Slammed it into park while going 35 mph!

[Heath Hubbard]

So.. Im told a passanger in an 06 Buick Lacrosse bumped the shifter (automatic) from drive, through neutral and reverse, and into park while going down the road at like 35 to 45. It made a ticking noise until the driver slowed down to a stop. then shifted into drive again. Happened about a month ago and since then it has been running fine. No real issues. A lack of power but only slight. May be from something else. But what could possibly be wrong? Anything that might not be noticed.

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[Mike]

Most cars will do that under that circumstance and be fine. I’ve been in a car that the exact same thing has been done to more than once. Aside from scrubbing a little metal off the parking pawl mechanism in the tranny, no damage was done. The lack of power is something else entirely. If the owner is super paranoid about it, have a trans pan/filter/fluid service done to get as much of the metal that was produced out of circulation in the trans fluid.

[Lorrin Barth]

I did this once. The car was doing 15 – 20 mph and the parking pawl worked. Luckily, I was driving on some grass and the rear wheels just slid. Nothing broke.

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