Accidentally hit “P†while still rolling

You most likely didn't damage anything, but be more careful in the future. If you had hit the Park button going above 7 mph (I think that's the speed), the car would shift into neutral.

 

I was wondering if the car had a safety feature like that!

 

I now remember clearly one of the reasons I love my Gen 1 Prius so much. I think this button is among the most stupid things about a gen 2 and 3. I see absolutely no reason for it, and adds unnecessary confusion. A simple P on the shifter would have been great. There is never a chance of making this mistake on a Gen 1.

To the OP: I don't believe that the sensation you are experiencing has anything to do with what happened. This feeling you are having is the same one that happens to me when I think I have screwed up big time. Don't worry, your car is more than likely fine. Get over the shock (no pun intended), your Prius is a tough bird. I just took my car offroad a few hours ago. I will post pics. Maybe that will liven your spirits!

 

It's unrelated, and probably just in your head.

Tom

 

Ting I think you might be imagining the damage because you're feeling upset that you did it. If it's not making any unusual noises then I doubt that it's really damaged.

BTW there is another way you can do this same thing so be careful. A few days ago I was coming out of my driveway and the car was running in stealth mode (ICE was off). I decided I'd like to stay in stealth mode until I got out into the street (since it was very late and it's a shared driveway that passes quite close to my neighbours window) so I decided to hit the "EV" button to make sure that the ICE didn't decide to kick in.

You guessed it - I went for the EV button by feel (instead of looking) and it's right next to the power button so I mistakenly hit the power button instead. Same thing as TingPrius, it shut off the car and slammed it into park bringing it to an instant stop with undoubtedly some nasty strain on the poor transmission. I don't know the speed but it was probably only 3 to 4 miles per hour. At the time I was really surprised that it let me do that, I thought there should be a lockout and guessed that I was just too slow for the lockout to be activated (a guess that seems confirmed by this thread).

Honestly I don't know why the lockout doesn't cut in at the minimum detectable non-zero speed. I know 4 or 5 miles per hour isn't very fast but it's still enough to give one hell of a jolt to the transmission. For the record I've not experienced any problems as a result of this incident, the transmission is still working fine.

 

If anything would break I would expect the park pawl to break, and that shouldn't cause any acceleration issues. I am with these guys, the car is most likely fine. If something broke, you would most likely have heard it break and then park wouldn't work normally..

 

i just did that a few days ago and haven't noticed anything. it sure feel like a rear hit though!

 

Ouch! I have not done this yet, but reading these two experiences here, I will certain exercise more caution. Thanks for sharing.

 

I've done it too. No big, was enough to lock my seatbelt as I jerked forward though, lol. Your car is fine, I'm sure it's in your head.

 

My car always drives better after an oil change.

Tom