that change - not that it's impossible to change into reverse while moving forwards.

 

I have driven many manual transmissions, and I've never seen one with a reverse interlock. The ones I have driven featured a special warning system. If you tried to shift into reverse while moving, the warning system would emit a loud grinding sound and chip metal from the gear teeth.

Tom

 

I'm talking about changing from high gear to reverse.

I know the sound a gearbox makes when changing into reverse while moving forward (and think it's strange that the grinding doesn't happen when changing into 1st. while reversing).

So let me repeat.

I'm talking about the lock that prevents you from changing directly from high gear to reverse.

 

So am I. I've never encountered a lock that prevents an attempted shift from forward gears to reverse.

Your comment limiting the shift from high gear to reverse is telling. You must be fairly young. Many newer transmissions have reverse opposite the top gear. Most of the older transmissions have reverse opposite first gear, right next to second. It is easy to grind these, since second is often the fastest shift, and certainly done the most often.

The grinding comment was sarcasm. I forgot to include the [sarcasm][/sarcasm] flags.

Tom

 

What kind of car did you notice this on? it may be unique to some particular make or model. My last manual transmission car was a '05 and there were no interlocks whatever on the transmission. It did have one that required you to push the clutch in before the starter would work. Last summer I test drove a fairly new Tacoma pickup, no transmission interlocks that I recall.

 

I know exaclty what PriQ is talking about.
On a 5 spd transmission, try going from 5th gear straight back into reverse.
It should not let you go straight back, but rather just to neutral.
You would have to go to at least center, and then back to reverse to be able to put it into reverse.
This, however, is only when you are in 5th gear.

 

Thank you, that clears things up a bit. Actually sounds like a good feature because on a 5 speed R is sometimes (usually) right down from 5th. I wouldn't have noticed because my last manual transmission car and the Tacoma I drove were both 6 speeds.

 

Any 6 spd cars I've driven, the reverse has been simular to 4 spd's I've driven.
Reverse is usually: press down and forward where 1st gear would be.
So, I guess in a sense, the pushing down is the lock out.

 

That's a whole different issue. A detent is not a speed lockout, but it does help the driver avoid accidentally shifting into reverse. Many manual transmissions have detents, and not just for reverse. The five speed in my Jeep has a spring loaded detent for overdrive and reverse.

It's easy to see why manual transmissions normally lack any sort of speed lockout. A manual transmission is generally just a box of gears. It doesn't have any electronics, or any knowledge of speed. To get a speed lockout, the designers would either need to add electronics, or build a very complex mechanical device. Either is expensive, and not really necessary, since any driver who can shift should know better than to try reverse while moving.

Tom

 

You are right. All the transmissions I have tried this on have been 5 speed.

I often stumble upon this feature after coasting to a halt and want to reverse into driveways. I have to put the stick into 1st before backing up, so the lock is simply mechanical.

 

Never ever ever come across this in all the manual cars I've driven. Work at a cab company and drive many cars and prior to this I worked in a company fleet department.

Name a few cars where this 'feature' is present and I'll investigate.

 

Try out one of the cars with the Aygo 5 speed manual, such as Yaris 1.0, Aygo, C1, 107 or iQ.

 

Next time I get one as a courtesy car I'll try it out and will report back

 

True, but what PriQ was talking about, was a lock out from reverse, nothing about the speed.

My 1988 Mazda 626 turbo had this, as well as my 1996 eagle talon, my 2003 Honda civic and my 2007 Impreza as well as my current 2010 WRX.
My neighbors 2009 dodge challenger, my friends 2005 jetta gli and even his 1988 VW fox 4 speed.
My guess is that most people put the car into neutral as they are coasting, or dowmshifting and therefore never notice it.

My uncles 1998 Nissan maxima had it as well. He didn't believe me when I told him you can't put it into reverse from 5th. He tried it as we were driving and to his surprise it wouldn't go. He put it into neutral and then said it won't go into reverse now either. I told him it would, and as the gears screamed at him he found out that it would.

 

I'd buy that it's only locked after hitting 5th. I can't recall ever shifting directly from 5th to reverse, I tend to downshift at least once along the way. I was thinking more like from 3rd or 4th, which I wouldn't believe that I'd never shifted directly to reverse from. But 5th I could believe.

 

Same thing I'm talking about. Reverse lock-outs are designed to keep you from shifting into reverse above a certain speed. It doesn't make much sense to lock out reverse at zero.

Tom

 

With a 5 speed transmission, fifth is usually located directly opposite of reverse. There is usually a spring detent and toggle to keep drivers from accidentally shifting into reverse. It's nothing more than a mechanical lever forcing the shifter back into N when coming out of 5th. It has no smarts. For example, you can't shift from 5th to R even when standing still, even though that would be fine. Likewise it will let you try to shift into R at any speed as long as you go through N to get there. It's just a dumb latching mechanism.

The Prius, on the other hand, is completely computer controlled. Shifting is allowed at any speed and direction deemed safe by the Prius design engineers (and most likely their legal department).

Tom