What just HAPPENED?!

[RunningRabbit]

About 20 minutes ago, I was dropping my sister off at her apartment. I was driving my mothers car. I pulled up to her apartment and put the car in park- the LED that shows it was in park was clearly lit up. I had my foot on the brake while talking to her through the passenger side door, and out of no where, after my foot leaves the break pedal (while the car is in park) the **** thing revs and reverses like a thing possessed. This caused her to take a tumble, and the car only stopped when I applied the brake again. Minutes after this happened, I looked at the dashboard LED display and it was still showing it was in park.

Thankfully, she was okay, save for a sore bottom.

Now just what the heck happened? Was the LED display wrong? Was the car some how in park but still in reverse? The gear that switches into park and what not has been a bit rough on my mother's car. Sometimes it takes a lot of force to get it properly in and out of park, and into drive. Could that have caused this to happen? Why would it rev like that if I didn't depress the gas pedal? The car is an automatic, BTW.

I'm extremely OCD when it comes to driving and can say with 100% certainty that the LED screen was indicating that the vehicle was indeed in park.

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

Any Recalls posted, on this Make and Modell?

 

[Godsgrl]

Cars can sometimes take on a life of their own. A few years ago, a lady was leaving our church after Bible study. She put the car in reverse, then the car revved backwards on her, flipped over a parked car, and landed upside down on the front lawn. Terrible thing.

I'd look for recalls on the make and model, as Chemical said. (we lost an F150 to a recall) then either way, take it to the dealer to be checked over. How very scary for you and your sister.

 

[HeatherLynn]

depends on the car really. I had a toyota that did similar. Even the person i ended up bumping believed me. When I took mine in though there was some sort of relay or something that had been recalled. This was years ago and i don't remember specifics but it was very odd. '

I have an older volvo right now that shows me having the brakes on while I am driving down the road.

Glad your sister is ok. I would get the car checked out just in case.

 

[chubbydog811]

Our last Ford F250 did that occasionally. It would say it was in park, but wasn't actually fully in gear. It would take putting it in and out of gear a few times to get it to stay in park. Very annoying. It was a 99', and well taken care of. Probably should get that checked out either way!

 

[RunningRabbit]

Chemical: the car is a 94 Buick Le Sabre. It's previous owner took excellent care of it and for the first year of my mother having the car, it worked flawlessly. As for recalls, I'm not at all sure. I will look into that, or at least make sure the car gets a thorough look over.

I do know that the past few times I've gone out with her, the car sounded like something was starting to go bad on it. Especially with shifting gears. I didn't even want to drive it when she asked (got a real bad feeling), because I've seen and heard the way it was running lately.

Teach me to ignore my gut feeling about things. Could have been worse I suppose. My mother could have been the one behind the wheel when this happened.