My cousin has a Cobalt. It's a lot like mine except it's a 2005 base 2dr auto. Anyway, me and him went riding around in it, and we were driving down this street. There was a Mustang next to us that kept revving at us. My cousin, being who he is, decided he wanted to rev back by putting it neutral and revving it. Well he ended up pushing it up into reverse. He quickly pulled it back down into drive. Now he's freaking out and crying because he doesn't want his transmission to be broke cuz his parents bought his car. When he put it into reverse, we were moving about 20mph. The car didn't jerk at all. In fact, it felt like we were just coasting. It's not making any noises or anything either and it shifts fine. I keep telling him not to worry, but he's freaking out. I honestly can't say I'm a "qualified expert"(as HE puts it) to say whether or not he messed up his transmission, so for those of you who are familiar with this situation and could shed some light, I would greatly appreciate it. I apologize if this has already been asked. Couldn't find it.

 

is the car acting different than normal??? if not, then dont worry.

 

i would say if it drives in reverse then it is fine.

 

The car seems to be exactly the same. Even my cousin is acknowledging that. He's just extremely worried that he broke something. After some searching, I found that some cars come with some sort of safety feature that if you exceed a certain speed and shift into reverse, the gear won't engage. Do Cobalts come with this?

Car drives in reverse. It drives the same and there's no weird noises. In yet, he still thinks he broke something.

 

More than likely the Transmission Control Unit idiot setting prevented any damage.

 

Interesting. Could you elaborate on this "transmission control unit idiot setting"?

 

This

And this, are the same thing..


I have put a car in reverse for a split second going about 25 mph and it did no harm. Tell him to calm down and if the damage is done the damage is done. But more than likely the engineers at GM thought it would be a good idea to idiot proof the car for occasions like this so it just stayed in neutral.

 

Rev that 2.2

But in all seriousness, it didn't do any damage, IMO. The car prevented itself from engaging the gear, so he didn't do any damage.

 

That's good to know. He's calmed down a bit since I told him that. I mean, it felt like the car just stayed in neutral, and it didn't lunge forward, so apparently the car prevented itself from engaging the reverse gear. Thanks for your help everyone.

 

Honestly, I can see how my cousin mistakenly pushed it up into reverse. He wasn't applying the brakes or holding the button in on the shifter. All the cars I've driven(and apparently him too) when you push or pull the lever so far without applying the brake or pushing the button, the shifter will auto lock in a safe position. For example, in my Camaro, if I'm in D and push the shifter forward hard (without applying the brakes or pushing the button), it will not go past N no matter how hard I push. Although I can pull it back down to D. With the Cobalt, as I just learned, is different. You can be in D and push the shifter up as far as it will go without applying the brakes or pushing the button in. It doesn't surprise me this safety feature was implemented.

 

cousin huh? lol. hope the car is ok.

 

Electronically controlled automatics will prevent you from shifting it into reverse while moving forward in gear.

Fifth Gear did a test with a bunch of different cars and the automatic just coasted. I think Johnny on the show forced the gearshift into reverse on a manual and you could hear it grinding like mad.

 

Bang on. On a manual transmission it's near impossible to get the car in reverse due to the rotation of the individual gear and primary spindle. I accidently did it once going from 3rd to 4th on my old car when I was first learning stick and sure enough it let out one hell of a noise to let me know I was doing something wrong. On automatics the chip will not route the fluid through the transmission channels when the car is in motion to engage the reverse gear, it essentially redirects this to engage neutral instead.

 

tell him to stop being a ricer, and he won't break his tranny. there's things in place to prevent idiots like your cousin from ruining his car. so the car should be fine.

 

I have trouble shifting into reverse in my SS/TC while stopped. You have to lift up the locking ring and then move it all the way to outfield on the right and hope it can engage.

 

R is for Race anyway, so he was doing the right thing

I'd say since it only coasted and you didn't feel anything or leave your tranny in the road, you're just fine.

 

hey dont we all have a friend or cousin that messes up our cars when we work on them?

no... oh. lol

 

the car is electronically shifted.

It wont let it shift into reverse unless the rpms/conditions were correct.

I wouldnt worry.

Note: Dont rev in neutral..makes you look like a ***.

 

i did this once in my old ford exploder. was coasting in neutral and pushed it up by accident into reverse. **** grinded and everything took a dump. engine lights all over the place. lights in places on the dash that i didnt even know existed. turned the car off and turned it back on and it worked fine. the car was just trying to tell me i was a retard. lol.

his car is fine. just dont do that anymore. and BTW to go from neutral to reverse you DO need to push the button. just like you do to go from Drive to I or L. so if he can move it into reverse when he's driving without pushing the button then theres something wrong there.

 

i accidently put my car in to park when i was going about 30-40 and i kept moving but i heard this loud ass snapping noise, worked fine ever since though.... it also was a auto..

 

It's fine.

I used to own an Auto cobalt, once I accidentally threw it into reverse at about 90mph. Unfortunately I had a shift kit installed, so it didnt wait to engage, it slammed into reverse at 90mph.

The engine shuddered and made a loud BANG (I'm pretty sure it hit the firewall) and immediately stalled.

I pulled over to the side of the road and it smelled like someone had just roasted a clutch trying to do a burnout. The car wouldnt start for about ten minutes, but after it cooled down, it started up and drove fine, like nothing ever happened. I daily beat that car for at least another year or two and 20-30 thousand miles and never had a problem with the transmission/

 

ive beat the **** out of my 07 auto and it still shifts fantastic, in fact it shifts much more smoothly and quicker then my 09 -> without a shiftplus on it

 

supposedly the trans's in our cobalts are made to take some abuse. i believe they were designed for chevy v6s to begin with. i could be wrong.

 

that is correct, they are also able to handle ~350whp, quite a bit more then any bolted 2.2 makes rofl!