# Auto transmission: bad to not press button on the knob when shifting into drive?



## BringsMeWomen (Jan 10, 2006)

I barely ever press that button to shift my car into drive. Is that button really necessary shifting from park to drive?


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## brkf (May 26, 2003)

A better question, why get a sport sedan with an automatic transmission?


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## toodlesm3 (May 24, 2006)

lol true....big mistake


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## BringsMeWomen (Jan 10, 2006)

Great. Now can anyone answer the original question. Thanks. 

Actually, I think what it is, is that I am inadvertantly pressing the button to get out of park, then proceed thru R, N, and D without the button.


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## Rsavory (Jul 13, 2005)

I think the button is there to prevent accidental movement of the lever. It's a safety device affecting the lever itself, not the transmission.

And in response to the OT messages, I like my automatic transmission just fine, Thank You Very Much. :flipoff:


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## cwsqbm (Aug 4, 2004)

BringsMeWomen said:


> Great. Now can anyone answer the original question. Thanks.
> 
> Actually, I think what it is, is that I am inadvertantly pressing the button to get out of park, then proceed thru R, N, and D without the button.


On all automatic transmission rental cars I've driven recently, you only need press the button to go from park to reverse. After that it will go from reverse to neutral without it, and from neutral to drive without the button also. It will also go from drive to neutral without the button, but you need the button to go from neutral to reserve, and also from drive to any of the lower gears (which doesn't apply to BMW's because of steptronic.)

Its really just a latch-based safety, and if you can shift without force, you're ok.


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## ucbsupafly (Jul 29, 2002)

BringsMeWomen said:


> I barely ever press that button to shift my car into drive. Is that button really necessary shifting from park to drive?


The button is just a safety feature to prevent you from accidentally shifting into Reverse. Once you have shifted out of reverse, into N or D, you should be able to shift freely w/o any problem or damage to the transmission. However, if you rev up in neutral and then dump the lever into D, then it's a different story...


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## AzNMpower32 (Oct 23, 2005)

ucbsupafly said:


> The button is just a safety feature to prevent you from accidentally shifting into Reverse. Once you have shifted out of reverse, into N or D, you should be able to shift freely w/o any problem or damage to the transmission. However, if you rev up in neutral and then dump the lever into D, then it's a different story...


Actually there's another safety feature (plenty of these) built into the BMW auto. If you're in N, you can't shift into D unless you push the brake. You also can't shift from N to D if revs are higher than 2500rpm. So you can't really rev in N and drop it into D.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

Not just BMW, this was a "feature" after the 60 Minutes Audi "unintended acceleration" piece.

Of course, it was later found out that all the "unintended acceleration" events were caused by people PUSHING ON THE ACCELERATOR INSTEAD OF THE BRAKE.


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