What will happen if the car is shifted to reverse when travelling at 55 mph?

Question

What will happen if the car is shifted to reverse when travelling at 55 mph?

Answer 1

shifted into park before when the brakes went out and had to dodge into a field(i had to stop fast). Best i can describe the sound was like a nasty Jake Brake.

Accidentally shifted into reverse s******g around with shopping carts with a buddy hanging out the window doing about 65 when his leg hit the console shift.  Rear tires locked up or spun in reverse (not sure) then realized what happened and put it in neutral. Had my foot floored when it happened and cant believe nothing broke. Drove fine but that was scarry as h**l.

Answer 2

they tried to do this on mythbusters and it wouldn't let them.  Apparently there is a safety mechanism on most cars, well newer ones at least, that prevent it from happening.  They also couldn't get it to go into neutral while going 55.

Answer 3

On an automatic transmission it would break all the planetary gears or maybe the driveshaft yolk/U-joints. More than likely both!

On a standard transmission probably the driveshaft yolk or U-joints.  It would kinda be hard to get it to go in reverse gear at 55 though because the synchros(help shifting) are not designed to go from forward gears to Reverse.

Answer 4

People have died doing that.

Answer 5

1. you could die...............

2. you might not die but will need a transmission.

3. on some cars nothing because even though it will go into reverse the cars transmission will not at that speed.

Answer 6

i have done that in a piece of c$5& ford the tranny will make a real loud noise (grinding gears) and my car did not move no more so i said bye,bye to it

Answer 7

Umm, I'm pretty sure that a transmission will not let you put the car in reverse. If it is a standard it'll just grind the gear and not go in gear. Either transmissions, standard or auto, i'm sure will be ruined, and i'm guessing your engine will not come out so well either. There is also a good chance you will lose control of the car and wreck. So if you want, go ahead and try, just get it on video so you can be a youtube superstar, or superidiot.

Answer 8

First of all, why would you want to do that?  You would be walking afterwards because the transmission would be messed up.

Answer 9

Unfortunately no one here understands how a transmission works. Lets start with a standard transmission (manual shift). Because the transmission is spinning at such a high rate of speed in forward motion it will not allow the reverse gears to engage until the car comes to a complete stop, all you hear is grinding. In an automatic transmission the lever moves freely an any speed. The lever is connected to a cable or linkage under the car and move a sliding valve the redirects fluid to different parts of the trans. If you were traveling at 55 and shifted into reverse the car would actually go into neutral because the fluid pressure would be too high for the clutches to apply and would bypass in the valve body until the car was at a slow enough speed for the pressure to drop and allow the clutches to apply. the pressure is supplied by the torque converter and the front pump of the transmission.

Answer 10

WELL YOU MIGHT BUGGA UP YOUR GEARBOX,ALSO YOUR WHEELS WILL PROBLY LOCK UP FROM DOING SO,I WOULD,NT RECOMMAND THIS UNLESS YOU GOT SOME SPARE MONEY FOR REPAIRS.

Answer 11

umm... i may be wrong here but u must be stoped to put the car into reverse... its a safety feature.. well Aussie cars do anyway...

Answer 12

First of all, I am assuming here that you aren't doing this on purpose, or this question is not worth answering due to "stupidity" on the driver's part.

If you have to shift to "NEUTRAL" because of some emergency, while driving along at a high rate of speed, then DO NOT press that little button on the consol when you shift!

If you DO NOT press that little button on the consol, and you just push the gearshift (on an automatic transmission) forward into NEUTRAL, your shifter won't go past "NEUTRAL" You need that little button to shift into REVERSE and PARK and perhaps down to a lower gear, but usually you can move your shifter up from the lowest gear to NEUTRAL without that little button. This is a safety mechanism most people are not aware of........and  by the way, you can also drive an automatic transmission more like a manual if you begin at the lowest gear and use your tachometer (if you have one) to shift up through your gears to DRIVE.......

Hope that helps!

Answer 13

You'll keep rolling.  Your car might slow down really quickly, and then at some point, you'll start going backward.