Reverse Gear When Moving Forwards

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2004
Posts
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Location
Harrow, UK
Some friends at work and I were discussing what would happen if you were travelling on the motorway at 70mph (obeying the speed limit of course ;)) and then shoved the gear lever into reverse.

Some said that the gear box would simply break and the car would continue rolling forward due to its momentum. Others thought it would break, but the wheels would lock and at those speeds cause an accident.

Does anyone actually know what would happen?
 
I know in Mythbusters they were doing this to destroy a drive shaft (Trying to get the car to flip). It did shear the shaft (after they weakened it) but the gearbox held up (surprisingly!). It probably depends on what car, how much torque etc, but it will break something.
 
Assuming you can actually get it into reverse, it probably depends on the car, and where the weakest point in the drivetrain is :p


Try it for us? I'll pay for whatever breaks
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At 70mph the wheels may briefly lock, but you will break something very quickly. You'd be doing well to get it in reverse at 70mph with a manual box though.
 
I accidently went to go for reverse when I wanted 4th, all that happened was it crunched, it wouldn't let me select it into the gear.

I'd be interested to know what episode the Mythbusters one is though.
 
Janesy B said:
You need to go from 5th to N then to Reverse, you won't be able to go straight down from 5th the Reverse.
Click to expand...

but you pass through Netrual in the process and with the cluth down it wouldn't matter anyway.

In either case, the syncro mesh will be screaming and it would need some serious force and some good luck with timings to be able to get the gear engaged.
 
you cant get it in reverse at this speed.. if you were traveling like 5mph or so you should.. at least i did in an old mk2 golf.. at high speed the gear box doesn't even let it slide in..

btw-- its obvious you will be in lower gear going at that speed 2nd gear and you can get it in reverse..
 
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Janesy B said:
You need to go from 5th to N then to Reverse, you won't be able to go straight down from 5th the Reverse.
Click to expand...

5th to 2nd(Foot still on the clutch) to N Then to reverse.

I dont know why but most manuals ive driven go into reverse a lot easyer once you put it into second:confused:
Must do something with the lining up of cogs or something:confused:
 
My mate managed this in an audi a3 with the dsg box, he managed to get into reverse, spin the wheels while moving forwards, and then get back into a forward gear.

He managed to do this 3 times before blowing the gearbox up and getting audi to fix it under warranty....
 
I know someone who did that by accident in their ford Ka not long after passing their test :rolleyes:

At 40mph it broke the gearbox completely. I think the gear lost it's teeth, possibly some other damage. The whole thing had to be replaced from what I heard.
 
Just after I passed my test I was messing about with my Punto just trying things out and didn't realise you could do serious damage to parts etc...

I tried throwing it into reverse rolling down a hill at 35MPH. Lots of crunching but no joy.

Also turned the engine off and then back on again down the same hill at 35MPH and that worked fine.
 
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