so I'm going 50-60 mph in one of the circle on ramps from one freeway to the other (10w to 405s) and all of a sudden my rpms shoot up to like 5500+ rpms and i lose power! meaning I'm trying to press the gas and the rmp gauge is just moving freely.

so this is rush hour and i have a line of cars behind me doing 50-60 mph and NO shoulder to go over too... i cant just hit the brake.. but I'm slowly losing speed anyway.

so i stop reving, throw on my blinkers and coast to the upcoming shoulder.... then i notice... i had shifter into first gear!

I guess while turning right at such a high speed i was tugging left on the shifter and dropped it into first gear through the autostick.

so the moral of the story.. keep your hand off the shifter while driving!

(p.s. I'm surprised i was able to do that going 50+ mph.. they should have some kind of safety devise to prevent this. seeing is how its all electrical.. a lock out shouldn't be to hard.)

 

+1 on a safety for this. I've done the same thing.

 

Normally when I hit the button to go into manual mode (I've got the shifter on the tree and has + and - buttons to run the manual shifts) it goes into whatever gear it was in at the time. Like if I was cruising in say 4th and hit the - button it lights up 4th. I wouldn't think it would drop clear to 1st.

 

My Demon has a three speed auto, but you could shift from first, second, drive, neutral and then REVERSE while going forward. Imagine racing and accidently shifing from third into reverse,
FF

 

maybe you pushed it to the right instead of left...

 

The rev limiter will kick in eventually. Why would you have your hand on the shift lever anyway?

 

If you pull and hold the shifter toward you it will downshift into first if you're going slow enough otherwise it will drop into second.

If you're in a low gear and push and hold the shifter away from you it will move back up to the drive position.

Kind of a cheapo shifter. It should have another slot or position to make manual shifts to avoid problems like this.....They had the whole parts bin from Mercedes to pick and choose from and they only took the key design. No wonder they're in economic straits.

 

I've had the same thing happen to me, just not as high of a speed. I hope Dodge can come up with a software flash to fix this!

 

floor console shifter.



i have done this as well and was freaking out till i realized what had happened. it just seems to be a natural resting spot for my hand.

 

I did that once in an older pickup when i was a kid.. was a 70 GMC.. the linkage was really loose and it was hard to tell what gear it was in.. i took off and was only in 2nd gear, i went to shift it up to 3rd and it went all the way up to reverse... MAN! that was scary. i never let off the gas so when it shifted into reverse so the tires started spinning backwards, the truck started bouncing all over the road.. i thought i ripped out the entire drive line.. i guess the back of the truck was light enough that it didn't do any damage.. scared the chit out of me though...